In The Great Gatsby, many characters reveal their forgetfulness of the wonder of life through their broken relationship with nature, their fellow human beings, and God. Gatsby 's relationship with nature is brutal; nature to him is worthless. When Gatsby is speaking to Mr. Carraway he states, “This is a valley of ashes – ... where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air"(). The "valley of ashes" represent utter poverty and depression (). The valley symbolizes the moral decay of the newly rich who indulge themselves, disregarding all others and anything that interferes in their pleasure. The ashes are …show more content…
They do not feel guilty for their reckless behaviour and they believe money gives them to act this way. This emphasises Tom and Daisy never faced there consequences of their own actions. According to Mr. Carraway, "they smashed up things and creatures" this includes Gatsby and Myrtle(). When Daisy met Gatsby he was a no one and many years past and he became a rich man. She only went back to him because she saw all the money he had and he could take care of her now. When Gatsby passes away Daisy does not attend his funeral or even send flowers. She leaves town with Tom. When Myrtle passes away Tom does not seem to care, instead he finds a way of getting rid of Gatsby. Tom never cared about Myrtle and only used her for his own sexual pleasure. The Buchanan couple "[retreats] back their money" and moves on with their lives(). They have a broken relationship with people and only care about themselves. They let "other people clean up the mess they had made"() They did not care who got affected by what they did as long as they had ease to their life. They made others pay for the mistakes they made. Daisy made Gatsby pay for the death of Myrtle and Tom made Gatsby pay for a mistake he had made, which was having a affair with Myrtle. The Buchanan couple do not ask forgiveness and ignore their
...ent efforts, or men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). Here, The Valley of Ashes is regarded as complete destitution and hopelessness. The people known as the lower class do not wish to live in the valley of ashes. This is why people, like Myrtle try to do anything to get away from it but instead it becomes unachievable for them. When Myrtle tried to escape from the ashes by trying to be with a rich man like Tom, she dies. This embellishes how The American dream is unattainable. When Tom goes and sees George, you can see how the higher classes look down on the lower classes because of their different social positions. The higher-class people such as, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan represent the unstructured bodies of ashes within the valley. They are inconsiderate and conceited people arising from the dead ashes, changing the American Dream.
In this quote, the Valley of Ashes is portrayed as a “desolate area of land” where the glory of West Egg and New York are separated by a valley characterized as “grotesque,” dim, and “crumbling.” Fitzgerald includes this setting to describe important characters, such as Myrtle Wilson, who have an extreme influence on others because they are considered impoverished and trashy with no class. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes despair and poor lifestyles, which is why Myrtle is able to be used by Tom, who, in disdain, no longer shows feelings for his wife. The road is also personified to represent those who reside in the West Egg, who are snobby and want nothing to do with the poor.
Although we spent little time here in the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilized “The Valley of the Ashes” to its fullest. In this novel “The Valley of Ashes” symbolizes a great number of issues of morality in this society. “The Valley of Ashes” was located between New York and the two Eggs. “The Valley of Ashes” is a barren wasteland made of the ashes of which were dumped there as a byproduct of various modern items and was polluting this area. Although the valley of ashes is treated as ““nowhere”, a place to be driven through on the way to “somewhere” by the characters from both East and West Egg.”(Angela D. Hickley 1), Fitzgerald riddles it with heavy symbolism. Fitzgerald uses “The Valley...
The Valley of Ashes: It represents the unfortunate situation for the poor and how the rich overlook it entirely. They are stuck in between the two prestigious areas New York City and West/East Egg in
The Canadian musician Rick Danko once said” As time goes on we get closer to that American Dream of there being a pie cut up and shared. Usually greed and selfishness prevent that and there is always one bad apple in every barrel”. This is true in the Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzergerald. This is story mainly about a self-made man named Jay Gatsby and the decay of his American dream, which is to get Daisy Buchannan back after five years of being apart from her. But because of how Daisy is too selfish and infatuated with Tom’s social status and “old money” that she doesn’t realize how hard Gatsby has fought to get her back. The valley of ashes, the green light, and Gatsby’s death are all important symbols in the novel that have a deeper meaning.
The valley of ashes is a place that is located in between New York and the West Egg. The Valley of Ashes is a very desolate plain where middle class people live and work. It is a very gray valley where New York’s ashes are dumped. There is a small foul river located on the side of the valley of ashes perhaps to symbolize the people’s bad, negative attitudes toward their own lives. Nick says in detail “The valley of ashes I bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour.” (28). The middle class people not only live there, but they also work there by cleaning up the ashes. Nick explains “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 a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” (27). Mr. George Wilson is a prime example of a middle class man who lives and works in the valley of ashes. He owns a gas station and a car shop, where he works from the early du...
