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What Does The Valley Of Ashes Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

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In the widely acclaimed American novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald incorporates the Valley of Ashes and the green light as symbols of destitution and unfulfilled desires, demonstrating how all members of the social stratum face the impossibility of achieving the American Dream. The morbid scenery of the Valley of Ashes symbolizes the undesirable class left behind by the benefit-reaping titans of the Industrial Age, illustrating the unfulfilled dreams of the impoverished and the moral decay of the wealthy. To Nick Carraway, a witness of the affluent expanses of East and West Egg, the valley seems horrid, crowded with “men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 27). Deprived of motivation for ambitious …show more content…

Fitzgerald exemplifies the elusiveness of the American Dream through Gatsby’s reaching for the green light, which delineates his aspirations. Despite Gatsby’s accomplishment of his lifelong goal by winning over Daisy’s affection, “the colossal significance of that light...vanished forever...His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one” (Fitzgerald 98). Over the years, Gatsby gradually builds up an unrealistic image of Daisy, idealizing her as an enchanted object that he could fit into his self-envisioned life. Essentially, Gatsby tries to reap more than he could sow; he forces Daisy to conform to the fabricated conception he had of her in his younger years, but when she inevitably fails to do so, Gatsby debases to a melancholy state where he is hopeless for the future. After Gatsby’s downfall, Nick reflects on Gatsby’s somber ending, and concludes his study of Gatsby’s life with, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us...So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 180). Fitzgerald’s use of the green light as a symbol to portray one’s infatuation with the American Dream depicts the optimistic American spirit, rowing tirelessly against the current separating dreams from reality. However, similar to Gatsby, whose inability to let go of the past ultimately causes his undoing, many Americans are doomed to a gloomy fate as they lose sight of the genuine American Dream, which originally celebrated the sense of embracing beliefs and seizing opportunities to express individuality. There exists a limit for every person’s capabilities, yet the American Dream always demands for more, making it impossible to fully

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What Does The Valley Of Ashes Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

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