Valley Of Ashes In 'The Great Gatsby'

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Dat Huynh IB English Literature September 21, 2017 C12 Commentary 4 The selected passage introduces the scene of valley of ashes, Fitzgerald shows the readers the contrast of the locations. After describing West Egg and East Egg in chapter one, the illustration of dark, dim and muted town serves as the direct contrast of the wealthy places. Unlike the other locations, the valley of ashes is the town of poverty, where everything is covered in ash, lacking the beauty of life. This represents the concealed society underneath the prosperity, the town that its existence makes the West and East Egg much greater and richer. Through the usage of bleak imagery and irony, Fitzgerald exemplifies represents the moral and social decay that results from belonging to the lower class, as the rich only worry for their pleasures. …show more content…

Much of it comes from industry: factories that pollute the area around them into a “grotesque” and “ghastly” version of a beautiful countryside. Fitzgerald gives no life to the valley making everything in the valley to be covered by ashes literally and figuratively. The Valley of Ashes turning regular humans into “ash-grey men” who “swarm” like insects around the factories and cargo trains. The ash and dust, is not only a reflection of the corruption of the American dream, but of the negative consequences of the pursuit of the American dream. The Valley of Ashes also embodies the decline of spiritual life and the degradation of values associated with the vulgar pursuit of wealth. Images of death and hopelessness are associated with the valley of Ashes, and this describes the consequences of striving to move up the social

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