The Valley of Ashes is a desolate area of land halfway between West Egg and New York. The land was created by the dumping of industrial ashes. In the Valley of Ashes, “the ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens” and this is according to the narrator, Nick Carraway. There is a big billboard sign with eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which had an importance in the novel. The eyes were described as God’s eyes and him being able to see everything that happened. His eyes would stare and watch people who lost their inner and spiritual values just to achieve wealthiness. The Valley of ashes determines where people stand, economic wise. Myrtle and her husband Wilson live in the Valley of ashes and they aren’t as wealthy as Tom and Daisy are.
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This couple is an example of what kind of people live there, the complete opposite of both eggs, where extremely high class and wealthy people like Gatsby and the Buchanan’s live. The Valley of Ashes is a place of failure. It symbolizes crushed American dreams and hopelessness. The valley practically rots little by little just like the people’s American dreams. In the novel, as readers read, we can see how the valley of ashes rots. The place starts becoming more of a dump place much like the characters and their lives. Instead of getting better, their lives become terrible, confusing and is filled with ungratefulness, selfishness and false realization of what is really important and what’s not. The American Dream and how people were determined to find it involves the pursuit of wealth, which is why Fitzgerald just threw the theme earlier than expected in the novel. As we know that whole novel is based on how everyone wishes they were like Tom, Daisy and Gatsby, even the Nick, the narrator’s goal is to become rich and to learn the “bond business” although
This couple is an example of what kind of people live there, the complete opposite of both eggs, where extremely high class and wealthy people like Gatsby and the Buchanan’s live. The Valley of Ashes is a place of failure. It symbolizes crushed American dreams and hopelessness. The valley practically rots little by little just like the people’s American dreams. In the novel, as readers read, we can see how the valley of ashes rots. The place starts becoming more of a dump place much like the characters and their lives. Instead of getting better, their lives become terrible, confusing and is filled with ungratefulness, selfishness and false realization of what is really important and what’s not. The American Dream and how people were determined to find it involves the pursuit of wealth, which is why Fitzgerald just threw the theme earlier than expected in the novel. As we know that whole novel is based on how everyone wishes they were like Tom, Daisy and Gatsby, even the Nick, the narrator’s goal is to become rich and to learn the “bond business” although