Scott Fitzgerald was a writer who desired his readers to be able to hear, feel, and see his work. He made it his goal to be able to make readers think and keep asking questions using imagery and symbolism. The Great Gatsby was not just about the changes that occurred during the Jazz Age, but it was also about America’s corrupted society which was full of betrayal and money-hungry citizens. It was the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg that overlooked all the corruption that occurred throughout the Valley of Ashes. It was the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg that serves as a symbol of higher power who witnesses everything from betrayal to chaos in Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. We encounter the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg in the valley of ashes, the desolated land between West Egg and New York. The vulgar eyes of Dr. Eckleburg have become something to intertwine with the Valley of Ashes to many critics and readers. The setting of where the billboard is located makes it seem as if it is not significant. However it is also the location of the billboard that explains how the eyes overlook both New York and West Egg since it is between it. The valley of ashes is exactly what its name sounds like. Scott Fitzgerald described it as: About half-way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. 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 and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars cr... ... middle of paper ... ...haracter percipient enough to comprehend Gatsby’s greatness and who rock pneumonia to pay homage to the man who has given them so much – not exoterically but esoterically.” (Savage 74) In other words, they both appreciated all the things they have received, learned, or gained from Gatsby. In return, they both were there for him through the end. Gatsby was more than the neighbor who was rich and threw parties, but he was also a friend…a human being. Work Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013. Print.
Weather is not just the state of the atmosphere. The Valley of Ashes is not just a dumping ground filled with pollution. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are not just a pair of eyes on a billboard. Colors are not what people think they are. The green light is not just a light that is green. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a very classic American novel, written in the year 1925 and is one of many novels that people extol as one the most outstanding and spectacular pieces of American fiction of its time during 1920s America. It is a novel of great accomplishment as well as catastrophe, being noted for the astonishing way its author captures
Gatsby and Greed In this day and age, money is a very important asset to have. One needs to have at least enough to live on, though great amounts are preferable. In The Great Gatsby, by Thomas F. Fitzgerald, having a large amount of money is not enough. It is also the way you acquire the money that matters.
Is living a life a fake life of fame and fortune worth all of the pain of the lies? This is a question that many characters face throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby. They have to make tough decisions deciding if all of it is worth the suffering, or should they continue living a normal life? Throughout the book there are many characters who lie and cheat. Even though each character cheats in his or her own different way they all do it for the same reason, which is to be wealthy and have high social class. The theme for this novel is sometimes it is worse to live a life full of lies and riches than to live a life of normality.
In the land of waste, the eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg still remains and continues to watch its people. The advertisement still stands strong in the land of waste conveys the idea that even in one of the worst condition, there is still hope and God is still watching. It was under the eyes of Eckleburg when Tom introduces Nick to his affair Myrtle. The death of Myrtle also happened as a result of the affair and took place in the valley of ashes where the billboard watches. After Myrtle’s death, her husband George Wilson claims that he doesn’t know who Myrtle cheated on him with but he states that God knows who the person is and go is watching everything. While staring at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, Wilson said, “I spoke to her. I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. I took her to the window and I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God! God sees everything(Fitzgerald
All humans have dreams and goals for their future that they wish to someday turn into reality. Dreams are different for every person, and some dreams are greater and grander than others, but they are all similar in that humans live for dreams because humans innately crave a better tomorrow. While many people do achieve their ultimate goals within their lifetimes, some people have unattainable dreams that are destined for failure. Two quintessential American novels, The Great Gatsby and the Catcher in the Rye, recount the stories of two hopeful young men with lofty plans, Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield. Both of these utopian young men possess impossible, unreachable dreams; Gatsby desires to rewind his life so that he may enjoy it with his beloved Daisy instead of losing her while at war, and Holden wishes for time to halt altogether so that he must not face the challenge of growing up and becoming an adult in a cruel society. Through the example of both of their tragic stories, it is evident that humans often rely too heavily on dreams, and when these vital dreams fail because of corrupt societies, they lose touch with reality and fall into despair and defeat.
Money and Corruption in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives.
“The ‘Valley of Ashes’.symbolizes the human situation in an age of chaos. It is ‘a certain desolate area of land’ in which ‘ash-grey men’ swarm dimly, stirring up ‘an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.’” (Dyson 113). Nick thinks of the place as “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills into grotesque gardens” (Fitzgerald 23). And that is exactly what it is, since it’s a barren land of human waste.
