There is a prodigious contrast between how Daisy feels her relationship with Tom should be and Tom’s “secret” affair with his mistress. The author’s statement about the nightingale is imperative, as it is a key symbol of romance, which is contrasted with the “startlingly [shrill]” sound of the telephone. Fitzgerald includes “a nightingale” to convey Daisy’s desire for Tom and her romantic feelings; however these are all abruptly interrupted by “the telephone,” the inevitable return back to reality. In this quote, the Valley of Ashes is portrayed as a “desolate area of land” where the glory of West Egg and New York are separated by a valley characterized as “grotesque,” dim, and “crumbling.” Fitzgerald includes this setting to describe important characters, such as Myrtle Wilson, who have an extreme influence on others because they are considered impoverished and trashy with no class. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes despair and poor lifestyles, which is why Myrtle is able to be used by Tom, who, in disdain, no longer shows feelings for his wife. The road is also personified to represent those who reside in the West Egg, who are snobby and want nothing to do with the poor. The addition of this irony in this quote serves to describe Jordan's feelings towards the several parties she attends. This impacts the novel since there is a different party in every single chapter. Jordan characterizes Gatsby's house as “[distasteful],” however, she appreciates large parties and the closeness between the party-goers. This is deemed as ironic because usually small parties are intimate, with less people and less time for things to get around. Fitzgerald symbolizes Gatsby's parties as an intimate get-together, with “privacy” and class. Right befo... ... middle of paper ... ...rm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.” This passage that Fitzgerald effectively applied imagery in, provides the reader insight about Nick's thoughts about how Gatsby felt about the world. Mr. Gatz, Jay Gatsby's father, is explaining to Nick how Gatsby could have had a successful future with many pleasant opportunities. Gatz believes that Gatsby could have contributed to the country and would have accomplished many amazing things, and could have been a change to the West egg. He could have been a major influence for those that reside there, and many would have respected him if he had provided for them, let alone the country. Fitzgerald applies foreshadowing in this passage to give the reader insight of what Gatsby's future could have looked like if he stayed alive any longer. This passage is very despairing, for both Nick and Mr. Gatz.
To reverse the setting and corresponding tone of good wealth and high fortunes, Fitzgerald utilizes the setting of Valley of Ashes. Described as "a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges” (Fitzgerald 23), the Valley of Ashes represents the lower class and poverty. It is a “solemn dumping ground" (Fitzgerald 23), symbolizing the upper class destruction and the way they exploit the hard working "ash-gray men" (Fitzgerald 23). Thus, the established atmosphere delivers hopelessness of acquiring the profound and well known American Dream. The "grey land" (Fitzgerald 23) that covers the Valley of Ashes is very significant as it indicates depression, sadness, misfortune, and persistent poverty. In addition, the ashes illustrates their
Gatsby’s explanation of this dream focused on money and social status. He has always yearned for this, even when he was a child. Fitzgerald frequently emphasises Gatsby’s desire, throughout the entirety of this novel. Though, Fitzgerald accentuates this desire when Nick discovers the truth of Gatsby’s past. During this elucidation, Nick explains that “his [Gatsby’s] parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people-his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.” (Fitzgerald, 98) This shows the reader Gatsby’s lifelong determination for wealth and power. Even in his adult life, he strives for more than what he has. In John Steinbeck’s essay, he explains that “we [Americans] go mad with dissatisfaction in the face of success” (Steinbeck, 1) This is exactly how Gatsby feels, he is not content with his success, the amount of money he has, or the height of his social status and is constantly wishing for more than he has. Though, once he meets Daisy he no longer strives for wealth, but rather for her. As shown in this novel, even though Gatsby has achieved all he had wanted when he was growing up, he will not be content until he is able to call Daisy his
...ent efforts, or men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). Here, The Valley of Ashes is regarded as complete destitution and hopelessness. The people known as the lower class do not wish to live in the valley of ashes. This is why people, like Myrtle try to do anything to get away from it but instead it becomes unachievable for them. When Myrtle tried to escape from the ashes by trying to be with a rich man like Tom, she dies. This embellishes how The American dream is unattainable. When Tom goes and sees George, you can see how the higher classes look down on the lower classes because of their different social positions. The higher-class people such as, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan represent the unstructured bodies of ashes within the valley. They are inconsiderate and conceited people arising from the dead ashes, changing the American Dream.
“This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys”(Fitzgerald 2). Tom and Nick a driving through a place between West Egg and New York, which is an industrial zone where the lower class lives. Here alone we can see how the poor class lives their daily lives in filth, but the rich live in shiny clean houses.
In Gatsby's death Fitzgerald suggest that the American dream is a false attraction, "[Gatsby] paid a high price for living to long with a single dream" (169, Fitzgerald). Corruption of the dream is especially apparent when Nick discusses the origins of the American dream, "Dutch sailors eyes-a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of human dreams…his capacity to wonder" (189, Fitzgerald). Fitzgerald illustrates that the dream has vanished and Gatsby's "capacity to wonder" is all that is left of the original dream.
