Valley Of Ashes Symbolism

The location of the Valley of Ashes shows the waste that comes from the American lifestyle and the death of the American Dream. When traveling from East and West Egg to New York City, the characters journey through the gloomy place of the Valley of Ashes, “an area swampland that is being filled with refuse”(Baker). The Valley of Ashes is a dark, dirty place between the sparkling East and West Eggs. The valley symbolizes darkness and death: the horror that comes after the expensiveness of the American Dream. The valley is full of the waste from the Eggs, showing how the glitz and glamour of the American Dream will lead to dark times, and for some, even death. A main character that lives in the Valley of Ashes is George Wilson, “a defeated man” who has “seen his version of the American Dream become like heaps that encroach on
T.J. Eckleburg”(Baker). Eckleburg’s grotesque eyes watch over the novel as it happens and symbolize how characters “might have been able to fool each other, but God saw everything and knew what they had been doing”(Baker.) Though the characters may think they can fool one another with their lying and cheating, God was staring down on them, judging the American society and the lies and darkness that come with it. The Valley of Ashes and the symbols within it provoke a “ponderous criticism ... which connects the two Eggs and Dr. Eckleburg's eyes through a multilingual pun”(“The Great Gatsby”). These symbols in the novel predict the downfall of American society, how though all may appear prosperous and wealthy, the lies and cheating that comes with the American Dream will lead one to their downfall, and ultimately to the darkness and death, as we see in the Valley of