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This extract from Chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby introduces to us a new setting, the
Valley of Ashes. This new setting gives a very unique dystopian feel to the whole of
chapter 2. This extract is one of the most important passages in the novel as it is also
the first time we see George Wilson a new character, who is the husband of Tom
Buchanans mistress Myrtle. Our narrator describes the Valley of Ashes in a very
cinematographic style using alliteration and words which are associated with life and
beauty which is ironic. This extract emphasizes on cars and their importance in this
extract as well as the entire novel. This extract also describes the eyes of Dr. T. J.
Eckleburg and compares it with those of God.
This extract starts off with Nick saying where the Valley of Ashes is located, About
halfway between West Egg and Ney 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. The Valley of Ashes is like a no mans land situated at the heart of the
American society. The phrase, shrink away implies that people are trying to ignore that
place, as if it does not exist. Nick goes on to describe it as, a fantastic farm where
ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens. The word fantastic
gives us a feel as if it is a fantasy which is not real. Ashes are connoted to death and
funeral and it is ironic that something organic and so full of life like wheat and
grotesque gardens is used to describe it. Also the alliteration on fricative sounds in a
fantastic farm and grotesque gardens, and use of words like crumbling play an image
in the readers minds of a disgusting and foul place which is decaying . He also says,
Occasionally a line of gray cars crawl along an invisible track. The grey cars refer to
the industrial dump trucks that arrive every day to dump the industrial waste; the
description of these dump trucks is just like somber cars at a funeral. The Valley of
Ashes is presented as a literal and metaphorical dumping ground which also shows
signs of corruption and adulteration in the Great American Dream. This part of the whole
extract which describes the Valley of Ashes is very cinematographic and the ideas keep
on building up just like ash does.
In the Valley of Ashes, a very old advertisement displaying the eyes of Dr. T J Eckleburg
is also described. The eyes are described to be blue and gigantic which stare through
yellow spectacles. The colour yellow is very significant in this extract as well as the
whole novel; yellow colour in this novel is associated with corruption. The connection
between the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God may exist only in George Wilsons
grief stricken mind. Wilson, who is the husband of Tom Buchanans mistress, later in the
novel says that God sees everything. God is associated with Dr. T J Eckleburg
because he watches everything just like God is supposed to be all knowing and all
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