There is Myrtle Wilson’s gaudy, flashy hotel paradise in which she can pretend that she is glamorous, elite, wanted and loved. She clings fiercely enough to this ragged dream to brave the righteous anger of Tom Buchanan by voicing her jealous terror that he will return to his wife. There is a desperation to her full, spirited style of living, she wants so much to escape the grey, dead land of the Valley of Ashes that she colours her life with any brightness she can find, be it broken glass or diamonds. Nick describes land she finds herself in as a wasteland, a desert, saying "this is the Valley of Ashes -- 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" (page 29).
He reveals how separated the American culture is as a whole. F Scott Fitzgerald uses figurative language to shape the portrayal of the setting by contrasting light vs. dark, comparing the Valley of ashes to the East Egg. For instance, Fitzgerald quotes, “where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills”, utilizing a simile to exaggerate and emphasize that the ashes are taking the form of hills, which essentially is all trash. The ashes are a symbol of the hopeless and dead, the social corrosion that is yielded from the unrestricted pursuit of wealth, as the upper class nourish themselves with regard simply to self pleasure. Fitzgerald states, “where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys”, a form of imagery that gives the audience a visual aid to emphasize how prevalent the ashes are. These claims prove that the valley of ashes is a darken city bewitched with poverty and illness. With the pile of ashes growing larger, the classes of society further disjoin, removing their opportunity to escape and acquire their American Dream. By Fitzgerald using figurative language it makes the storyline come alive in the readers mind. He symbolizes certain emotions within the reader to embody and visualize the contrast between the Valley of Ashes and the East Egg as if we were there with them. Scott Fitzgerald also uses figurative language to
One of the traits of Gatsby that makes him truly great is his remarkable capacity for hope. He has faith that what he desires will come to him if he works hard enough. He does not comprehend the cruelty and danger that is the rest of the world. Gatsby, while a man of questionable morals, is as wide-eyed and innocent as a small child in his views of the world. These ideals are evident in Nick’s narration and in the words spoken by the other characters, including Gatsby himself.
They are despised on by the East Eggers, including Daisy, who is an East Egger, never attends Gatsby parties, who is a West Egger. One of the most important places in the novel is the “Valley of Ashes”, a desolate wasteland on the way from New York and Long Island. The valley where “motor road hastily joins the railroad,” and sometimes has “a ghastly creak” (Fitzgerald Gatsby 23). It represents the destruction of the modern society as they byproducts of the trains go there. However, it is also the place where Myrtle dies, which indicating how the moral bankruptcy of big cities ends up in the smaller cities.
The Valley of Ashes is a place between the West Egg and Manhattan. This is no typical road, as Scott Fitzgerald uses the desolate area as landscape imagery to symbolize the theme of death in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses a passage filled with landscape imagery to paint the theme of death in the reader
Similar to Nick, Fitzgerald found that his different lifestyle was exciting. And similar to Gatsby Fitzgerald idolized the rich and extravagant life style. In conclusion The Great Gatsby seems as if it it reflects personal experiences in Fitzgerald’s life but not his full life. Fitzgerald envisioned Gatsby as what he dreamed to be and always tried to be like. And Nick was whom Fitzgerald really embodies. Both these characters in The Great Gatsby can help us understand more about Fitzgerald and what he was trying to say through the characters of the book regarding his own
I read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The creators of the message are the publisher, Scribner, cover designer Rex Bonomelli, and the author of the book F. Scott Fitzgerald. These creators all contributed to creating the book and the message that it sends to the readers through the editing, printing, advertising, and selling process.
By exploring the physical site of the valley, followed by the inhabitants of the valley – George and Myrtle, George representing the working class and Myrtle the exception, extending this to the references of the valley to Gatsby’s humble origins, the Valley of the Ashes represents the low social mobility and the failure of the American Dream.
F. Scott Fitzgerald concludes his novel, The Great Gatsby, by claiming that the constant hope for the recreation of the past is an American Dream destined for failure. Many years after Gatsby’s death, Nick finds himself reminiscing over his friend’s struggle to fulfill his American Dream. Gatsby, an idealist character, believed in the “orgastic future” and was overly hopeful while setting high expectations for his life (Fitzgerald, 180). Gatsby’s “orgastic future” was to be completed when he married Daisy, and their love became mutual again. His American Dream had always been set up for failure because Daisy’s love was in the past, and recreating the past is impossible. Nick claims, “[Gatsby's] dream must have seemed so close that he could
...n dream can poison the family. In addition, at one point in the book, Gatsby works with Nick to bring her over so that he can see her again and show her his house. The moment when they appear truly happy together occurs when they are together in Gatsby’s gardens. Fitzgerald plays upon the classic garden image to show that the two are only happy in their naturally state, but they are not; they live in the world tainted by the actions and more specifically the failings of mankind. Furthermore, Roger Lewis implies the importance of the valley of ashes in the portrayal of the theme of Gatsby.