Myrtle Wilson lives by the ashheaps, and so there resides Tom’s infidelity. It is also, based on the action that goes down in the valley of the ashes, devoid of morality and compassion. The America of The Great Gatsby is ashen, decaying, and barren. Compare Gatsby’s lavish parties of fresh fruit and live music and champagne to this land of smokestacks and ash-men it seems that not all the world is as privileged as our cast of characters.īut the valley of ashes can also be seen as more commentary on the American Dream.
Think of the valley of ashes as one big, grey reality check.
The ashes are, as ashes tend to be, "desolate" and "grotesque." Nick and the others have to pass through this "bleak" land any time they travel between the Eggs and the city. Eckleburg, the image is intertwined with Nick’s description of the Valley of Ashes. This can be seen as a punishment from a higher power that is unhappy with the path that humankind is taking. This is symbolic of how the production of wealth and money bring decay and death to Jay Gatsby. George Wilson is a man who lives in this dumpster of industrial wastes, and he killed Gatsby, a wealthy man of a modern industrialized society. Indirectly, Fitzgerald clarifies that Gatsby did not die because of George Wilson the person, but rather because of George Wilson the agent of Valley of Ashes.
This point is further supported later in the story when Nick said: “Gatsby is reclaimed by the living dead, by George Wilson, the agent of the Valley of Ashes as well as the agent of Gatsby’s death.”. Farm is a source of food and food is a source of life by replacing food with industrial ashes, Fitzgerald eludes to how modernization is beginning to turn people away from humane characteristics. When Fitzgerald first introduces the audience to this waste land, the audience was immediately struck with its peculiar feature: “This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat”. By describing the Valley of Ashes as a dumpster for modern industrial wastes, Fitzgerald demonstrates the decay in human values that results from the competition for wealth.
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