Chapter 2: pages 23-38

      2. In chapter two Tom forces Nick to meet his mistress, Mrs. Myrtle Wilson. Mrs. Wilson is married to a garage repair man. Tom makes Nick go with him and Myrtle to an apartment in the West Hundreds. While in the apartment Nick gets drunk for the second time in his entire life and he meets Myrtle's sister, Catherine and friend Mr and Mrs. Mckee. Catherine explains to Nick that Tom and Myrtle can not stand the person they are married to and they would get a divorce and marry each other but Daisy is Catholic, but Nick tells us that Daisy is not Catholic and that he is shocked at the elaborateness of the lie. Tom and Myrtle get into an argument on weather or not she should be allowed to say Daisy's name, in the end Tom smacks her becuase she says Daisy's name. The chapter ends with Nick falling asleep at the Pennsylvania Station waiting for the four o'clock train.


     3. a. Mrs Myrtle Wilson


     b. "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman, I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoes." (Fitzgerald 34)


     c. Mrs. Wilson is in the middle of her thirties, and faintly stout, but she carries her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her. She is the mistress of Tom Buchanan, and she is married to Mr. Wilson. She is unhappy in her marriage and thinks that her husband doesn't treat her right and that Tom is the first sweetie she has ever had.


     d. Mrs. Wilson's role in this novel is to be the Tom's mistress. She doesn't ruin Tom and Daisy's marriage because Tom has already done that before he started cheating on Daisy. Also, Daisy just doesn't care anymore what Tom does, she hates him and is disgusted by him and constantly mocks him. Myrtle is there to further the rift between Tom and Daisy, and now that Nick has met her that is going to put Nick in a difficult position because Daisy is his cousin.


    4. "The fact that he had one was insisted upon wherever he was known. his acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her..."We're getting off," he insisted. "I want you to meet my girl."" (Fitzgerald 24)


       This section of the novel stood out to me because Tom doesn't even try to hide the fact that he is cheating on Daisy. He parades Myrtle around town and goes to popular restaurants where his friends see him with her.  I found this to be significant because it shows how little Tom respects Daisy. It is bad enough that he is cheating on her but to parade his mistress around town like he is proud that he is cheating on his wife is disgusting. It shows a lot about Tom's character and morality, or lack there of one. It is just really awful that he disrespects Daisy like that.