How Does Fitzgerald Tell The Story In Chapter 2

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How Does Fitzgerald Tell The Story In Chapter 2 Of The Great Gatsby? In chapter 2 Tom takes Nick to meet Myrtle, his lover, in the Valley of Ashes, where her home is. They all then go to New York, to the apartment bought by Tom for Myrtle, and Myrtle organises a ‘party’, during which she argues with Tom, which ends with him punching her. The purpose of this chapter is to show what Tom Buchanan is like, and how he acts towards other people and his money. Also, the reader is prepared to meet Gatsby at his party; it is this scene which makes this chapter a form and genre of mystery as the scene continues to build an aura of mystery and excitement around Gatsby, who has yet to make a full appearance in the novel. Here, Gatsby emerges as a mysterious subject of gossip “I’m scared of him. I’d hate to have him get anything on me”. He is extremely well known, but no one seems to have any verifiable information about him. In this chapter Gatsby is presented as criminal, building a sinister character about him. The story has been structured to build a mystery around Gatsby so that the reader is unsure about what to expect when they meet Gatsby. There is only one narrative voice in this chapter, which is Nick. The fact that Fitzgerald has made him an intrafictional first person narrator, shown by the use of personal pronouns such as, ‘I think, created the effect of an unreliable narrator. The reader only finds out things in the story as and when Nick does, and we also get his point of view on everything, ‘stretched tight over her rather wide hips’. The reader makes conclusions on the other characters based on what Fitzgerald writes that Nick thinks. We are made to think that Tom is quite short tempered and aggressive, ‘his determination to have my company bordered on violence’. Because this is what we read, we characterise Tom Buchanan as an aggressive person. However
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