Fitzgerald uses many devices to illustrate the gloom of the Valley of Ashes and the separation between the upper and lower classes. Initially, he uses bleak imagery to develop the murkiness of the scene. The term ‘gray’ is only written one time in the excerpt, to define the land, but one could certainly infer that the sky is that same gray color. The dullness of the scene is perhaps taken from the industrial era — gray factories gushing gray smoke — except the depiction goes beyond scenery and into the very core of the passage. This is a thriving but dismal world, with no color, or life, or direction — only gray dust, drifting purposelessly over the gray land. The scene is lifeless. Irony is also prevalent in the passage. It is ironic that …show more content…
Fitzgerald then uses personification to explain upper class’s neglect of the valley. When he writes that Dr. Eckleburg’s eyes “brood over the solemn dumping ground,” he depicts his eyes physically gazing upon the dejected valley (24). Fitzgerald emphasizes the sorrow linked with economic inequality in the valley. The billboard symbolizes the area’s possibility for success that does not end up reaching. The “American Dream” convinced a man to advertise because he believed that anybody would have a chance to make it, but after years of neglect and “many paintless days,” the dream was not achieved (24). Now the billboard is more neglected and washed-out. The actuality of this shows that the so-called “American Dream” is truly a fantasy. While Gatsby and the rest of the wealthy live with ease, the trash from that pompous way of life is put the poorer neighborhood, a place where they refuse to acknowledge. Dr. Eckleburg “brood” over these conditions as he gets ignored and lives through “many paintless days” of neglect. Fitzgerald’s choices to use dreary imagery, irony, and personification in the passage add to the effect that the despair of the valley evokes a separation between the upper and lower