When an individual hears the term wasteland, nearly all would think of the precise definition which is an unused area of land that has become barren or overgrown. Although that is the proper terminology, something or someone being a wasteland goes beyond that. Figuratively speaking, we can compose being a wasteland mentally, physically, spiritually and even emotionally. As humans, the actions we cause due to our emotions may feel like a 'waste ' if there is no sort of reflection taken from it. This can be indicated as a wasteland because we manage to feel as if what we say or do is useless; just as in relation of a certain area of land that becomes barren is useless too. In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we examine …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald describes Myrtle Wilson as someone who is not very bright, having the lust of being attracted to dominant man, resulting into someone who possess unattractive character traits. Myrtle description of where she is located to what we know as "the valley of ashes," which is Fitzgerald 's only geographical wasteland in The Great Gatsby, "a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens"(23). Myrtle is not your typical woman of beauty, she is described as having a "thickish figure". Myrtle Wilson is rude, calculating, and appealing; and her traits, the way she appears herself, and the tone of her voice all take after these aspects of her character. "She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering” (33). She has the most striking appearance of any woman in the modern literature, which is a statement on the significance of sexuality in the arising current wasteland of the society. Being Sensual and generatively developed, F. Scott Fitzgerald characterizes Myrtle Wilson as someone eruptive and the barren wasteland she is lives in: "a white ashen dust... veiled everything in the vicinity, except [George Wilson 's] wife, who moved close to Tom" …show more content…
Tom is an unfaithful, dominant and aggressive men who is also married to the women of Daisy. Because Tom is in the upper class unlike Myrtle, he has the impression of being royalty to her, meaning he can verbally scold her, physically attack her, and he would not feel the same if he was to take on such actions towards daisy, because Myrtle is just his mistress. Despite the way Tom treats Myrtle, she still remains to have an affair with him, as she know he is the open gates of entering the rich lifestyle she so desperately wants to be in. George Wilson on the other hand, is mostly known for being undistinguished. He is first described as a "blond, spiritless man, anemic, and faintly handsome" (63). There 's no sign of him being unique, and it would be easy to forget about his presence- which is how Myrtle perceives him most of the time. For instance, George and Myrtle have been married for approximately twelve years and surprisingly do not have any children. The most eye capturing sentence in the novel of why Myrtle has yet to make a child was the comment she made towards George while in the city: I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn 't fit to lick my shoe" (34). One would say Myrtle has very little self respect for herself and would let Tom wrongly use her in any kind of way (even a punch
Myrtle Wilson came from a working class family with a low social standing. Due to her family’s lack of money, Myrtle’s options were limited to marrying men of equal or lower economic status than herself. As a result, Myrtle married George Wilson, a poor car mechanic. In her relationship with George, Myrtle lacked control due to her status as a woman and was thus forced to listen to her husband. However, because of her lower status, Myrtle did learn to use her physical attributes to her own advantage. In other words, Myrtle knew how to exaggerate her physical beauty in order to attract men such as Tom Buchanan; who would pay her with money and expensive gifts in return. Thus, “there is a clear connection between the material disadvantages” Myrtle faced and her lack of morals; given “the paucity of her allotment of the fundamental decencies” (Voegeli). In other words, because of her lack of economic backing, Myrtle Wilson grew up as a woman of lower class with less options in life; which limited her social power and drove her to act unlike any high class lady. Thus, Myrtle’s only option for increasing her status was through material services such as her relationship with Tom Buchanan. All in all, Myrtle Wilson’s economic status limited her to the life of a low class woman and her power others in her
Myrtle eventually had similar goals as Gatsby, but her life did not begin the same way. She was of the lower class of society and married a simple man. The two pursued a poor life, but Myrtle’s husband George was a decent man. Nevertheless, Myrtle became unsatisfied, and when the opportunity arose to better the quality of her life, she took it. Daisy’s husband Tom, an unfaithful, rough man not very committed to his marriage, began an affair with Myrtle.
