F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is commonly perceived as an attempt to reflect the concept of The American Dream. The American Dream began in the 1930s as an inspiration for an ideal life in America of having a wife, kids, and an overall lavish life. Considering this, the reader can understand that Nick, the narrator, had this image in his head when he moved to West Egg. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the Valley of Ashes in order to convey a society that contradicts the idea of the American Dream and will find themselves valuing material wealth over character.
Throughout the entirety of the novel, Tom Buchanan and George Wilson are compared to show the contrast of the personalities of a working man in The Valley
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George owns a gas station in the middle of a poor part of town so he is unable to spend what little money he makes on anything but necessities. The image of a “dust-covered wreck of a Ford” (35) depicts a sense of what life is like in the Valley of Ashes because the reader realizes that Wilson is not granted the same luxuries that the people in the Eggs are granted. This is significant because it leads to the understanding of the differences of lifestyles depending on where you live. The drastic contrast shows that not everyone is rich and happy like the American Dream depicts. This depiction is essential in understanding the difference between life in the Eggs compared to life in The Valley of Ashes. Gatsby is a popular resident of the East Egg, where new money resides. The detail of Gatsby’s “rich cream color[ed car], bright with nickel” (72) conveys the luxury lifestyles in the Eggs in that they have what everyone dreams of. The author wants the reader to see the glamorous life that the people in the Eggs live so that they can compare it to the lives of those in the Valley of Ashes. These comparisons show the difference between cars of the working class and those who are living the American