Valley Of Ashes In The Great Gatsby

In the novel The Great Gatsby society of the 1920’s play a huge role with characters and symbols throughout the book. In one of the first scenes of the book with Gatsby u find him staring at the green light at the end of Daisy's dock this represents the American dream and Gatsby's dream of getting Daisy back. In the novel Gatsby is saw standing in front of his mansion just staring at the dock "a single green light, minute and far away that might have been the end of dock." Gatsby longed for this relationship with Daisy and the green light gave him hope that it would happen one day. The American Dream in the 1920’s was a very strong belief especially with immigrants that came from Europe. They had this belief that in America any one can make something of themselves. With that being said society in the 1920’s was about living life to the fullest ad being able to make a lot of money. This was really the first

The valley of ashes is located halfway between West Egg and New York City. The valley of ashes is described in the novel as "a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque; where ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air." The valley of ashes symbolizes poverty and the immoral behavior of the 1920s that was pushed aside by everything great with East Egg and West Egg. The people who live here seem to have nothing in their forward that is good and barely have any lives now. Myrtle Wilson’s death happens in the valley of ashes which is caused by the immoral acts of mostly Tom Buchanan. The valley is a place where everything bad with society is just dumped. It shows how bad the the American landscape really was at the time and the destruction it caused to