Tom knew Myrtle better than any of the main characters. He had met her on a train headed for New York. When the train reached the city, she went with him in a taxi, and their affair began. Tom never made much of an effort to keep their relationship secret. In fact, he almost paraded her around in the presence of his acquaintances. They made frequent trips into New York so that they could be together. Myrtle was Tom's escape from his own life in East Egg. While Daisy provided him with a wealthy, acceptable social image, she was not much more to him than a mere possession. His affair with Myrtle offered him a chance to defy his social expectations. Their relationship was important to him because of this opportunity to escape. When Myrtle died, it shook him deeply, especially because he believed Gatsby had been driving the yellow car. After leaving George Wilson's garage the night of the accident, he managed to drive slowly until he and Nick were out of sight. Then he slammed his foot down on the accelerator, driving much faster. He began quietly sobbing, privately mourning her death. He immediately blamed Gatsby for bringing their relationship to an abrupt halt. "That God damned coward!" he cried. "He didn't even stop his car." His feelings of anger and hurt were greatly intensified by the day spent in New York....
The illusion that is made when Daisy is described is that she is a beautiful, nice, and honest women of the upper class who lives in East Egg. However Myrtle, who lives in the Valley of Ashes, is said to be the total opposite. Fitzgerald describes Myrtle as a “thickish figure of a woman...She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus
She became used to him being unfaithful to her that she suggests to him after leaving him during Gatsby wild party “ and if you want to take down any addresses here’s my little gold pencil” (105). Tom and Myrtle relationship caused problems more in Myrtle life rather than Tom’s because unlike Tom’s wide, Wilson was unaware about her unfaithfulness and reacted way differently by becoming sick. In Nick’s perspective, he explains, “He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick” (124). Wilson behaves in way by having her locked in a room until he gets the car to move away but soon enough for jealousy to strike among Myrtle about Tom and his wife which later causes her death. Her death occurred because of the greatly amount of envy she has towards Daisy and her lifestyle with Tom. The feelings that she felt showed upon her by having “…one emotion after another crept into her face like objects into a slowly developing picture” (124). This single small affair between Tom and Myrtle became something bigger than expected by a heart broken husband, dishonesty, and death among a mistress. This crime is much relatable to many affairs in the world that ends really bad divorces and trust issues from the dishonesty from their significant
They were both mentally abusive toward their wives. Tom cheated multiple times with lower class women and Daisy knew about most of the women. George locked his wife, Myrtle, in a room depriving her of human contacted until he was ready to transport her away from the valley of ashes and toward to western region. Both have inflicted some sort of violence onto Myrtle, George’s wife. Tom hit myrtle cross the face while George lied to her about who he was. Even though the two men shared the same victim they had different ways of displaying those acts of violence. Tom, who had an affair Myrtle, slapped Myrtle during one of their drunken nights. This lead to Myrtle having a broken nose and a bruised face. George showed violence toward Myrtle by locking her into their bedroom and made her “...stay there till the day after tomorrow and then we’re going to move away.” (George,76). George himself said that “ …now she’s going to leave whether she wants to or
“It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce’. Daisy was not a Catholic, and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie” (Fitzgerald 33). While Tom is being corrupt for lying to Myrtle about his wife being a Catholic, Myrtle seems to be desperate to marry Tom. So much so that Tom had to make such a lie so that she won’t want to marry him. The quote implies that Myrtle has asked Tom to divorce Daisy. “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake…” (Fitzgerald 35). Myrtle couldn’t care less about her husband. In the American Dream, the typical married couple treat each other with love and respect. In the quote, though, it is clear that she doesn't love him. After all, she cheats on him with Tom Buchanan. She strives to become rich through Tom, achieving the American Dream but also destroying it by being unfaithful. “For Myrtle Wilson, the truth gets in the way of her personal goal: to become a woman of class. She hides her affair with Tom Buchanan because the truth would prevent her from living life in the city as the well-kept mistress of a wealthy man. As Tom's lover, she can live a better life than George can provide” (Gale 271). Myrtle shows corruption of the American Dream by cheating on her husband for her own
Daisy knows very well that tom is cheating on her, but doesn’t care because it's more convenient to stay in her unhappy marriage. Even though she wants to be with Gatsby, she wants to keep her social status and being with Tom makes this all the easier. Now, this is quite the opposite of Myrtle. She has a loving husband who would do anything for her, but her social status is all she cares about. Myrtle is willing to hurt George and ruin their marriage in order to climb up the social ladder. Neither of these women have respect for themselves. Both Daisy and Myrtle allow Tom to treat them
The settings and backdrops in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are essential elements to the formation of the characters, symbolic imagery and the overall plot development. Fitzgerald uses East and West Egg communities to portray two separate worlds and two classes of people that are technically the same their status, but fundamentally different in their ideals. The physical geography of the settings is representative of the distance between classes of the East and West Eggers. Every setting connotes a different tone and enhances the imagery of story line. From the wealthy class of the "eggs", the desolate "valley of ashes", to the chaos of Manhattan. The imagery provided by Fitzgerald becomes an important tool in establishing the characters and their story.
