[The Great Gatsby] Passage chosen from chapter 2

The Great Gatsby Chapter 2 page 22 ~ 23 

The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner. It had occurred to me that this shadow of a garage must be a blind, and that sumptuous and romantic apartments were concealed overhead, when the proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office, wiping his hands on a piece of waste. He was a blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.

“Hello, Wilson, old man,” said Tom, slapping him jovially on the shoulder. “How’s business?”

“I can’t complain,” answered Wilson unconvincingly. “When are you going to sell me that car?”

“Next week; I’ve got my man working on it now.”

“Works pretty slow, don’t he?”

“No, he doesn’t,” said Tom coldly. “And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all.”

“I don’t mean that,” explained Wilson quickly. “I just meant ——”

His voice faded off and Tom glanced impatiently around the garage. Then I heard footsteps on a stairs, and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips, and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice:

“Get some chairs, why don’t you, so somebody can sit down.”

“Oh, sure,” agreed Wilson hurriedly, and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity — except his wife, who moved close to Tom.

“I want to see you,” said Tom intently. “Get on the next train.”

“All right.”

“I’ll meet you by the news-stand on the lower level.” She nodded and moved away from him just as George Wilson emerged with two chairs from his office door.

Main idea I found was: 

The dependence the lower class status (such as George and Myrtle Wilson) have on the higher class status (such as Tom Buchanan).

• George Wilson: the colour grey correlates with the character of George Wilson, this man of lifelessness. He is portrayed like a corpse, "spiritless" and "anaemic". He lacks vitality and energy. The "dust-covered wreck of a Ford" can be seen as an objective correlative of George Wilson. The ford is personified to be "crouching in a dim corner". In a way portrays George Wilson's insignificance and inferiority, to these men of higher class status.  The "dust-cover wreck" has strong resemblance with his "white ashen dust veiled" dark suit. He has this sort of dependence on Tom Buchanan to provide him with a chance  to get higher up in his life, by buying the car off Tom. This is evident when Wilson shows a "damp gleam of hope" when he sees Tom. Wilson hopes to get something from this upper class man. 
• Tom Buchanan:Exploits this dependence of the lower class status for the pursuit of thrill and pleasure. We see this idea first through Tom’s affected congeniality which is revealed from the moment Tom slaps Wilson on the shoulder ‘jovially’ and asking ‘How’s business’. By offering to sell this car to Wilson, Tom may be holding out great possibility for Wilson, but in reality, this car means nothing to Tom at all. When Tom Buchanan replies ‘coldly’ and says ‘and if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all” it seems that in a way, Tom is teasing George, as he knows George is desperate for the money, implying that if George intends to question him, he will take this ‘gleam of hope’ away from Wilson. Tom is playing on Wilson’s gleam of hope and is using it to gain thrill in life by exploiting those of the lower class. However, it becomes quite evident that Tom will not be giving Wilson this car and he is only using it as an excuse to see George Wilson’s wife, Myrtle Wilson, whom Tom is having an affair with in front of George Wilson himself. It seems as though Tom is doing this in order to acquire some kind of salacious thrill by going to the garage himself and having an affair with Myrtle Wilson right in front of George Wilson’s nose. Tom Buchanan is a man that can only gain pleasure in life from exploiting these people of the lower class. 
• Myrtle Wilson: Myrtle wants nothing more than to be involved in the higher class and to do this she depends on Tom to make her so. It is very ironic when Myrtle herself, who symbolises lower class, acts like she is in this upper class within this passage. She uses the imperative “go get chairs” to her husband George Wilson, acting like she belongs to the upper class to her husband but in fact, this is ludicrous as she is not. Her world is never like Tom’s world and no matter how she acts like she is an upper class, she will never be able to fit in. Tom is even enjoying this hopeless dream of Myrtle because he is aware of her dependence on him to make her fit into the higher class, but in reality, he is only exploiting this reliability of Myrtle to give him some pleasure and salacious thrill in his purposeless life
• Setting of the passage: . It is described the interior was un-prosperous and bare. These adjectives ‘unprosperous’ and ‘bare Nick uses to describe Wilson’s house contrasts heavily with those used to describe the upper class house, such as Gatsby’s vibrant, huge mansion and Tom’s peaceful house by the beach. These adjectives clearly demonstrate to the readers that the Wilson’s belong to the lower class. This clear distinction of the upper and the lower class is again emphasised through the description of ‘the dust-covered wreck of a ford’. The ford symbolises the people of the poorer class, as it is the only type of car they are able to afford.