The American Dream has existed for longer than the United States itself, serving both as a beacon of hope and opportunity, and a reminder to the poor that great riches and dreams are achievable in America. But as author F. Scott Fitzgerald argues, the Dream remains largely out of reach for those without a significant advantage. Even in the case of wealth, financial success does not necessarily result in happiness– something that reveals the illusory and inaccesible nature of the Dream. In his 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses symbolism, imagery, and character development to warn the reader about the lack of achievability of dreams, destructive nature of materialism, and the inherently artificial means through which we may pursue them. The 1920s were an era of industrialization and class polarization, and Fitzgerald exemplifies …show more content…
“This is a valley of ashes,” Nick Carraway explains. “A fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the 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” (23). Such a scene, packed with imagery, illustrates the brutal, industrial conditions so vividly that the reader can imagine they are choking upon the very ashes Nick describes. And while this description hardly outlines the Valley’s conditions in an entirely literal manner, the usage of imagery reveals key insight about how the characters view the area. The Valley is so overrun by industrial waste, grime, and, indeed, ashes, that they seem to “grow like wheat,” and the inhabitants are equally dark and hopeless. They are seemingly a part of the landscape in which they toil, remarkably depressed and objectified as they “[crumble] through the powdery air.” Indeed, such a bleak environment symbolizes a key theme of Fitzgerald’s piece– the