What Does The Valley Of Ashes Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Individuals perpetuate false personas to such an extent that they are convinced into a state of false consciousness of reaching the American dream, ultimately, this facade leads them to their downfall, exposing repressed reality from idealistic lies. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes symbols to describe the hollow nature of each character’s deceitful persona, which comes to show the ultimate theme of downfall through the individual’s perception of the American dream. The use of gold as a mask for the colour yellow represents authentic wealth versus fake wealth, further developed though Jay Gatsby’s pursuance of the American dream. The colour white known for is purity and simplicity is denoted by Daisy Buchanan, a character who represses the reality in which she lives, insinuated by her change in surroundings. Furthermore, the character of Myrtle Wilson, showcases her greed for wealth and her need of a rich-husband as an American dream, symbolized by the surrounding colour of grey, a representation of her veneer-rich persona.

The author uses very descriptive imagery to illustrate, in our minds, how the Valley of Ashes looks like. He also uses personification, "a line of gray cars crawls..", including a simile, "where ashes grow like wheat." Nick tells us about a stretch of land lying a quarter of a mile between West Egg and New York which are connected by a motor road and a railroad, called the Valley of Ashes. The valley of ashes is basically the midpoint, being a colorless, desolate area of land. In fact, the somber place is home to the people who the higher class of the city tend to overlook. The novel's non-wealthy people live in the valley of ashes, which men work here by shoveling the ashes. This subdued landscape is filled with missed opportunities contrary

One of the most important symbol that Fitzgerald presents is the Valley of Ashes. Introduced in chapter 2, the valley of ashes is portrayed as a dreary piece of land brimming with utter despair. It completely contradicts with the “American Dream” and West Egg, where opportunities are ubiquitous. As Nick states, “This is a valley of

The author uses the Valley of Ashes, a small town between the West Egg and New York City, to symbolize the moral and social decay that stems from the desire to become wealthy. The 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 a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air symbolizes a morally stripped place where materialistic and false people can live in harmony. The unfortunate events that occur in the Valley of Ashes, including Gatsby's death, the affair between Tom and Myrtle and Myrtle's accidental death, represent the severe consequences stemming from the failed attempts at achieving the American Dream. As the characters travel through the Valley of Ashes to reach elsewhere, they are forced to belittle themselves to a lower social status, as seen when Tom engages in an affair with Myrtle, a poor-stricken woman, who solely provides another form of comfort. Serving as a symbol of social and moral destruction, the Valley of Ashes also symbolizes the condition in which the poorer American society lived during the 1920s. The description of the Valley of Ashes used through color symbolism, creates a melancholy atmosphere which allows the reader to connect the importance of the "desolate strip of land" to the negative personality changes, reflective of the 1920s, within the characters.

The Valley of Ashes is halfway between West Egg of Long Island and New York City. When one comes upon the Valley of Ashes, it is not what they see, but what they do not see: sunshine, colors, or a settling feeling. The Valley of Ashes is nothing but a dull location, filled with unsatisfied farmers, unsuccessful gardens, billowing smoke, and mounds of ashes that are prominent below the gray skies. Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, describes the Valley of Ashes as “...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 a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 23). Fitzgerald describes this location as unpleasant for those who enter and it is seen as a vulnerable place due to the billboard of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg looking upon the location at all times. This descriptive quote foreshadows that something bad will occur in this area during the novel.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald emphasized the damage that industrialization brought to the society by depicting the environment. The Valley of Ashes represented the result of people’s demand of wealth. Contrast to the modern and prosperous downtown, The Valley of Ashes was full of

Despite it is this flourishing but void time period that provides Gatsby with the extreme wealth he has built, and it seems that he is finally going to bring home the bacon and accomplish his fabulous life with Daisy. It still leads him to the grave at the end. Gatsby 's way to fall can be traced to dreaming, waking, failing, and finally lost in despair. In this respect, the life experience of Gatsby and the experience of America in the first decades of this century are strikingly similar. America was also once a lively land with people who have passion and great dreams. However, it is now replaced by modernization. The most typical example is The Valley of Ashes, where the workers keep their noses to the grindstone but still live a harsh life. The author describes as “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 a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the

The valley of ashes is described as “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 a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). The valley of ashes represents all of the dreams that died in the city and were never lived out, almost a valley of regrets. “Men move dimly” (23) because they have nothing left to live for, because all of their dreams are dead, just like the ashes. The gray cars go by and stir up a cloud of hope, and the ash-men pick up “their leaden spades” (23) and carry out their “obscure operations” (23), trying to relive their dreams to get a second chance. Gatsby lost Daisy when he was very young, and that crushed

The Valley of Ashes is a place of uninterrupted desolation, and is inhabited by poorer individuals like George and Myrtle Wilson. It is a miserable place that connects Long Island with Manhattan, and Fitzgerald uses it to denote the politics of that day. It lacks the stylish suburban allure of West and East Egg, and is a barren wasteland that symbolizes the moral decay of all classes in the capitalist society of 1920s America. Moreover, the Valley of Ashes is a reflection of the destruction of morals hidden by the facades of the Eggs, and Fitzgerald uses it to indicate that beneath the garish ornamentation of West Egg, and the mannered pretense of East Egg, lies the same ugliness that is in the valley.. He depicts it as a place plagued with such

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

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

The Great Gatsby is one of the most read pieces of literature throughout the current modern Western world. High school kids all across the globe must learn and read it as part of their curriculum. One of the aspects that makes this novel so notable is that Fitzgerald, at no point in the story, needs to convey to his audience the theme of his novel directly. The main points of his novel are brought out by the powerful symbols he infuses in the book. Not only does he use them to convey his theme, but also ties them in to the rest of the story. Every aspect of this book is affected by the presence of one of his symbols. Through the use of the green light, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, and the Valley of the Ashes as symbols,

    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

Symbolism appears in many forms of art including literature, music, and art. Symbols represent a meaning that is not clearly stated by the author. The novel represents everyday objects and a location that contributes to the story through the characters’ actions. The symbols do not directly affect the characters however, they influence the characters’ action. The characters in The Great Gatsby mention the items throughout the novel and describe how those connect to their actions.

In 1882, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche declared: “God is Dead.” During the enlightenment period in Europe, people were beginning to realize that there might not be greater spiritual being watching over them. They began to separate church and state, so instead of theocracies, they developed governments where the laws were created based on the needs of the governed, instead of being based upon a divine power. It can be easily inferred that this belief often elicited some dark revelations, since it created a society not bound by spiritual rules. This popular philosophy also carried over into the Western world around the same time, which sets the scene of The Great Gatsby.