How does Fitzgerald use details of setting and imagery to establish a mood in the opening pages of chapter 2?

Fitzgerald uses emphasised details of settings and imagery in order to establish a gloomy and uncomfortable mood, creating a tension implying a negative turn of events later on in the story. For example, the people in the valley of ashes are described as "already crumbling through the powdery air". This upsetting image creates a sense of discomfort, indicating how everything eventually fades away. The same gloomy idea is implicated when T.J Eckleburg's poster is described as "his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days". This shows the reader how day-by-day, things get progressively gloomier, indicating that something unfortunate will happen further into the story. Fitzgerald also uses words that connote depressing and eerie ideas. The valley of ashes is described using words such as "ghastly creak", "ash-gray men", "dismal scene", and "rising smoke". All of these details from the settings create a gloomy and uncomfortable mood which foreshadows the horrible turn of events that take place in the valley of ashes in chapter 7.

Similarly, through details of settings and imagery, an intensified version of this uncomfortable and gloomy mood is reintroduced in chapter 7, when Myrtle Wilson is hit by Gatsby's car. For example, Myrtle's lifeless body is described as "the mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners, as though she had choked a little". The use of this gruesome phrase paints a gory picture which creates an extreme sense of discomfort. Correspondingly, a similar gloomy and uncomfortable image is created when Myrtle's corpse is described as "her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with the dust". Fitzgerald uses words that connote terrible ideas which once again further establishes the gloomy and uncomfortable mood.