The Great Gatsby Valley Of Ashes Analysis

The american dream is an ideal of everyone to achieve the hope of having a better life and making great amounts of money but in that sense they aren’t realizing what things they are leaving back and how much they’ll have to sacrifice or loose to gain that thought of American dream. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “ Harlem” by Langston Hughes both shows how the american dream gives hope but the pursuit of hope demolishes. Which is illustrated by the characters showing the corruption of wealth and their moral values.

First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who lives among the dirty ashes and lost his vitality as a result. Nick Carraway made the decision to move to the East and learn "the bond business" because "everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man." One of the prime goals of young men returning from fighting in World War I was to become rich, so Nick was following the pattern of most of his peers in attempting to secure a position that would allow him to

In everyday life and works of literature, color can symbolizes a wide variety of emotions from moods to political views. When someone is feeling upset one often says “I’m feeling blue” or when someone is mad their face turns red giving that color the association with anger. Political status even uses color to represent each party, one is usually either a blue Democrat or red Republican. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby color plays a significant role throughout the story symbolizing emotions and social rankings. Colors such as green representing hope and money, grey portraying hopelessness, discontent, and low social class, and yellow exemplifies destruction and desire.

Fitzgerald explains this through the introduction of the valley of ashes, a poverty stricken area of “gray land” that includes “ the eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg” (Doc. F). The people in this area such as Myrtle weren't rich but wanted to be and used loud colors or patterns to seem as something they weren't. Likewise, the mention of the sign represents that “God” was watching all the Caucasus going on (Doc. F).Despite this fact, the 1920s was a prosperous age in which many Americans came to enjoy the blessings of consumerism and excess. The perception of the American Dream was that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if they only work hard enough, but his wasn't always the case. Therefore, Fitzgerald used the different locations and social positions of characters to reflect the 1920s in his novel.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby to represent the roaring twenties lifestyle and the ever changing American Dream during the 1920s. Symbolism plays a drastic role in bringing the essay into a more perspective view for readers by growing characters, creating suspension and motivating the reader to continue reading. The Great Gatsby contains large amounts of symbolism, making it one of America's most loved novels. Fitzgerald uses different concepts of symbolism by integrating weather, location, colors and signs into the book by playing out relatable situations, for example the tension during hot weather.

Fitzgerald creates clear distinctions between the upper and lower classes primarily through the use of the valley of ashes. The valley of ashes is nothing but a grey wasteland where “Ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke” but it is also the home of the poor, “The only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the waste land”. This is very much different to East Egg, where the wealth live which is described that “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water”. This distinct different between settings shows the differences of the classes but also the hollowness of the upper

Moreover, Fitzgerald continues the farming analogy by bringing in vivid descriptions of the valley “where the ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens.” The ideas defined are burn in to the reader’s conscious with the explicit disgust evoking analogy. The ashes are found just like the large fields of wheat that were formally found all around. The site is surely a recognizable one for most, but instead the astonishing view of the wheat waving around is replaced with the windy dusty fields. The burrows are mounted with the plague causing agents familiar to those acquainted with the

A second literary device that the author uses is imagery. He mentions, “...of men who dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald, 23). The author uses this to visually explain how dim and gray the setting is, and how the powdery air makes it difficult for the people to move around and work. The Valley of Ashes isn’t actually a place made out of ashes, but seems that way due to its polluted surroundings filled with dusts, representing the struggles and hopelessness of many. By using personification and imagery, Fitzgerald explains what the setting is like and why it is significant to the story. The Valley of Ashes is being depicted as a dismal and gloomy area, that makes up a lot of the poor and lower-class

The Valley of ashes is a very low class area. It is basically a trash dump. The valley of ashes represents and symbolizes the rotting of the American dream because of the rotting of the valley.

Greed can ruin a person’s life. F. Scott Fitzgerald shows this in his classic novel, The Great Gatsby, a sad love story about the rich title character, Jay Gatsby, and his obsession to win back the love of the now married Daisy Buchanan, his former girlfriend. The extravagant lifestyles of Gatsby and the wealthy socialites who attend his parties lead to lost dreams and wasted lives. These men and women are absorbed by material pursuits. In Jay Gatsby’s case, all the money in the world could not replace what he truly desires, Daisy. Fitzgerald uses myriad symbols such as a valley of ashes, a billboard, and a green light across the bay from Gatsby’s mansion, to convey his themes and influence the plot.

Eckleburg can be quite profound. He can be perceived as Hades the ruler of a grotesque underworld, and the dead, which in this case would be hopes and dreams. Being that the case his yellow spectacles can symbolize Thanatos the god of death in Greek mythology. The novel can display a relationship between the color yellow and death. The correlation is undeniably there.

The poems Childhood, by Margaret Walker, Father, by Edgar Albert Guest, and History Lesson,by Natasha Trethewey, all contain a similar aspect, which is that the narrators are looking back on parts of their childhood and remembering how their lives were never perfect. Childhood’s narrator looks back on a past where everyone around them was poor and generally had to mine to survive. We know this because of the first 6 lines, talking about the red miners. We also know that it was a rural area, given the 7th and 8th lines. Such a past seems pretty bleak for everyone who lived there. Moving on, the narrator of Father looks back upon a time where his father did absolutely nothing except speculate and tell people what to do. Given how the poem indicates

Another dominant symbol within this novel is the billboard eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg which is in the middle of the valley of ashes, right next to Wilson’s garage staring at the waste that careless capitalism has

Is Fitzgerald's novel a love story that exposes the American ideals, or may it be a satire that highlights troubles throughout the American Society in the twenties? The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald uses satire to comment on the American society during the roaring twenties. Satire is visible through the contrast between Jay Gatsby and George Wilson, but most importantly through the Valley of Ashes and Gatsby’s parties. Using these characters and places, Fitzgerald shows the American dream has died and been replaced with the pursuit of money, rather than happiness.

Mid-way between New York City and West Egg, lies the Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes is a dreary place symbolizing the moral descent of society. As described in the novel it is, “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). It is in The Valley of Ashes where most