The Valley of Ashes reveals how George Wilson evolved into a shell of a man devoid of hope, and the gloomy diction epitomizes the depressing life Wilson is living. Fitzgerald portrays the Valley of Ashes as threatening to trap all who travel through its reach. “A line of gray cars crawl” through the dilapidated wasteland, drained and enervated of energy, and the Valley of Ashes is full of “ash-gray men” that dwell in a “dumping ground.” George Wilson parallels and testifies to the misery of this description, since he is a “spiritless man” who is only left with “a damp gleam of hope.” This gloomy diction testifies how Wilson is both a victim and a conquest of the Valley of Ashes. He was captured, chewed up, and spit out by the land of things
