The Roaring Twenties, a time known for prosperity and wealth, was also the precursor for the Great Depression. In the American classic, The Great Gatsby, the author nearly foreshadows the fall of the wealthy class. By showing the corruption of the higher socioeconomic class, and the problems with the poverty of the age, the novel shows an atypical view on the nineteen twenties. While F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, focuses on the life of the prosperous on the outskirts of New York City, “the valley of ashes,” serves to show the contrast of a significantly different lifestyle. Through his use of symbolism, Fitzgerald adds a sense of carelessness and selfishness to the wealthy characters of the novel to illustrate his hostile view …show more content…
When first describing Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker, he writes, “They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown.” Fitzgerald purposefully describes Daisy as pure and beautiful in the beginning of the novel to emphasize her corruption as the book progresses. As Daisy’s character develops, the reader discovers that she is not wholesome at all, even having an affair with J. Gatsby while married to Tom Buchanan. The ironic use of the color white when describing the upper class is Fitzgerald’s way of criticizing the wealthy (Schneider 247). Yellow is also used in this manner. Gatsby’s car, a symbol of his affluence and extravagance, doubles as the weapon used to kill Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan’s mistress. This is used to emphasize the fleeting value of wealth. The token of Gatsby’s money is also symbol of his demise. Although it was Daisy, not Gatsby, who killed Myrtle, Gatsby was murdered for it. His prize possession is what killed him in the end. To add to his point, when describing the valley of ashes, an industrial wasteland and home to the proletariat, he describes everything as gray and ash-like. The narrator, Nick Caraway, construes it as, “where ashes take the forms of