Chapter 2 quotes

Question 1

valley of ashes

Answer 1

‘certain desolate area of land’

Question 2

farm…

Answer 2

‘A fantastic farm, where ashes grow like wheat… into grotesque gardens where ash grey men who move dimly already crumbling’

Question 3

dust…

Answer 3

‘the grey land and spasms of bleak dust’

Question 4

Mr Wilson

Answer 4

‘he was a blonde, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome[…] a damp gleam of hope sprang into his eyes’ - possibility of money, effect of valley of ashes on people.

Question 5

Myrtle

Answer 5

‘she was in the middle thirties[…] she carried her flesh sensuously as some women can’

Question 6

myrtles vitality

Answer 6

‘there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her bodywork continuously smouldering ‘
‘ walking through her husband as if he were a ghost’

Question 7

discretion

Answer 7

‘Mrs Wilson sat discreetly in another car . Tom deferred that much to the sensibilities of those east Eggers who might be on the train’

Question 8

what did they buy in New York…

Answer 8

‘At the news stand, she bought a copy of the town tattle and a moving picture magazine , and in the station drug store some cold cream and a small flak of perfume ‘ ‘ I want to get one of those dogs’

Question 9

description of New York

Answer 9

‘warm and soft, almost pastoral on a summer sunday aternoon’

Question 10

the apartment houses…

Answer 10

‘the cab stopped at one slice in along whit cake of apartment houses’

Question 11

myrtles outfit change…

Answer 11

‘Mrs Wilson had changed[…] cream coloured chiffon[…]With the influence of the dress[…]the intense vitality that has been so remarkable at the garage was converted into impressive hauter’ - contact to daisy always dressed in white

Question 12

Myrtles gestures

Answer 12

‘her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment, and she expanded the room grew smaller around her, until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy creaking pivot’

Question 13

myrtles opinion about Wilson

Answer 13

‘I thought I knew a thing about breeding but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe’ ‘he borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in and never even told me about it’

Question 14

nicks engagement with the scene

Answer 14

’ I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back as if with ropes, to my chair’

Question 15

within and without

Answer 15

‘I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life’

Question 16

tom being violent

Answer 16

’ making a short deft movement Tom Beauchanon broke her nose with his open hand’

Question 17

nick is gay… ;)))

Answer 17

‘…I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands…’