What Does The Valley Of Ashes Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby,
People trying to live out the American Dream usual start out feeling very optimistic, but this normally ends with suffering and failure. This is especially prevalent in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. These themes are expressed through symbols, consisting of the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock which represents hope for Gatsby. Suffering is represented by the Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, because of the situations that follow after they are seen by the characters. Lastly, failure, specifically of the American Dream, is represented by the Valley of Ashes, because of all the crime, filth, and unsavoury people who live there. The symbols of the green light giving feelings of hope, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg

bringing death and destruction in their path, and the Valley of Ashes bring filled to the brim with filthy people living filthy lives, all play a very large role in the Great Gatsby.
To start, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is a large symbol in Gatsby’s life, representing hope for a future with his long lost lover. One example of this is at the beginning of the novel when Gatsby stretches out his arms towards the light, “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light.” (pg22-23) This shows that Gatsby notices the light across the bay from his estate, and puts a meaning to to, as seen by his trembling arms. That meaning is implied to be his love for Daisy, which is in a way forbidden because she is married to Tom. Regardless, he hopes that they will be reunited in the future. The second appearance is more important than the first, with Gatsby himself addressing it directly without Nick just assuming from a distance what Gatsby is thinking. “If it wasn’t for the mist, we could see your home across the Bay’ said Gatsby. ‘You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.’ Daisy put her arm through his abruptly but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever.” (pg99) As explained by Nick, the symbol of the light at the end of Daisy’s dock has changed in meaning from hope to meet Daisy again, to now just a regular old light because Daisy is once again a part of his life, physically there for him and a tangible object in his life. At the end of the novel, Nick speaks about the light as a symbol, but now it is just a light and nothing more, so it did not even matter in the first place. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster stretch out our arms further . . . And one fine morning-” (pg192) Because neither Nick or Gatsby are in long island anymore, seeing as Gatsby is dead and Daisy is gone, the green light only reminds as a symbol and a memory in Nick’s memories, making it nothing more than a light. In conclusion, at the beginning of the novel, the green light symbolizes, at least for Gatsby, the hope of one day meeting Daisy again, but later it once again becomes nothing but a light at the end of dock.
Another example of a prevalent symbol in the Great Gatsby is the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. They seem to always be around, getting noticed by characters right before something terrible happens. In the first instance they are introduced, Nick and Tom are on their way to see Myrtle, Tom’s married mistress, which is seen as an immoral relationship because Tom is married to Daisy. “I followed Tom over a low white washed railroad fence and we walked back a hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburg’s persistent stare... ‘Terrible place, isn’t it,’ said Tom, exchanging a frown with Doctor Eckleburg.” (pg25-28) This quote sets the scene that the valley of ashes is a rundown, filthy place, full of filthy actions and people, like Tom and Myrtle. This makes it somewhat ironic that Tom calls the Valley of Ashes a terrible place, seeing as he is contributing to that. Later, in chapter 7, the eyes seemingly warm Nick that something is wrong. At first, he thinks that the feeling of dread is because Gatsby warmed him of his car being low on gas. “I remembered Gatsby’s caution about gasoline... that locality was always vaguely disgusting, even in the broad glare of the afternoon, and now I turned my head as though I had been warned of something behind. Over the ashheaps the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg.” (pg) From the feeling that the eyes give Nick, it is clear to him that this isn’t about gasoline. The real problem, that Nick will soon find out, is that Wilson knows of Myrtle’s affair, he just doesn’t know who the man is. The final and obvious point that shows that the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg that bring suffering along with them is when Wilson consults them as if they were the eyes of god, saying that god see all. “Standing behind him Michaels saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg which had just emerged plae and enormous from the dissolving night. ‘God sees everything’ repeated Wilson.” (pg) From this quote it can be seen that Wilson sees the eyes of the Doctor as the eyes of god, which essentially drive him insane, later going on to kill Gatsby. In conclusion, in the novel the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are a symbol of suffering and trouble, because whenever they mentioned, bad events follow.
The last notable symbol in the Great Gatsby is the Valley of Ashes.

The Valley of Ashes is a symbol for the failure of the American dream, basically making it the opposite of the West and East Eggs. The Eggs have clean, fresh air and people, with more or less clean lifestyles. “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.” (pg) In the first chapter of the Great Gatsby, Nick says that West egg has “fine health to be pulled out of the young breath-giving air.” Compare this to “who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” and you can see that the valley of ashes is obviously seen as far worse. The Eggs are seen as the epitome of the American Dream, with almost everyone living as lavishly as they can, and as Nick describes it, these people are good, clean people. The Valley of Ashes is obviously quite worse, with is ashen people and disgusting ways of life, so it is clear why it is a symbol for the failure of the american dream. Along with this, all that takes place in the Valley of Ashes is very shady, more specifically when Gatsby and Nick get pulled over for speeding. “All right old sport,’ called Gatsby. We slowed down. Taking a white card from his wallet, he waved it before the man’s eyes. ‘Right you are,’ agreed the policeman tipping his cap. ‘I was able to do the commissioner a favour once, and he sends me a christmas card every year.” This quote shows that Gatsby is abusing the fact that the police commissioner probably bought alcohol from him, seeing as Gatsby is a bootlegger, and now that Gatsby basically has him under control with the threat that he would accuse him of buying alcohol, he uses this as a way to get out of being arrested or fined. Another point as to way the Valley of Ashes is a

bad place is that Wilson represents it as a whole, coming from the ash into the nice clean West Egg to murder Gatsby. “A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about... like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees.” Here, Gatsby is swimming in his pool, thinking about life. Meanwhile, Wilson is sneaking up behind him to murder him. In this scene, Wilson is referred to as both ashen and fantastic, which is what Nick first says that the Valley of Ashes is, which shows that Wilson is the embodiment of the Valley of Ashes. In conclusion, from the dirty acts of Gatsby getting away with crimes, to the dirty people like Wilson bring their filth into West Egg, the Valley of Ashes is a very dirty, ashy, bad place.
In conclusion, the symbols of the green light giving feelings of hope, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg bringing death and destruction in their path, and the Valley of Ashes bring filled to the brim with filthy people living filthy lives, all play a very large role in the Great Gatsby. This is because the green light represents, at least at the beginning of the novel, the hope that Gatsby will soon be reunited with his long lost lover Daisy. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg show their meaning in the situations that follow them showing up in the novel, such as Wilson finding out that Myrtle is cheating on him, and Wilson murdering Gatsby. And finally, the Valley of Ashes symbolizes the failure of the American Dream through being described as a generally terrible place, having obvious crimes happening right before the readers eyes, and being essentially represented by Wilson, who is portrayed throughout the novel as a pretty terrible person.