The Great Gatsby II Summary

Valley of Ashes

Nick travels with Tom to the desolate Valley of Ashes where Tom's mistress, Myrtle Wilson, lives and they host a tense, drunken apartment party that ends in violence.

A desolate expanse of cinder and ash stretches beside the railroad, ridged into grotesque, wind‑blown gardens; a foul, sluggish river threads the waste. Dominating the sky, the gigantic blue eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg on a weathered billboard stare down above a low, yellow‑brick block containing an all‑night restaurant, a for‑rent shop, and a grimy garage with rusted pumps and oil‑streaked windows.
A desolate expanse of cinder and ash stretches beside the railroad, ridged into grotesque, wind‑blown gardens; a foul, sluggish river threads the waste. Dominating the sky, the gigantic blue eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg on a weathered billboard stare down above a low, yellow‑brick block containing an all‑night restaurant, a for‑rent shop, and a grimy garage with rusted pumps and oil‑streaked windows.

Summary

Nick Carraway narrates a train trip with Tom Buchanan that stops by a bleak industrial wasteland called the valley of ashes, a gray dumping ground watched over by the billboard eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. They get off the train to visit George Wilson’s garage; Tom loudly claims ownership of a woman there, Myrtle Wilson, and insists Nick accompany them to New York. Myrtle changes for the city, buys a dog, and the group takes a taxi to her small top-floor apartment in Manhattan.

At the apartment a small party assembles: Myrtle’s sister Catherine, Mr. and Mrs. McKee (neighbors), and other minor acquaintances. Tom produces whiskey, and the gathering grows boisterous; Myrtle affects airs of grandeur, discusses her marriage bitterly, and entertains gossip about Tom, Daisy, and life in Europe. Nick drifts between involvement and distance, sometimes reading, sometimes entangled in arguments. As the night wears on, tensions rise; Myrtle repeatedly taunts Tom about Daisy until Tom strikes her, breaking her nose. The party scatters, Mr. McKee departs bewildered, and Nick leaves with a vivid sense of being both inside and outside the scene, then finds himself at the lower level of Pennsylvania Station waiting for an early train home.

Key events

  1. Description of the valley of ashes and Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s billboard eyes.
  2. Nick and Tom visit George Wilson’s garage and meet Myrtle Wilson.
  3. Myrtle buys a dog; she and Tom travel to her Manhattan apartment.
  4. A small party convenes: Catherine, Mr. and Mrs. McKee, and others.
  5. Drinking, gossip, and arguments escalate as Myrtle discusses Tom and Daisy.
  6. Tom strikes Myrtle, breaking her nose; the party disperses and Nick departs.

II in pictures

A flat expanse of cinder and ash where ridges and chimneys rise like slag‑born topography, bounded by a foul, sluggish river and a raised drawbridge. Dominating the scene, the gigantic blue eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg brood from a weathered billboard above a squat yellow‑brick row — an all‑night restaurant, a for‑rent shop and a lone garage — while a powdery haze hangs motionless over the waste.
A flat expanse of cinder and ash where ridges and chimneys rise like slag‑born topography, bounded by a foul, sluggish river and a raised drawbridge. Dominating the scene, the gigantic blue eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg brood from a weathered billboard above a squat yellow‑brick row — an all‑night restaurant, a for‑rent shop and a lone garage — while a powdery haze hangs motionless over the waste.
The station's low, echoing vaults open into a cavernous, almost empty concourse; long wooden benches and ticket booths recede into shadow. A folded morning Tribune lies abandoned on a bench beside scattered luggage, pale cold light slanting through high windows across the stone floor toward the darked platform and the tracks beyond.
The station's low, echoing vaults open into a cavernous, almost empty concourse; long wooden benches and ticket booths recede into shadow. A folded morning Tribune lies abandoned on a bench beside scattered luggage, pale cold light slanting through high windows across the stone floor toward the darked platform and the tracks beyond.
A gray industrial waste: soot‑streaked buildings and a squat garage with grease‑stained pumps sit beside a bleak ribbon of road, littered with detritus and oil slicks. Looming above, the faded billboard with its watching eyes and a distant line of bridge steel puncture a pallid sky, compressing the scene into a flat, oppressive plane.
A gray industrial waste: soot‑streaked buildings and a squat garage with grease‑stained pumps sit beside a bleak ribbon of road, littered with detritus and oil slicks. Looming above, the faded billboard with its watching eyes and a distant line of bridge steel puncture a pallid sky, compressing the scene into a flat, oppressive plane.
A wide, desolate sweep of the valley of ashes: ridges of powder, ghostly ash-grey figures moving like withered crops, and a train stalled along a bleak embankment. Dominating the sky above the waste is the gigantic, jaundiced spectacle of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s blue eyes, brooding over the dumping ground like a godlike advertisement.
A wide, desolate sweep of the valley of ashes: ridges of powder, ghostly ash-grey figures moving like withered crops, and a train stalled along a bleak embankment. Dominating the sky above the waste is the gigantic, jaundiced spectacle of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s blue eyes, brooding over the dumping ground like a godlike advertisement.
Tom, stiff and imperious, grabs Nick's elbow and practically drags him over a whitewashed fence toward the garage; Doctor Eckleburg's eyes brood overhead. The garage door is ajar and George Wilson, smeared with grease, appears in the doorway while Myrtle, thickset and sensuous, darkly dressed, strides through him and fixes Tom with a frank, hungry stare.
Tom, stiff and imperious, grabs Nick's elbow and practically drags him over a whitewashed fence toward the garage; Doctor Eckleburg's eyes brood overhead. The garage door is ajar and George Wilson, smeared with grease, appears in the doorway while Myrtle, thickset and sensuous, darkly dressed, strides through him and fixes Tom with a frank, hungry stare.

Analysis

Chapter II establishes a stark social and moral landscape that contrasts sharply with West Egg’s ostentation: the valley of ashes literalizes the waste and social decay underlying wealth. The omnipresent eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg function as an early symbolic watchfulness—an impersonal moral gaze hovering over the characters’ corrupt dealings. Through the cramped Manhattan apartment and its pretensions, Fitzgerald exposes class aspiration and vulgarity; Myrtle’s costume changes, grandiose talk, and imitation refinements reveal the desperation of those who use consumption to simulate higher status. Tom’s brutish assertion of power—publicly parading Myrtle and later violently silencing her when she invokes Daisy—illuminates gender and class brutality masked by privilege.

Narratively, Nick’s ambivalent stance—simultaneously participant and observer—deepens here: he is drawn into scenes he morally questions, which sharpens his later judgments. The chapter advances themes of illusion versus reality (Myrtle’s affected airs versus her drab surroundings), moral blindness (Eckleburg’s eyes as a secular conscience), and the social chasms between characters. The drunk, noisy party culminating in sudden violence foreshadows destructive consequences of these deceptions and inequalities without yet revealing their full scope.

Important quotes

“This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.”

NarratorIntroduces the valley of ashes as a vivid symbol of industrial waste and social desolation separating West Egg and New York.

“But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.”

NarratorPresents the billboard eyes that function as a recurring, impersonal moral presence watching the characters’ actions.

Characters in II

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