Essay On Fitzgerald's Depiction Of The Valley Of Ashes
Fitzgerald’s depiction of the Valley of Ashes in Chapter Two The Valley of Ashes, a landfill site solely for ashes, is painted by Fitzgerald to greaten our appreciation of American Society and the themes it generates such as social decline, moral ambiguity, the loss of hope and faith and the dominance of shallow materialism.
Nick Carraway labels the Valley as “desolate”, thus steering our attention into one which will perceive the Valley negatively. Fitzgerald then paints the Valley of Ashes as a crude distortion of nature. The references to nature stem from a “farm” where “ashes grow like wheat”, among “hills” and “gardens” of ash.
The ashes give life to the wheat and are the foundation of all ’life’ in this area. Consequently they are …show more content…
The ash gives a “transcendental effort” to create humans. Can humans or even the burnt remains of their waste have “transcendental” powers? One possibility would be that God is no longer able to and the reader is to view the capitalist megalomania of the all devouring rich as trying to usurp and imitate his power by using their own wealth. Is god dead or does society perceive him to be dead? Friedrich Nietzsche in his most famous (and then recent) book Thus spoke Zarathustra wrote that “God is Dead”. This is also what Fitzgerald hints at: God is no longer a viable source of any absolute moral principles. This loss of ‘ontological ground’ that societies experienced and tried to make sense of, along with all the moral confusion that arose, meant that American society boiled down to an economically fuelled mass, which Fitzgerald ironically points out is discontent with the material. Nietzsche argues, similarly to Fitzgerald that, the material all devouring nature of the upper class is due to people trying to comfort themselves, after losing the moral benchmarks – or their reliance upon God or a higher power. Nick notes that Gatsby is always yearning and Tom is always restless. These actions are simplified examples of their wanton manner. Americans act as if God is no more or meaningless by deceiving themselves that riches can provide the same contentment as
Nick Carraway labels the Valley as “desolate”, thus steering our attention into one which will perceive the Valley negatively. Fitzgerald then paints the Valley of Ashes as a crude distortion of nature. The references to nature stem from a “farm” where “ashes grow like wheat”, among “hills” and “gardens” of ash.
The ashes give life to the wheat and are the foundation of all ’life’ in this area. Consequently they are …show more content…
The ash gives a “transcendental effort” to create humans. Can humans or even the burnt remains of their waste have “transcendental” powers? One possibility would be that God is no longer able to and the reader is to view the capitalist megalomania of the all devouring rich as trying to usurp and imitate his power by using their own wealth. Is god dead or does society perceive him to be dead? Friedrich Nietzsche in his most famous (and then recent) book Thus spoke Zarathustra wrote that “God is Dead”. This is also what Fitzgerald hints at: God is no longer a viable source of any absolute moral principles. This loss of ‘ontological ground’ that societies experienced and tried to make sense of, along with all the moral confusion that arose, meant that American society boiled down to an economically fuelled mass, which Fitzgerald ironically points out is discontent with the material. Nietzsche argues, similarly to Fitzgerald that, the material all devouring nature of the upper class is due to people trying to comfort themselves, after losing the moral benchmarks – or their reliance upon God or a higher power. Nick notes that Gatsby is always yearning and Tom is always restless. These actions are simplified examples of their wanton manner. Americans act as if God is no more or meaningless by deceiving themselves that riches can provide the same contentment as