In the twenties, the era of glitter and gold, counterfeit wealth and artificial success obscured the vision of a disaster foreboding: The Great Depression, the Red Scare, the crash of the stock market, and many others. New York City, the "capital of the world," was the place where the dreadful sickness originated. Just beyond the glamorous displays of traffic and lights, a dark, and lonely ash heap resides at the outskirts of New York City. In the book, the ash heap is a symbol of a disease, materialism, that spreads to destroy the hopes and dreams of the ones who possess them.

Fitzgerald uses the ash heap as a symbol of a disease that spreads to destroy people's dreams and passions. Fitzgerald shows how the "Valley of Ashes" is a symbol of a destroyer of hopes and dreams that pass from New York City to the East and West Egg. This ash heap is a garbage dump located just

The valley of ashes symbolizes how gray and desolate Jay Gatsby's life was after the war. The dark, gray, dirty facade of the valley of ashes produces the feeling of desperation that Gatsby lives, trying to reproduce the past. He lived a life with an ever growing feeling of loneliness waiting for his one true love. His helpless romanticism ultimately leads to the loss of his own life. In the end, nobody shows up for his funeral, except for a few people, and he remains alone. Gatsby was never able to fulfill his dream of being with Daisy.

outside New York City. The dim ambiance of the valley of ashes is represented by the workers. Occasionally, "ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operation from your sight" (17). They remove the trash of NYC and bring it to the ash heap to burn until it turns to ashes. The men who shoveled the trash off the

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Approximate Word count = 619
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)