What does the Valley of Ashes symbolize?

What does the Valley of Ashes symbolize?

The Valley of Ashes is in the famous novel. The name of the book is "The Great Gatsby" and the writer of this edition is F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote it in the year 1925.

It symbolizes poverty and the lost hope of people who once saw the American Dream. This Valley is introduced in Chapter 2 of this book. 

Valley of Ashes

• The Valley of Ashes is not a happy place. 

• It is a location between West Egg and New York City. 

• In this section, the characters are in a difficult situation, experiencing pain like the environment around them. 

• It relates to poverty and wealthy people. 

According to a narrator in the story: 

"This place is like a valley filled with ashes. It's like a strange farm where ashes grow like wheat into weird hills and gardens... with men who are grey like ash, moving weakly and falling apart in the dusty air."

This portrayal creates a sense of hopelessness and helps us imagine this unusual and unhealthy place, represented by the Valley of Ashes in the novel. 

What Does Valley of Ashes Tell Readers?

The Valley of Ashes in the story tells us some important things. 

1. First, it shows that the rich characters have easy lives because poor people work hard for them. 

2. The ashes in the Valley come from factories that make things for the rich but also dirty the place.

3. The story shows a poor mechanic who works for a wealthy man and keeps his car in a good position. 

4. Another thing is that the Valley of Ashes is that the good lives of the rich characters won't last forever. 

Even though the story was written in 1925, some people now think the parts about the Valley of Ashes are like signs of the big money problems that happened in America in 1929.