Preview

Myrtle's Use Of Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
268 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Myrtle's Use Of Symbolism In The Great Gatsby
1.) I think the most crucial in the plot is when Tom breaks Myrtle's nose for her bringing up Daisy. This displays Toms violent and volatile behavior. It also foreshadows future trouble with Daisy and Tom and Myrtle's indiscretion.

2.) Nick meets Toms mistress when they are riding the commuter train one day, and Tom forces Nick to join him as he gets off at one of the stops. This stop just so happens to be George Wilsons garage. George Wilson is the husband of Myrtle, Toms lover.

3.) Myrtle reacts to Toms arrival by meeting him at the train. After briefly speaking to Tom himself, she manipulates her husband to leave so she can sneak away with him to the Morningside Heights apartment.

4.) George is handsome, yet impoverished and nondescript. He's relieved to see Tom for Tom had agreed to buy a car for him. George is desperate for money to make his wife happy and take her out west.
…show more content…
It is the ground for which all of New York's ashes are dumped, and those who live there must shovel the ashes frequently. George and Myrtle live just on the cusp of the valley, and this is symbolic of the fact that they reside in the shadow of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chapter 2 begins with Tom and Nick taking a trip on the commuter train that runs between West Egg and New York which passes through the “valley of ashes”, an industrial zone. While passing through, Nick notices a billboard of the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, which he describes as a figure who watches over the actions of everyone in the city. Suddenly, Tom forces Nick to get out at one of the stops in the valley and lead him to George Wilson’s garage, which sits on the edge of the valley of ashes. It is there that Tom meets Tom’s secret lover, George’s wife, Myrtle Wilson, a short robust redhead with a fiery attitude. Myrtle was unrefined and lacked the elegance of the wealthy aristocratic women of East Egg. Next, they travel to Myrtle and Tom’s secret ornate apartment in the city where they throw a small party with plentiful alcohol. The night ends with an argument between Myrtle and Tom in which Tom strikes her breaking her nose for exclaiming "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy! I'll say it whenever I want to!”…

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the breaking of Myrtle’s nose, the first car accident and the death of Dan Cody to show how the rapid consumption of alcohol leads to destruction. If it were not for the alcohol in Tom’s system at the party, Myrtle’s nose would never have been broken, showing the previous consumption of alcohol is what is causing the damage. At the scene of the car accident the man’s car was damaged so bad, and he was so oblivious to what had happened, it is clear the alcohol he had drunk was what really did the damage. When it comes to Fitzgerald and character Dan Cody, the amount of alcohol they had drunk in their lifetime makes it obvious that alcohol can lead to the demise of people as well as objects.…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Near the end of The Great Gatsby, everyone’s wrongs begin to come to light, but punishment varies. Gatsby, a character the novel attempts the reader to like, announces his love of Daisy and his intent to take her away from Tom. This leads to a series of events which include him being murdered by Wilson for killing his wife, while Daisy is actually responsible for that. Daisy, a character set up to be pitied by the reader, also plans to leave Tom for Gatsby, but she kills Myrtle and ends up getting Gatsby murdered instead. Forcing her to return to Tom. It is clear to see how the death of Myrtle is a defining moment for these characters, however, more is hidden in that. Tom, a character portrayed to be disliked, actually walks away victorious…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a novel of art that renders a in debt society populated by rich Americans. The center of the novel is very straight forward. It is emblematic and persisting. The Great Gatsby has turned out to be one the country's most famous and comedian arts. There are plenty ways to show the Great Gatsby’s play so that it can be more pertinent to a present-day audience.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Myrtle Wilson is the mistress of Tom Buchanan, which she later dies by getting hit by…

    • 164 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    wife of infidelity, he hides his own one with Myrtle and he does not hesitate to carry on with…

