Skip to main content

What is Tom and Myrtle's apartment like in The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald?

In Chapter III of The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), we are introduced to the "love nest" of Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson.  And a nest it is, being a very small apartment overcrowded with large furniture that is ill-suited for the space. The apartment consists of a living room, dining room, bedroom, and bathroom, all small. The furniture is upholstered in a tapestried material, with a print of "ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles" (33).  A photo on the wall that appears from afar to be a hen sitting on a rock turns out to be a photo of an old woman in a bonnet.  Some magazines are on the table, scandal rags and a book called Simon Called Peter, which was a bestseller in the twenties, a kind of commentary on Myrtle's reading level and tastes. The apartment is at 158th Street, on the top floor of an elevator building, an area which seems to be on the verge of gentrification today, but which did not exactly qualify as prime New York real estate at that time.  (For a photograph of this and other New York locations in the novel, see the link below.) Tom Buchanan is a very wealthy man, but he is not exactly going overboard for his mistress. This careful description of the apartment shows us the great divide in class.  Myrtle's decoration of her apartment is tacky and tasteless, and Nick's astute eye catches every nuance of poor Myrtle's attempt to imitate the wealthy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...