Fitzgerald immediately juxtaposes the decadent materialistic setting of east egg with the new setting, the 'valley of ashes', which represents the destruction created from the materialistic, aesthetic lives of the decadent living in either egg. The valley of ashes is home to the working class and honest, yet they are surrounded by destruction made by the upper classes. Honesty has gotten them nowhere yet the rich thrive while being brutally un-earnest with affairs and criminality, like bootlegging. Fitzgerald describes the ashes with language that makes it seem organic, stating how it is 'growing' which fully exhibits how the waste from the Cities is building up in these small villages as if it were farmed. The setting has no colour except 'greying' men and cars lining the street, this juxtaposes the cleanliness within the Buchanan household previously where everything was 'white' as if it were pure, everything in the valley of ashes seems dirty, a wasteland. The only colour mentioned are the eyes of Dr Eckleburg, 'gigantic and blue' memorabilia of a forgotten time, the figure now looks over 'a dumping ground'.
We are introduced to Tom's mistress where Nick states that Tom 'insisted it were known' , as Tom is showing off his mistress we began to get more of an understanding to the character of Tom, the fact he shows his mistress as a Trophy presents himself as a character who prides himself on possession 'my girl', relating to his materialistic and sporting background, by presenting his mistress to Nick on a pedestal he is trying to assert dominance over Nick. Nick's description of the character holds no sense of beauty but that she 'holds her flesh sensuously', compared to Daisy's delicate description this character seems worn, as Nick notes her age '30', Her voice is coarse compared to daisy's innocent stuttering in the previous scene. She walks through her husband 'as if he were a ghost' implying that the characters husband is dead to her. Nick's description holds no respectability for the woman as he unflatteringly describes her, 'rather wide hips'.
Nick states how they are constantly under the 'stare' of Eckleburg, as if he was God, the figure seems to be judging the characters and the fact that Nick notices or at least feels the pressure of the stare shows that the character feels guilty of at least knows he is doing something wrong. We are introduced to Wilson who is presented as a shell of a man, 'anaemic' and 'faintly handsome', the characters house is describes as being 'bare' yet when Tom asks him how he is doing he replies that 'he cannot complain' the character is acceptant of his bare minimalistic living.
Fitzgerald then moves the setting to Manhattan, which is notably more lively than the previous scene, we are immediately exposed to the corrupt within the city when Mrs Wilson buys a dog from a 'greying old man' which was stated to be an air dale, which Nick notices it evidently is not. Nick then visits the pairs flat fully exposing Tom's affair, there seems to be no emotional bond but he seems to posses Mrs Wilson through materials, the dog that he buys her, the flat he has bought them. The flat is crowded with furniture compared to Wilson's 'bare' home, displaying Mrs Wilson's desire to become part of the decadent materialistic upperclass.
"I have been drunk just twice in my life" illustrates the naivety of the narrator, Nick. He is trying to re tell events and glorify them when he has no real depth of experience in them, either this or this is an example of his unreliability. Nick could not wish to express the amount of times he had been drunk. Nick's opinionated nature is exposed by his descriptions of the each character as he meets them, describing one woman as 'horrible' as she vainly tells him of how her husband 'photographed her 127 times in her lifetime' while he notices how her husband has forgotten to entirely rid his face of shaving cream.
Fitzgerald brings back the idea of Gatsby when he is mentioned by one of the guests, ' i am scared of him' yet we are still yet to meet the protagonist, we are building up suspense to meet the character whom is still so mysterious.
As time passes the drunk audience begin to settle and fall asleep, there is no tension until Nick tells of how Tom, provoked by Mrs Wilson shouting out Daisy's names, proceeds to break her nose, the 'brute of a man' (as described by Daisy) has shown his strength and we get an incite into the destructive nature of Tom. As this ends the scene we see Fitzgerald implementing the idea of falseness within Tom's fabricates other life, that as much as he wishes, it all relates back to his other life. We are left with Nick sobering up waiting for the train.
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