his public and real life with Daisy, the mother of his daughter and the woman who originates from respectable social standing. Yet he keeps Myrtle on standby for quick getaways to the city, full of alcohol, fun, and no responsibilities. Myrtle doesn't see the situation for what it is and clings to hope, taking risks to be with him whenever he desires her.

After Myrtle's death and near the end of the novel, Tom compares Myrtle to a dog:

[Gatsby] ran over Myrtle like you’d run over a dog.

The fact that he chooses this particular comparison is striking, especially when considering his follow-up comment:

And if you think I didn’t have my share of suffering—look here, when I went to give up that flat and saw that damn box of dog biscuits sitting there on the sideboard I sat down and cried like a baby.

Myrtle was little more than a pet to him, and he won't mourn her loss for long.

The dog episode in chapter two is significant for several reasons. On their way into the city, Myrtle begs Tom to buy her a dog from a seller in the street. During the purchase, Tom reveals his arrogance and prejudiced towards lower-class civilians by speaking to the seller with contempt and continually disagreeing with him. Tom's treatment of the dog seller portrays him as a haughty, disrespectful man, who refuses to be corrected.

The episode is also significant because Myrtle is attempting to domesticate herself and solidify her relationship with Tom. Myrtle desperately wishes to marry Tom and desires his upper-class, luxurious lifestyle. In Myrtle's eyes, purchasing a dog is a significant step towards formally recognizing her relationship with Tom. However, Tom views Myrtle the same way he views the dog seller, which is with blatant disregard. Tom believes that Myrtle is beneath him and is simply using her, which is why he does not refrain from breaking her nose when she mentions Daisy's name.

This episode is also significant because it provides George Wilson with concrete evidence that Myrtle was cheating on him. After Myrtle is struck by a car and dies in the middle of the street, George discovers a dog collar in her possession and is led to believe that her lover is responsible for her death. Tom Buchanan proceeds to inform George that Jay Gatsby murdered his wife, and George becomes motivated to avenge her death.

The significance of the puppy episode in Chapter 2 is not revealed until later in the book.  It provides the basis for the clue that confirms for George, Myrtle's husband, that his wife is having an affair.  Myrtle asks Tom to buy her the dog, and she keeps it at the apartment where she and Tom have their illicit meetings.  George doesn't know anything about the puppy, and, although he has his suspicions, he does not actually know for sure that his wife is cheating on him either.

In Chapter 8, after Myrtle has been killed, George finds a new dog collar wrapped in tissue among Myrtle's things.  The item is incongruous, because he and Myrtle do not have a dog.  George concludes that Myrtle was indeed being unfaithful to him, and that she was killed by the man with whom she was having an affair.  This sets in motion the chain of events that leads to the murder of Gatsby.

The man from whom Tom Buchanan buys the dog "bore an absurd resemblance to John D. Rockefeller," a point that seems all the more notable in a book that emphasizes the difficulty, even the impossibility for some, of attaining the American Dream: the idea that any American, through hard work and perseverance, can prosper.  Certainly, to compare, in any way, a man selling dogs out of a basket on the street with Rockefeller is unexpected, but, here, it seems to be a statement on impossibility of the dream for this man: he may work hard and even look just like a millionaire, but he will never be able to reach that level of prosperity and influence himself.

Further, Myrtle Wilson's total lack of concern for her new puppy, once she'd sent someone for a box of straw and saucer of milk, is appalling and cruel.  It sheds a great deal of light on her character.  She wants things, she wants to have things, and she wants Tom to buy them for her.  She's not, however, interested in responsibility, and she is certainly not a kind or compassionate person.  During her party,

"The little dog was sitting on the table looking with blind eyes through the smoke, and from time to time groaning faintly."  

This dog is so young that she can hardly see, if at all.  She is surrounded by loud noises and loud people that she cannot see, without anyone to hold her or pet her or reassure her, and Myrtle is completely oblivious.  

Tom buys the puppy for Myrtle in Chapter 2 once they meet up in New York City, and the puppy is the last purchase after some other rather random purchases: 

At the news-stand she bought a copy of Town Tattle and a moving-picture magazine, and in the station drug-store some cold cream and a small flask of perfume. Up-stairs, in the solemn echoing drive she let four taxicabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with gray upholstery, and in this we slid out from the mass of the station into the glowing sunshine.

Myrtle is basking in the buy-power that Tom has, and Tom seems to enjoy giving her things that her husband cannot, whether they are simple purchases, like a magazine or cold cream, or larger purchases, like a puppy or even the apartment that they rent in the city.  

However, the purchase of the puppy also goes to show how reckless and irresponsible everyone is:

Mrs. Wilson was first concerned with the dog. A reluctant elevator-boy went for a box full of straw and some milk, to which he added on his own initiative a tin of large, hard dog-biscuits — one of which decomposed apathetically in the saucer of milk all afternoon.

While she is at first concerned with the puppy, she does not seem to know how to take care of it, nor does she have the necessary things to care for the puppy.  Later in Chapter 2, while the rest of the guests in the apartment are getting drunk, Nick notes, "The little dog was sitting on the table looking with blind eyes through the smoke, and from time to time groaning faintly."  The poor dog has basically been abandoned to its own devices as people come and go in the apartment.  In fact, Nick appears to be the only one who notices the dog, and it is never mentioned again in the book.  

The puppy episode is also significant because it exposes Tom's elitism and arrogance. During Myrtle's exchange with the dog seller, Tom frequently interposes with his own self-absorbed comments. For example, when the dog seller presents what he considers a police dog to Myrtle, Tom proclaims, "That's no police dog." In reality, Airedale terriers were the first police dogs in England and Belgium. They were also used as messenger dogs during the First World War. 

Because of Tom's obvious wealth and status, the dog seller is intimidated into agreeing with his assessment. Later, when Myrtle inquires about the sex of the dog, Tom invalidates the dog seller's answer. He insists that the Airedale is female even after the dog seller says otherwise. The puppy episode highlights Tom's hubris and his contempt for anyone he considers his social inferior. In fact, he treats Myrtle much the same way he would a dog or an animal.

When Myrtle insists upon mentioning Daisy's name, Tom breaks her nose with his open hand. Shocked, bleeding, and in pain, Myrtle wails like a wounded animal. Ominously, the text says nothing about an apology from Tom. Because Tom considers Myrtle socially inferior to him and Daisy, he becomes irate when Myrtle challenges him. To Tom, Myrtle is merely his mistress and a dispensable one at that. In his mind, Myrtle is not privileged to speak Daisy's name at any time.

The puppy episode is significant because it clearly exposes Tom's arrogant and elitist attitudes.

Myrtle decides en route to the apartment Tom keeps for her in Manhattan that she wants Tom to buy her a puppy. He indifferently complies.

The puppy represents Myrtle. Myrtle might want a protective "police dog," but what she gets is a tiny puppy that "cowered" and is, as the racist and classist Tom thinks of people like Myrtle, of "an indeterminate breed." The vendor tells Myrtle that she is getting a male, but Tom rather brutally informs her that (like her) it is a "bitch." 

Like Myrtle, the puppy is out of place. Myrtle might put on airs, but she has no more real place in Tom's world than the puppy. The "elevator" boy has to find a box of straw and milk for the puppy, to which he adds a tin of dog biscuits. One of the biscuits "decomposed apathetically in the saucer of milk all afternoon": a sad and unpleasant image. Myrtle wants to buy it a "little collar," a symbol of ownership as much as the chiffon dress from Tom she flounces in. Despite her bravado and strong personality, she is, like the puppy, very vulnerable, as we see when Tom hits her. Like the puppy, she is one of Tom's "purchases." 

That the puppy symbolizes her is emphasized near the end of the novel, when Tom tells of crying when he sees "that damn box of dog biscuits sitting there on the sideboard." He also says that Gatsby ran over Myrtle "like you'd run over a dog."