ABOUT half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. 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 men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash−gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight. But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.
– on the way to New York city.
– shrink implies that the road want to pull away form this area but can’t go far. its ‘creeped’ by it desolate means bleed emphasis. not much happening . its unpleasant. the area docent produce or grow.
– valley= hole like. ashes= burnt out/ dying. New York and other surrounding areas dump their ashes from there fires there.
– Fram grow garden- all imply life. however, Fitzgerald states that ashes are growing into things you might normally find on a farm. he also says the garden are grotesque; ugly, disgusting, repulsive.
– ashes are forming everything. that are the things that are going and therefore Fitzgerald is trying to illustrate that the feeling of being burnt out has taken over this place.
– the people live in a world where this is there everyday. above and beyond the range of a normal persons experiences.
worn out/ tired
– you’re going to break, pressure, stress.
Maye!
It’s so nice to see you beginning to use your blog! You have the colour coding down pat and I think it’s a really effective way to visually break a quote down.
Make sure that when you are taking notes about the quotes and passages we discuss in class, you add some of your own thoughts into your writing.
Please make sure you are posting your other work so I can comment and feedback to you on that too.