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows his disapproval of the times by portraying characters attempting to achieve their American Dream by any means possible. Myrtle Wilson, a low class inhabitant of the valley of ashes, puts her morals to the side when pursuing the wealthy life. Not even marriage stops Myrtle from having an affair with Tom Buchanan-- a rich man who enables her to finally buy the life she thinks she deserves. Not only does Myrtle cheat on her own husband, but she has an affair with someone who caught her eye with "a dress suit and patent leather shoes and [she] couldn't keep [her] eyes off him" (Fitzgerald 40). It is not a love for Tom that attracted Myrtle, but his money and power that she lusts after.
Throughout the novel, one of Tom 's biggest careless acts was when he cheated on Daisy. Tom is a cocky, confident man shown many times throughout the novel like when Nick arrived at his house and "Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch" (Fitzgerald 6). His stance showed his arrogance, and how highly he thought of himself because of his wealth. Tom was a man who often acted without thinking things through, like having an affair with Myrtle. Despite both Tom and Myrtle being married, they both had affairs. Tom doesn 't hide his affair from Nick and introduces him to his mistress Myrtle at Wilson 's garage. Tom doesn 't seem to care if anyone finds out because he feels as though nothing would change due to his wealth. While at Myrtle 's husbands garage, Tom tells Myrtle to meet him at the train station. They end up going to their apartment in New York City that they keep for their affair. While at the Morningside Height 's apartment Myrtle starts to talk about Tom 's wife Daisy, ""Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I 'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-"" (Fitzgerald 37). Tom didn 't like Myrtle overstepping her boundaries and to show
Failure is the necessity for human growth. Without the hopelessness and poverty of the lower class, there would be no structure; no difference of human construction. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the ever present “Valley of Ashes,” displays the human drive for wealth, greed, and the plight of the poor. Because there is the rich, there must be the poor, because in society, one group must continually fail. Geographically speaking, the valley lies in between Manhattan and East and West Egg. It represents the distinct difference of the excitement and luxurious lifestyle of the upper-class to the desire and bleakness that pervades the valley’s helpless and poor. Because of both humans moral and societal expectations, the pursuit
George Wilson is the naïve husband to Myrtle Wilson, the woman having an affair with Tom Buchanan, who is the "brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen"(Fitzgerald 16) husband to Daisy Buchanan, the woman whom Jay Gatsby, the main character, is in love with: a very removed yet significant role in the story. Evidently playing the role of the common man, in a story revolving around wealth and possessions, George Wilson is the owner of an auto body shop and is described as a "spiritless man, anemic and faintly handsome"(29). Wilson's common man image helps to further develop the theme of Wilson is deeply in love with Myrtle to a point where he is paranoid of losing her. "`I've got my wife locked in up there,' explained Wilson calmly. `She's going to stay there till the day after tomorrow and then we're going to move away"(143).
Even though she is a more miniscule character in the book, Myrtle Wilson wears a mask. Myrtle is unhappy in her marriage with her husband, George. When her and George met, she had thought that he was a man with a lot of money. Once they got married, she soon realized he wasn’t a rich man at all after he borrowed “somebody’s best suit to get married in.” Despite the fact that he didn’t have much money, Myrtle just puts a fake smile on her face and stays with him while still having an affair with Daisy’s husband Tom.
Myrtle Wilson. Tom uses Myrtle for sex and in return she receives money and gifts. There is no actual love between the two, just the lure of material possession. The reasoning behind this is Myrtle is sick of here husbands lack of success and longs for wealth, which Tom has. Tom who is from the West Eggs, looks down on anyone not in his “class” there fore treating Myrtle like trash, you could even say just using her. This theme is continued when Tom marries Daisy. The marriage is not about love, yet again, it is about wealth and all the way to the end of the story with the death of Gatsby. Daisy only loved Gatsby because he...