Description Of The Ashen City In The Great Gatsby

The 1920s were a time of extreme inequality in wealth distribution as a select few achieved the American Dream, with great wealth, while the majority of people maintained working class status, suffering from wealth control in the top one percent. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby gives insight into the lives of the select few, as it follows wealthy characters from lavish parties to expensive restaurants in New York City; the wealth and frivolity of the 1920s upper class fills the novel. In stark contrast to the wealthy party atmosphere, Fitzgerald writes of the city of ashes, a worn down working class town built on the coal industry. All aspects of the city are described as being built out of mounds of grey ashes contrasting with the …show more content…
The bleak gray blanket that covers the valley rises from the ashes of dead American Dreams and the dust of manual labor characteristic of the working class. “The gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over you” (23) give the perception of hopelessness and faded realities of the working class town compared to the bright lights and flashy colors of upper class parties. Grey is the main color that lays over the town but yellow is also used to describe buildings and Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes, and through these two things shows its two different meanings. Yellow, as it pertains to the buildings, is faded and left in the middle of nowhere: “the only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the waste land” (24). While yellow is usually the color of wealth, in this case it shows the death of the American Dream as the hopeful color has been allowed to fade to the tones of the ashes of dreams surrounding it. Yellow is also utilized in its relation to gold and prosperity. Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s spectacled eyes perched on a billboard overlooking the town signify the idolization of wealth and its rule over the American culture: “but his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground” (24). The spectacles, faded like the dreams of the town’s residents, continue to look …show more content…
The death of the American Dream for so many Americans comes from the unequal spread of wealth. The majority of people never achieved their American Dream, and became laborers in working class towns across America. Fitzgerald characterises the people and the town in the valley as faded and ashen, almost a wasteland environment. He uses ash as a foundation for the town, the ash representing both the death of the American dream and the dust produced by manual labor jobs. The atmosphere of the town is also portrayed through faded colors and personalities, for example faded yellow buildings and the frail mechanic, Wilson. The faded town contrasts sharply with the wealthy, and aspiring wealthy, who appear robust, deep, and vibrant. The town’s importance to the upper class is acknowledged as the train pauses there, relying on the town to reach its destination, just as the wealthy relied on the laborers for their success. Lastly, these two contrasting worlds are all placed under the watchful eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, symbolizing the reign of wealth over all classes, no matter income or achievement of the American Dream. The ashen city provides a contrast in the novel that’s mostly concentrated in lavish lifestyles, crazy parties, and the materialistic consumerism arising in the 1920s. Fitzgerald utilizes the city to comment on the unequal success and wealth distribution in the