Daisy knows very well that tom is cheating on her, but doesn’t care because it's more convenient to stay in her unhappy marriage. Even though she wants to be with Gatsby, she wants to keep her social status and being with Tom makes this all the easier. Now, this is quite the opposite of Myrtle. She has a loving husband who would do anything for her, but her social status is all she cares about. Myrtle is willing to hurt George and ruin their marriage in order to climb up the social ladder. Neither of these women have respect for themselves. Both Daisy and Myrtle allow Tom to treat them
Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich couple, seem to have everything they could possibly want. Though their lives are full of anything you could imagine, they are unhappy and seek to change, Tom drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) just so he has something to talk about. Even though Tom is married to Daisy he has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and has apartment with her in New York.. Daisy is an empty character, someone with hardly any convictions or desires. Even before her relationships with Tom or, Gatsby are seen, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself and her friend Jordan. She knows that Tom is having an affair, yet she doesn't leave him even when she hears about Gatsby loving her. Daisy lets Gatsby know that she too is in love with him but cant bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except when Gatsby forces her too. Even then, once Tom begs her to stay, even then Daisy forever leaves Gatsby for her old life of comfort. Daisy and Tom are perfect examples of wealth and prosperity, and the American Dream. Yet their lives are empty, and without purpose.
Gatsby, Myrtle and Tom lie to themselves and others through their words and actions. Gatsby and Myrtle attempt to be social climbers; Gatsby loves the idea of Daisy and Myrtle loves the idea of Tom and what he can provide for her. They both try to appear as someone they are not: Gatsby tries to appear as a successful man who comes from a wealthy family while Myrtle longs to appear as an upper class woman. Their lies have tragic results since Myrtle, Gatsby and Mr. Wilson all die needlessly. However, Tom, who seems to be successful, lies because he is selfish and thinks only about fulfilling his personal needs. Clearly, The Great Gatsby demonstrates that deceiving others, for any reason, inevitably leads to tragedy for the individual and others who touch their lives.
By exploring the physical site of the valley, followed by the inhabitants of the valley – George and Myrtle, George representing the working class and Myrtle the exception, extending this to the references of the valley to Gatsby’s humble origins, the Valley of the Ashes represents the low social mobility and the failure of the American Dream.
The Valley of Ash, the least described region of the book, is an impoverished region connecting the prosperous, the wealthy New York City and the wealthier Long Island. The neighborhood is a “dismal scene” (23), which Nick Caraway is forced to view every time he rides the train into the city. The name valley of ash is an informal name deriving from the sheer quantity of ash, littering the city. Ashes cover and define everything in the city: the “ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”, the “houses and chimneys”, and the “men”. Similarly, the residents of the valley are hardly characterized by Caraway, because he cannot understand them. The smoke “obscures” and “obfuscates” the actions of these men both literally and figurative: a rich man like Caraway cannot understand the pure and intolerable poverty. The residents of the valley are plain and not very interesting. Most predominately featured ...
Throughout the history of the United States, one idea has been central in defining what it means to be American. Presented in Leo Marx’s book, The Machine in the Garden, the central concept of the Pastoral Ideal is shown as evolving with the nation. While literature has continuously displayed a veritable affection for a perfect balance between the wild and savage environment and the industrial scene, it is not apparent what precisely distinguishes one extreme from the other, only that the balance is the ideal. In the epilogue of The Machine in the Garden, Marx summarizes the trend of American literature from Sleepy Hollow to Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn. Finally, he transfers to the more modern word with the introduction of The Great Gatsby. Marx uncovers the hidden pastoral ideal in the novel, but does not dive into the differences causing the rebellion from technology or the effect these changes have on the pastoral ideal. No longer explicitly representing the intrusion of technology into a blissful natural environment, The Great Gatsby marks a transition to pastoralism as a reaction to the materialistic excess in a
“And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did now know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night”. F. Scott. Fitzgerald pg.180. The Great Gatsby is a novel about a wealthy, careless society with a brutal underside. In this society there are no morals, and the only goal is to achieve power no matter what the cost. Throughout this novel we see what the destruction of love can do.
About half-way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. 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 a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars cr...
Myrtle is, as Daisy, impressed with Tom's wealth and appearance, but, like Jay Gatsby, is stuck in a fantastic, idealized perception of her object of affection. Even when abused and trampled over by Tom, Myrtle continues to adore him, just as Gatsby continues to dote upon Daisy after being obviously rejected by her. As far as ethical considerations, Gatsby tends to prove himself a sincere and caring person, while Daisy and Tom just destroy the lives of two people and then leave town to escape the consequences of their actions.