Foreshadowing In Chapter 2 Of The Great Gatsby

In the beginning of Chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator of the book takes a train ride through the unpleasant area between East and West Egg, known as the valley of ashes. He describes the valley as a “desolate area of land” and “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens.” The imagery Nick provides the reader with serves two purposes. Firstly, it’s unsettling. The colorful world that Nick is used to, living among the wealthy in West Egg, is transformed into a wasteland of gray ash here where the poor reside. Not only that, but it turns regular humans into “ash-grey men” who “swarm” like insects around the industrial buildings the valley houses. These people do not

However, the barges carry the products of the industrial factories in the valley. Nick is a bond trader, meaning that he supplies money to these companies, so his very livelihood is the thing he is annoyed to wait for. The same companies that turned this area into the valley of ashes are also responsible for Nick, Tom, Daisy, and the rest of the upper class’s wealth. This demonstrates the greed of our main characters and their foolishness. The other important message from this passage comes from the inclusion of an old billboard advertising an oculist, which Nick describes as follows: “Above the grey land and spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive… the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg… They look out of no face but… from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles… His eyes, dimmed a little by many paint less days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.” Just like the mysterious and surreal green light in Chapter 1, the eyes of Doctor Eckleburg are described in a confusing and unreal-sounding

Even after we learn the eyes are just part of an advertisement, they are described with emotions. They “look out” and “persistently stare.” The personification of the billboard reveals it as a displeased observer akin to God that stares down at the valley. The billboard observes every one of the novel’s greatest moral failures, from the class divide that allows the wealthy to live happy, extravagant lives and forces the lower class to live in poverty to Daisy’s murder of Myrtle. The billboard serves as a warning to those who commit wrongdoings, making them pause and think, but is ultimately incapable of stopping them. Tom frowns when he feels the billboard’s gaze before he introduces his mistress to his wife’s cousin, but he doesn’t stop his actions. The values of the world within The Great Gatsby are as follows: get whatever you want, whenever you want, at the price of whoever. No one has an internal moral compass, and the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are the closest to an external motivator that the characters of this novel have. However, the billboard is also an advertisement and thus reflects the looming influence of money in everyone’s