What Does The Valley Of Ashes Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the setting, the Valley of Ashes, is intended to have a literal and symbolic meaning to give impressions on the lives of some Americans in 1920’s. The Valley of Ashes is a small area located between two modernized places: West Egg and New York, which means that it is a shabby place to be inhabitable compared to the two places. For example, when the narrator, Nick, says that the Valley of Ashes is like a “grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke” (Fitzgerald, 27). This shows that the whole place is hidden underneath the ashes and dust and it has taken over the life of the Valley of Ashes. It means that the Valley of Ashes a shabby uninhabitable place unlike West Egg and New York where …show more content…
This illustrates that there is nothing special or important about the Valley of Ashes because it is just a dull old place and it means that it is worthless and empty place for the Americans to maintain. In addition, the Valley of Ashes symbolizes the broken dreams to be successful of some Americans. For example, Nick states that in the Valley of Ashes “the only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick on the edge of the waste land, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it and contiguous to absolutely nothing” (28). This proves that the Valley of Ashes symbolizes the broken dreams of the Americans because there is only one unattractive building standing opposite to the American dream to have lots of huge and luxurious buildings. Also, the Valley of Ashes symbolizes hopelessness. The moment Nick arrives in the Valley of Ashes he says that it is “bounded on one side by a small foul river… passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an