"When we came into the station he was next to me, and his white shirtfront pressed against my arm, and so I told him I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever; you can't live forever.' "
Chapter 2 · Myrtle Wilson
Context
Myrtle tells Nick the story of how she first met Tom on a train, describing the immediate physical attraction and her decision to act on it.
Analysis
The repeated mantra 'You can't live forever' reveals the carpe diem philosophy driving Myrtle's transgression—she justifies adultery through an awareness of mortality, making her affair with Tom an assertion of vitality against the death-in-life of the valley of ashes. The 'white shirtfront' echoes the novel's clothing motif and class signifiers—Tom's wealth is literally pressed against her. The confusion between taxi and subway suggests disorientation but also class displacement: Myrtle is crossing a boundary she cannot fully comprehend. The passage tragically foreshadows her actual death.
How to Use in Essay
Essential for essays on Myrtle's motivation, the theme of mortality driving reckless behavior, class desire, or the connection between death awareness and the pursuit of pleasure in the novel.