Theme Of Decay In The Great Gatsby

Have you ever been through an impoverished area of a city? In the passage this is exactly what Fitzgerald is doing. He gives the reader the setting of the valley of ashes that can be seen in major cities today. He further describes many of the side effects that come with this decay. Therefore, In this passage in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various literary elements to demonstrate the side effects that come with decay of an area. To begin, Fitzgerald uses imagery to demonstrate the economic decay of the valley. This passage first introduces the valley of ashes. He writes, “Ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air”(Fitzgerald, 27). This quote gives the reader a

Fitzgerald intentionally uses the valley to display the side effects of decay in an area. The ash that covers everything represents the economic decay of an area. Nobody that lives there can afford to fix it. Later on in the passage , it further describes the way the valley looks, “The grey land and spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it… Brood on over the solemn dumping ground”(27-28). This quote gives the reader a good look as to what the valley is like. The economic standing of the valley is continuing to decay, no one that is living there can afford to fix any of the issues. Imagery is used here to demonstrate the economic decay of the valley of ashes. It gives a clear description of what the valley of ashes is like. Therefore, imagery is used to display the economic decay of the valley of ashes in this passage.