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Moral turmoil in the great gatsby
Moral turmoil in the great gatsby
Aspects of morality in the great gatsby
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It is basically a trash dump. The valley of ashes represents and symbolizes the rotting of the American dream because of the rotting of the valley. To is a very violent character. He attacked Myrtle because she mentioned his wife daisy. He even ended up breaking her nose because of
Nick is fascinated with Gatsby’s story because, even though the validity of his story is questionable, the way Gatsby tells his story makes it believable enough. Gatsby’s smile is also enough to put Nick’s doubts at ease for a while. 5. By juxtaposing Myrtle with the Valley of Ashes, Fitzgerald creates the effect of how lifeless and bleak the Valley of Ashes as opposed to Myrtle’s “vitality.” It also shows how out of place Myrtle looks in the Valley of Ashes, hence why she’s having an affair with Tom, to get where she thinks she
The Valley of Ashes, and its description at the beginning of Chapter 2, is Fitzgerald's way of describing the poor section of the city. This immediately follows Nick's dinner party with Tom, Daisy and Miss Baker in East Egg, an upper class area. There is a stark contrast between Gatsby, Tom and Daisy's world of East Egg and George and Myrtle Wilson's poorer world, dubbed by
It symbolizes poverty, and the population of Manhattan that is not rich and self indulged in their personal lives. The Valley of Ashes is described as a dumping ground, Nick even explains how it’s “bounded on one side by a small foul river, and, when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour” (27). This is completely opposite to places like West Egg, where most of the novel is taken place. Everything is luxurious and fast paced, comparing these two places opens up many symbols in the reader's mind, like poverty and the fact that not every American at that time could live as Gatsby can, for instance.
This story leads you down the path of narrator Nick Carraway’s life after moving to a fictional town in Long Island, New York. He meets a variety of new people who play a dramatic role in his life. Through Nick’s encounters with both people and places, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author, is able to insert multiple symbols. By using symbols such as the green light, the billboard, and the valley of ashes F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to advance his plot and enhance the quality of The Great Gatsby.
To him this was extreme wealth and having a life with Daisy Buchanon. Gatsby hid his humble beginnings for his whole life because he resented them and was so obsessed with his image of wealth and success. Ultimately, his identity and pursuit of his idea of the American dream lead to his death. Myrtle and George Wilson live in the Valley of Ashes; it is described as a place “ where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke” (22). While they seemed to have a happy marriage, the novel reveals Myrtle wanted more.
To begin, Fitzgerald uses imagery to demonstrate the economic decay of the valley. This passage introduces the valley of ashes. This passage is describing the valley as Nick and Tom pass by in a train. “Ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling
Compared to East and West eggs the Valley of Ashes comes nowhere close to the luxury of life the members of the eggs experienced daily. Although George Wilson had not met Gatsby, there was a not very good connection formed after Tom explained that it was Gatsby who hit Myrtle Wilson. As Nick was rushing home after hearing devastating news he spots the aftermath of prior events. Once Nick quickly arrives at Gatsby’s mansion he first viewed “Gatsby toward the house” and as he continued exploring he found “Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass” (Fitzgerald, 162). This visual representation of the events that occurred before Nick arrived shows how even though Gatsby wasn’t the one who hit Myrtle Wilson he had to pay the ultimate price of death.
Tatiana Martinez 10/15/15 English 4 (period 8) ISA #3 Writing Some of the symbols in the novel “The Great Gatsby” connect with the valley of ashes that is introduced in chapter 2. The valley of ashes symbolize poverty, hopelessness and the lost hopes and dreams of people who have failed to live up to the American Dream.
It also serves to portray the materialistic society that surrounds them (The Colors of Society - Camouflaged Discontent).” The characters portray such class and wealth along with fake happiness. The Valley of Ashes looks at how they feel on the inside which Daisy and Gatsby both ooze with discontent with how they’ve made decisions and how their lives did not turn out how they dreamed. Next, at one of Gatsby’s many house parties Nick makes a list of “grey names, and they will give you a better impression than [Nick’s] generalities (Fitzgerald 61).”
Fitzgerald uses the valley of ashes to symbolize the lives and struggles of the poor and represents the decaying morals of the rich. Along the “compact Main street” found in the valley of ashes is George Wilson's car repair shop which is one of only three shops. George, and the other poor citizens are living among the ashes while Gatsby and the wealthy spend carelessly for their own pleasure. Fitzgerald uses the ashes as a symbol to describe that the ‘American Dream’ is truly dead. The people of Fitzgerald fictional Long Island in the 1920’s longed to live like Jay Gatsby, and they did whatever it took to be that way.
Another important symbol Fitzgerald thoroughly portrays throughout his novel is the valley of ashes. The valley of ashes symbolizes the plight of the poor, who live along the dirty ashes. Fitzgerald deftly uses the
When Fitzgerald refers to the Valley of Ashes as “a waste land”, this is a direct allusion to Eliot’s poem. This place Fitzgerald describes is a place where certain key events happen. This is where the dishonest and unethical choices and disasters take place. The Valley of Ashes is where Myrtle’s husband has his shop and therefore is the location that she is locked up in. The place she is locked up in also is the place she was killed.
Two characters from the Valley of Ashes played a big role with Myrtle and George who were residents of the Valley. Myrtle was Tom’s mistress who he would pay for to live in a New York City apartment. Later on in the book Myrtle sees Tom driving Gatsby's yellow car. When her and George get into a fight she sees the car coming back so she runs on the road in an effort to stop it but gets ran over by Daisy and die’s. Tom uses George’s emotions to get George to hate Gatsby as he makes him think that Gatsby is the one who ran over Myrtle.
Fitzgerald uses myriad symbols such as a valley of ashes, a billboard, and a green light across the bay from Gatsby’s mansion, to convey his themes and influence the plot. A valley of ashes is used to convey the theme of the inequality of wealth that was so widespread in the 1920s. Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, and Nick Carroway go on a drive to visit Tom’s mistress. Myrtle lives in an apartment above her husband’s workshop, in the coal and ash covered mining town on the outskirts of New York City. Fitzgerald, in narrator Nick