What Does The Valley Of Ashes Represent In The Great Gatsby

Ava Bowman Ms. Doyle Honors English American Voices 26/May/2024 The Great Gatsby Theme, Motifs, and Symbols The Great Gatsby is a novel about Nick Carraway discussing his experience with millionaire Jay Gatsby. The novel discusses the wealth of the 1920s, the love affairs, and the hopes for the American dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby demonstrates themes such as the hollowness of the upper class, motifs of the weather, and symbolism of the valley of ashes. The novel takes place in New York and between the wealthy homes of West Egg and New York, there is a town called the Valley of Ashes. In the novel, the valley is described as, “— a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the

This place as described clearly does not have what the upper class has. Symbolism in a story is used to represent an idea through a person, place, or object to add to the story’s theme. In The Great Gatsby, the description of the valley of ashes connects to the weather by creating an overall feeling. In The Great Gatsby, weather is a common motif throughout the story. A motif is an item, place, or symbol that reappears throughout the course of a story that adds to the story’s theme. In the novel, it states, “About five o’clock our procession of three cars reached the cemetery and stopped in a thick drizzle beside the gate — first a motor hearse, horribly black and wet, then Mr. Gatz and the minister and I in the limousine, and a little later four or five servants and the postman from West Egg in Gatsby’s station wagon, all wet to the skin. As we started through the gate into the cemetery I heard a car stop and then the sound of someone splashing after us over the soggy ground” (Fitzgerald 133). In this scene, the rainy weather demonstrates Gatsby’s true loneliness and sadness. Only a few people that Gatsby knew attended his