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The people, the houses, and the cars are all covered in ashes, making them physically gray which greatly contributes to the overwhelming feeling of somberness. When Tom and Nick arrive at the Wilson’s house “a gleam of hope” springs into George’s eyes and Myrtle has “an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering”. This shows that people from outside of the valley excite the ever-dreary inhabitants of the valley because they don’t carry the same gray façade. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the moral decay and plight of the less fortunate hidden between the beauty of West Egg and New York. It symbolizes an aspect of the American Dream, the dream of finding fortune, fame, and true love, because it illustrates shattered illusions and the disappearance of dreams. East Egg and West Egg are brimming with people full of potential while The Valley of Ashes…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tom being prosperous, Myrtle felt as if because she is with him that he elevates her to high class. She felt better with Tom because he was important, therefore, with George she felt miserable. Myrtle’s American dream was to become a wealthy man’s trophy wife. For this reason, she has a strong desire for a powerful man to take care of her. Having to allow her money hungry mind to take over, she allows Tom to beat her. Able to play a wealthy woman’s rule being involved with Tom, she began to act like a snob. Later in the novel, George finds out that she is in an affair, but not with whom. In effect, he gets angry and locks her in their apartment over the garage he owns. Working sickly, George tries to make enough money to move out west to get her away from the city. Not respecting her husband’s decision, she tells him “Beat me! Throw me down and beat me you dirty little coward!” (144). She wants him to be aggressive and powerful like Tom, but he refuses. After having a heated discussion with George, she breaks out the apartment and rushes outside. Having seen Tom driving Gatsby’s yellow car earlier, she sees it coming and dashes out on the road towards it. Not being her lover, Gatsby turns the wheel in Daisy’s hands, and tries to swerve out of the way. Tragically being foolish, Myrtle runs in front of the car and gets hit. The blow from the car to her body ended her life. Not only did her death upset both George and Tom, but it also ended Gatsby’s life. After mourning over his wife, George went to Gatsby’s mansion and shot him in his swimming pool, and then took his own life. In the final analysis, because of her selfishness and greedy needs, she not only caused her own death, but also causes the death of an innocent…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many of the characters in Great Gatsby were cheating on their spouses. This may seem unusual, but it was not uncommon for the time period Great Gatsby was written. Divorce was still looked down upon. As a result, people prefered to have an affair than a divorce because they were easier to conceal than divorces. However, the affairs in Great Gatsby were exploited. Consequently, Gatsby and Myrtle wind up dead. In the end, old money prevails, and the working class is left paying for their carelessness. Let’s take a deeper look into their affairs. The first affair mentioned in the book is of Myrtle and Tom. Myrtle is in her mid-30s. She is curvy in all the right ways, and is incredibly energetic. You might ask, “What would Tom want with a girl like this?”…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Daisy had her own view on the world, about a girl’s perspective. “That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful fool.” (D. Buchanan). She is a blond headed woman from Louisville, she is the wife of Tom Buchanan. Daisy and Myrtle were different in many ways, they also had a few things in common. They both decided to cheat on their husbands. She was a very happy person, “I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.” (D. Buchanan). She tried to hide her feelings from Gatsby, she wasn’t ready to open…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Mr.Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald is about a main character named Mr. Jay Gatsby’s life and how it involved around it. A girl who the man was deeply love with as she goes by the name Daisy. Daisy and Mr. Gatsby knew one another and had reunited after 5 years when he got out of the war. But Mr,Gatsby though that Daisy would wait for him till he got back from war. As he had thought wrong.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The very first case we were introduced to is between Tom and Myrtle, as Tom practically forced…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the entire story, the wealthy people from the upper class hastily spend their money on materialistic goods. Jay Gatsby, who lives in the West Egg, wanted to complete the American dream in hopes that Daisy, who resides in the East Egg, would notice him and his wealth. He hosted weekly parities in which “men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings.” (Fitzgerald, 39) However, the definition of American Dream was fulfilled by “hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance,” (Mantsios, 307) contradicting Gatsby’s way of becoming rich. Another character, Myrtle Wilson, who is part of the lower class and lived in the “valley of ashes” (Fitzgerald, 23), strives to live fancily which leads her to have an affair with Tom Buchanan…

    • 170 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gatsby could get whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Except for one thing. He had enough money to buy whatever he wanted, was famous enough to befriend anyone and get any girl, but there is one girl that he wanted more then anything. Gatsby’s obsession over Daisy perfectly shows how Fitzgerald would agree that he is like a netted bird when controlled by desire.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Myrtle In The Great Gatsby

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The famous novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, is a renown piece of American literature. This novel revolves around a rich, hopeful man by the name of Jay Gatsby who desires nothing more than to get back together with his old lover, Daisy. Daisy though, is already married to a wealthy man named Tom, and even though Tom is cheating on her with Myrtle, Daisy still loves him. Gatsby, having been born in a different class than Daisy, fears he may never be able to live the life he imagined with her because of his penniless past. This shows that in society, people are extremely separated from one other due to factors such as class and wealth driving them apart. This is shown through the characterization of Myrtle and Daisy, the conflicts…

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays