The Great Gatsby
Metaphorical meanings of splash in The Great Gatsby
What is the metaphorical sense of "splash" in the two following passages of Gatsby?
1) (chapter 7) There was a moment of silence. The telephone book slipped from its nail and splashed to the floor, whereupon Jordan whispered “Excuse me.”— but this time no one laughed.
-Does it means: The telephone book falls with it pages hitting he floor first, the pages of the book will splay out - like water splashing on the floor? Or does it mean just that the book falls and makes a loud sound?
2) (chapter 8) His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night when we hunted through the great rooms for cigarettes. We pushed aside curtains that were like pavilions and felt over innumerable feet of dark wall for electric light switches—once I tumbled with a sort of splash upon the keys of a ghostly piano.
- Does it mean that Nick falls on the keys and, in an attempt not to fall to the ground, he strikes down with his open hand onto the keys? Or could he have sent up a spray of notes, as it were, with his outspread hands? Or the splash is a ghostly sudden, loud scattering of notes in an empty house?
Thank you.