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The Great Gatsby. Chapter Two. The valley of ashes was the narrow channel through which the railroad traveller had to pass on his way between New York City and the resort villages of East and West Egg on the North Shore of Long Island.
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The Great Gatsby Chapter Two
The valley of ashes was the narrow channel through which the railroad traveller had to pass on his way between New York City and the resort villages of East and West Egg on the North Shore of Long Island.
It represents the moral and social decay hidden by the West, and East Egg. The valley is created through industrial dumping and is thus a by-product of capitalism.
The Valley of Ashes represents absolute poverty and hopelessness. • The lower classes who inhibit this region all want to leave but cannot. This illustrates how the American Dream is impossible to achieve. For example, Myrtle dies trying to escape the Valley of Ashes.
Also, when Tom visits, it shows the difference between the rich and poor. • The confrontation between Tom and George highlights how the rich look down on the poor because of the difference in their social status.
The valley of ashes seems to mark the separation between the older American aristocracy, which once exclusively occupied East and West Egg, and the new urban Americans. That this narrow aperture should grow from a heap of ashes and refuse suggests that in the triumph of the industrialized, commercialized, and banalized world to come, the American dream of open horizons and limitless possibilities would be reduced to a burned-out, undifferentiated mass.
There is no suggestion in Fitzgerald that this heap of ashes could change through human action or that the future could be anything but sterile. Man’s fate is to return to ashes because, as the narrator of Gatsby suggests, the verdant country which the discoverers of the American continent saw before them had been destroyed beyond reconstruction.
The Waste Land • The description of the valley of ashes recalls T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, published in 1922, the year in which The Great Gatsby is set. • The poem responds to the horrific violence of the First World War, but also to the spread of materialistic, consumerist values in modern society.
The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg • The advertising hoarding is a realistic detail form 1920s America. • It is also a haunting symbol. • This advertisement is the god of the Valley of Ashes. • Fitzgerald seems to suggest that materialism and consumerism have taken the place of spiritual values in modern America and have become pervasive.
Activity • Carefully reread the descriptions of the valley of ashes. • Explain fully what impression Fitzgerald creates of this setting. • Explain how he does so. You should refer to features of language such as imagery, sentence structure and tone here.
Class in America • The Wilsons live at their place of work. This highlights their lower social standing. • Nick works in the city, but lives in a suburb. • The very rich in the novel seem not to work at all, and can live where they choose. • Fitzgerald is emphasising that America, despite its claims to democratic equality, is a society divided into several classes based on wealth and property.
Myrtle Wilson • We see her buying various items, but should recognize she is, in a sense, being bought by Tom Wilson. • Tom views the affair in material terms, as a physical affair rather than an emotional commitment. • The relationship stands in stark contrast to Gatsby’s idealistic devotion to Daisy.
Prohibition • Between 1919 and 1933, there were severe limitations on the production and consumption of alcohol in America. • It is hinted that Gatsby’s wealth is due to his involvement with bootlegging.