Lionel Trilling claims that, “Gatsby, divided between power and dream, comes inevitably to stand for America itself.” Trilling is essentially correct when one considers that America itself is divided between power and dream, and when he states that Gatsby is divided by power and dream, but his argument fails when he states that Gatsby comes to stand for America itself.
Throughout his life, F. Scott Fitzgerald, a prestigious writer of the Jazz age, experienced many battles during his unsatisfactory life. Many of his disturbed endeavors lead to his creation of many marvelous novels including his exquisite novel The Great Gatsby. From beginning to end, Fitzgerald’s notable use of paradox and metaphorical language creates phenomenal and modernistic symbols. Whether distinguishing relationships between characters and morality, Fitzgerald continuously uses symbols to express the adequate meaning of what is behind the true theme of The Great Gatsby-the power of hope cannot determine a dream.
The Valley of Ash, the least described region of the book, is an impoverished region connecting the prosperous, the wealthy New York City and the wealthier Long Island. The neighborhood is a “dismal scene” (23), which Nick Caraway is forced to view every time he rides the train into the city. The name valley of ash is an informal name deriving from the sheer quantity of ash, littering the city. Ashes cover and define everything in the city: the “ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”, the “houses and chimneys”, and the “men”. Similarly, the residents of the valley are hardly characterized by Caraway, because he cannot understand them. The smoke “obscures” and “obfuscates” the actions of these men both literally and figurative: a rich man like Caraway cannot understand the pure and intolerable poverty. The residents of the valley are plain and not very interesting. Most predominately featured ...
Similarly, ashes take the form “of ash-grey men, who moved dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air”. (21) The stiff, weak movements show its inhabitants to be barely alive. These men have the same lack of life and vitality as their surroundings do. This is seen in the inhabitants of the valley. George Wilson, who...
The Great Gatsby is an American novel of hope and longing, and is one of the very few novels in which “American history finds its figurative form (Churchwell 292).” Gatsby’s “greatness” involves his idealism and optimism for the world, making him a dreamer of sorts. Yet, although the foreground of Fitzgerald’s novel is packed with the sophisticated lives of the rich and the vibrant colors of the Jazz Age, the background consists of the Meyer Wolfsheims, the Rosy Rosenthals, the Al Capones, and others in the vicious hunt for money and the easy life. Both worlds share the universal desire for the right “business gonnegtion,” and where the two worlds meet at the borders, these “gonnegtions” are continually negotiated and followed (James E. Miller). Gatsby was a character meant to fall at the hands of the man meant to be a reality check to the disillusions of the era.
The valley of ashes is a place between New York and the West Egg, where the eyes of T.J. Eckleberg lie. The valley of ashes is a place in which carries many trials for each of the characters, holding their hardships while they all try to reach the common goal of the American dream. The valley of ashes isn’t a place of wealth or prosperity; however every person must first pass through it to get to a better place. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the valley of ashes, the eyes of T.J. Eckleberg, and the light symbolically.
Scott employed to explain his opinion about the 1920s is the bright, colorful, and inviting city that lays at the bottom of the picture. From a distance, the city gives the impression of being an inviting place that look, of sorts, like a carnival. A carnival that is entertaining and full of pleasure. However, when looking at it closer, the faults and defects stand out. The picture is not really of a city, but rather a cluster of undefined lines and splashes of distinct colors blurred together to resemble a city, such as New York City. On the surface, the 1920s was categorized by prosperity, the expansion of wealth, and the increased ability to obtain more luxurious items. However, below the surface, the amount of organized crime paved the way for a large amount of wealth that existed during this time period. Even though the concepts are being discussed independently and by parts, the face and the picture of city coexist to makeup one picture. Rather than being two entirely separate picture, the idea was to keep them together has one continuous picture. The sadness in the eyes in a sense, the pair of eyes are overlooking the city, like Dr. T. J Eckleburg did over the valley of ashes in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby. Since the grime eyes extend over the
In brief, the world of The Great Gatsby can seem as sordid, loveless, commercial, and dead as the ash heaps presided over by the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. Indeed, this atmosphere is so essential that one of the alternate titles Fitzgerald considered was Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires. Fitzgerald using the valley of ashes, illustrates an environment where love has lost its place, which destroys hope for a family; the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg, clearly intended to represent those of God, emphasizes that this lack of love and filial piety in a sin against themselves as well as society and God.