The Valley Of Ashes In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

As people read The Great Gatsby, some people don’t realize the many symbolic features that F. Scott Fitzgerald implemented within. Something as simple as a shooting star representing longing hope is just one of the small symbolic features that are often overlooked. When writing The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald often highlights green and blue to create an atmosphere of emotion. The most impactful representative features that persist throughout the novel are Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes, the green light, and the valley of ashes. Within the second chapter, Nick notices the billboard with Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s blue eyes, which creates a sense of judgment towards all who are immoral.

The great illusion of the 1920s was the belief that everyone was living the American dream; in reality, only the wealthy few were able to. In the city, the dream was being corrupted and unethical tactics were used to obtain obscene amounts of wealth while leaving those in the countryside behind. In the book, Gatsby was the poster boy for the American dream because of his success, but he also represented its fate with the death of his dream and himself. Moreover, the Valley of Ashes was an important symbol because it represented the destruction of the American dream and it was the place that the main characters (excluding Nick) never held to any importance because they were apart of an elite class that looked down on the downtrodden. Today,

The Great Gatsby Essay F. Scott Fitzgerald uses multiple examples of symbolism when writing The Great Gatsby. Nick Carraway tells the story of The Great Gatsby sometime around the 1920’s. Nick moves to West Egg, Long Island to learn more about the bond business, he meets a man named Gatsby and many others. Nick encounters crazy events throughout his time at the West Egg.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the valley of ashes, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock and the eyes of doctor T.J.Eckleburg are all significant symbols used throughout the novel.Firstly, the valley of ashes is between the West Egg and New York City and is virtually a dumping ground for industrial ashes. New York City is used to symbolize the beauty in the world, and the West Egg symbolizes the people who became wealthy from the economy. Furthermore, the valley of ashes symbolizes the ruin of the people caught in between. The valley represents the hopelessness poverty causes. Only people of the lower social classes live in the valley and they desperately want to leave but cannot due to the grasp poverty has on them.

For our Gatsby project, we painted two settings in the book. One side of the painting is New York City and the other side is West Egg, Long Island. We painted the two sides to be separated by the railroad and the Valley of Ashes. Gatsby, Nick, Jordan, Tom, and Daisy pass through it every time they travel into the city. The Valley of Ashes represents hopelessness and poverty, as well as also symbolizing the failings of the American Dream.

    Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, location is a critical motif. The contrasts between East and West, East Egg and West Egg, and the two Eggs and New York serve important thematic roles and provide the backdrops for the main conflict. Yet, there needs to be a middle ground between each of these sites, a buffer zone, as it were; there is the great distance that separates East from West; there is the bay that separates East Egg from West Egg; and, there is the Valley of Ashes that separates Long Island from New York. The last of these is probably the most striking. Yet, the traditional literal interpretation does not serve Fitzgerald's theme as well as a more

Fitzgerald uses “The valley of ashes” as a setting to define Myrtle and her attitudes throughout the story. The valley of ashes is an isolated region between East and West Egg. Many people only travel through that area when it is deemed necessary, and the people who did live there did so because that’s what they could afford. “This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally with translucent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” (Fitzgerald 4) The author uses words such as “grotesque” and “crumbling” to indicate the presence of a falling province. Fitzgerald’s

F. Scott Fitzgerald presents many themes in his novel, The Great Gatsby, One of the themes is Lies and Deceit. This theme is developed throughout the book by his of the motif of Gatsby’s past. The motif of Gatsby’s past compares Gatsby to the rest of the characters in this book because everyone has a lied about something. This motif represents constant deception of who Gatsby truly is and he earned his wealth.

The Valley of Ashes in "The Great Gatsby" symbolizes the moral and social decay of the American Dream. It represents the desolation beneath the glamorous surface of 1920s society. It conveys the theme of corruption, emptiness, materialism, and the pursuit of wealth. The valley is described as a "desolate area of land" where "ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke," suggesting the destruction and decay resulting from the relentless pursuit of wealth at any cause whether its morally correct or not. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, looming over the valley, serve as a haunting reminder of the moral decay and spiritual emptiness that permeate society.

Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities.

The novel contains several themes that are prevalent in many other works such as love, wealth, and morality. There are also others that are more in depth, such as society and class or religion. All of these themes are still very active in today's world. People still fall in love, battle with their morals, and seek money and power. " The Great Gatsby" explores these themes from the point of view of the upper class.

Theme of Carelessness In the Great Gatsby, the main characters were reckless with just about everything they did. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, had many themes in this novel. The two main themes were romance and tragedy, with carelessness between both. Fitzgerald’s book was similar to his life in some ways. For example, Gatsby was in the war just as Fitzgerald was.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story that has many different themes. Fitzgerald shows the themes that he uses through his character’s desires and actions. This novel has themes in it that we deal with in our everyday life. It has themes that deal with our personal lives and themes that deal with what’s right and what’s wrong. There are also themes that have to do with materialistic items that we deal desire on a daily basis. Fitzgerald focuses on the themes of corrupted love, immorality, and the American Dream in order to tell a story that is entertaining to his readers.

The Valley of Ashes is a wasteland that was left behind by the wealthy. It’s in the middle near both the train tracks and railroads that divide the West Egg from the East Egg. This helps shows the depressing side of the 1920s where hope seemed further and further aways from the less fortunates reality. It is a place where the lower class feels trapped between a reality that they might never be able to achieve based on their living situation and the false hope of accomplishing it. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the downfall of the American Dream by indicating the hopelessness of the poor, the indulging of the rich and the beginning of the American Nightmare.

Many times we hear of society's affect on people; society influencing the way people think and act.  Hardly mentioned is the reverse: peoples' actions and lifestyles affecting society as a whole and how it is characterized.  Thus, society is a reflection of its inhabitants and in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it is a wasteland described as the "valley of ashes."  Since the characters of this novel make up this wasteland, aren't they the waste?  Symbolically, this waste represents the lack of ethics of the 1920's society and civilization's decay.  In The Great Gatsby, morals deficiencies such as a lack of God, selfishness, and idleness are reflective of a society as doomed as