The Valley of Ashes as a Symbol of Decay in The Great Gatsby
The Valley of Ashes as a Symbol of Decay in The Great Gatsby
Academic level: Master’s
Essay type: Memoir
Size: 2 pages ~ (901 words)
F. Scott Fitzgerald, an American writer who gained fame for his short stories and novels reflecting on the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, is known for his masterful use of symbolism. One of his biggest works–“The Great Gatsby,” is filled with symbols that carry hidden senses. Yellow and green colors, the green light, and other symbols in the book are used by the author to reinforce the images of the golden wealthy and the working class. Yet, the Valley of Ashes in The Great Gatsby seems to me to carry the most meaning.
So what is the Valley of Ashes? It rises in front of us as a gloomy and hopeless place–“This is the Valley of Ashes—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.” Located between West Egg and New York, the Valley of Ashes is a desolate, industrial wasteland that’s isolated from the world of the rich and wealthy. It’s homeland to the real working class that lacks the glamour as opposed to the luxurious world depicted around Gatsby and other people representing the elite.
What does the Valley of Ashes symbolize? In my opinion, this image hides in itself several important symbols. The very first and prominent one is the reverse side of the American dream. In the Jazz Age, the very essence of the American dream was in luxury, wealth, and limitless opportunities, which is reflected in the lifestyle of Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and others, as well as the newly acquired lifestyle of Nick Carraway, who appears to be at the epicenter of making his American dream come true throughout the book. As opposed to the elite, people who live in the Valley of Ashes are the grey-stricken working class. They are the people who once had the American dream and tried to accomplish it but failed. Instead, they get trapped in the reverse side of the American dream–dark and hopeless, where everything is covered in ashes, including their houses and cars. The ashes likely represent the remnants of shattered dreams. And “The ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades” is a symbol of people from the working class who have already put up with their gloomy reality and left their hope of migrating to the golden world.
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Apart from reflecting on the other side of the American dream and broken hopes, I believe that the Valley of Ashes symbolizes the significant social gap between the rich and the poor. F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the greed and luxury in which the rich indulge. The author introduces us to the wealthiest members of 1920s New York society. However, instead of portraying them as exceptionally aspirational or smart, he mainly puts their negative qualities on display, such as hedonism, carelessness, and wastefulness. Fitzgerald emphasizes how the hopes and dreams of everyday people get crushed by societal division and the greed of the rich. And while the richest spend days in parties and pleasures, the working class struggles to make money for a living. From this perspective, the Valley of Ashes is that huge gap that exists between different societal classes.
And what does the Valley of Ashes represent apart from the American dream and social inequality? Lastly, I feel like there is a deeper, moral aspect to this symbol. It represents the moral decay of society. The industrial waste that turned the valley into a wasteland is basically a symbol of corruption, materialism, and other byproducts of industrialization and social classification. This place is poisoned by the emptiness of the glittering wealth that the working class serves. Another important aspect of the Valley of Ashes symbolism from the moral perspective is moral corruption–aiming for wealth and pleasure, the members of the working class like George and Myrtle Wilson may give up on their ethics and core values. The representatives of the wealthy class also drop their masks when they are in the valley, as seen in Tom’s affairs with his mistress. Last but not least, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg–a faded billboard advertisement for an oculist that rises above the Valley of Ashes–further emphasizes the moral decay and spiritual emptiness of American society. Vision, which is a universal symbol of enlightenment, knowledge, and transparency, fades over this wasteland, hinting to us that society is closing its eyes on ethics and moral values.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is deservedly considered a true masterpiece and a classic work in American fiction. The book takes a rough but honest look at timeless problems like the American dream, broken hopes, rich and poor, societal divide, and moral decay. And while the work is filled with powerful symbols, in my opinion, the deep Valley of Ashes symbolism is one of the strongest ones in the book. It represents the flip side of the well-marketed American dream, which is filled with pain, hopelessness, and crushed dreams. At the same time, it shows us the huge abyss dividing people from the elite and the working class. Finally, it reflects on the decay caused by the emptiness of the glamorous life that many strive for and a loss of moral compass by people on both sides of the social divide.
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