Why is wilson covered with ashes

Tom humiliates Wilson both verbally and by his actions - he is having an affair with his wife. Myrtle despises Wilson for his poverty. As well as revealing the huge gulf between the haves and have-nots in America in the s, in the valley of ashes Fitzgerald also hints at the spiritual barrenness of American society , which is materialistic and lacking in morals or decency. Nick says he always finds the area "vaguely disquieting", reflecting his feelings about the moral decay that it suggests.

He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about. The final reference to the ash heaps is at the moment of the murder-suicide, as George skulks towards Gatsby floating in his pool. Again, the ashy world is "fantastic"—a word that smacks of scary fairy tales and ghost stories, particularly when combined with the eerie description of Wilson as a "gliding figure" and the oddly shapeless and out of focus "amorphous" trees.

It's significant that what threatens the fancy world of the Eggs is the creeping encroachment of the ash that they so look down on and are so disgusted by. But, truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of dust getting into my house either. In the world of the novel, which is so much about the stark differences between the rich, the strivers, and the poor, the valley of ashes stands for the forgotten poor underclass who enable the lifestyle of the wealthy few.

The people who live and work there are the factory employees whose production is driving the construction boom that supplies the residents of West Egg with wealth and also allows the criminal underclass to prosper by creating fake bonds to cash in this is the illegal activity that Gatsby tempts Nick with. This region of industrial production is shown burying its inhabitants in the polluted byproduct of its factories: ash that covers everything from cars to buildings to people.

This literal burial has a symbolic meaning as well, as those who cannot connive their way to the top are left behind to stagnate.

The valley is a place of hopelessness, of loss, and of giving up. Highlighting this is the fact that Myrtle Wilson is the only ash heaps resident who isn't covered in the gray dust—she has enough ambition to try to hitch her wagon to Tom, and she hopes to the very last that he will be her ticket out of this life. On the other hand, although Wilson also tries to leave the ash heaps by moving to a different part of the state, his defeatist attitude and general weakness doom his escape attempt to failure.

At the same time, the phrase "the valley of ashes" connects to the Biblical "the valley of the shadow of death" found in Psalm In the psalm, this terrifying place is made safe by the presence of God.

But in the novel, the valley has no divine presence or higher moral authority. Instead, the ashes point to the inexorable march toward death and dissolution , linking this valley with the Anglican burial services reminder that the body is "ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Eckleburg , the fact that no one else is impacted by this billboard's inanimate presence ultimately dooms George as well. George Wilson : George Wilson's garage is right in the middle of the valley. He is so strongly identified with this place that by the end of his book he is described as an "ashen figure" —he is almost made out the dust that covers everything in this Queens neighborhood.

He is also the book's weakest, most hopeless, and least ambitious character—traits that doom him in the cynical, self-serving, amoral world that Fitzgerald is describing, and traits that align with what the ash heaps represent. Myrtle Wilson : George's wife remains vibrant and colorful despite her 11 years living in the middle of the ash heaps. Her dreams of escape enable her to avoid being covered with the dust that ends up burying everyone else. However, because her path to leaving centers on Tom, the valley of ashes ends up being Myrtle's death trap.

Society and Class : Everyone who can afford to move away from the dirty and depressing valley does so, which means the only people that left to live and work there are those who have no other options. The state of this area shows what happens in a culture where getting ahead is valued above all other things: those who cannot succeed on these vicious terms have no recourse but being buried alive by pollution and misery.

The Eyes of Doctor T. Eckleburg : The billboard that features the strikingly disquieting disembodied giant eyes of Doctor T. Eckleburg is located in the middle of the valley of ashes, right next to Wilson's garage. Just as the ash heaps reveal the huge gulf between the poor and the rich, so the eyes stare at the devastation that heedless capitalism has created. This stare seems accusatory, but of course, the eyes are completely inanimate, and so whatever guilt they produce in the person they are looking at dissipates almost immediately.

Symbols: Colors. Fitzgerald doesn't deviate from the standard association of the color gray in this novel. It describes things that are dirty, unpleasant, dull, uninteresting, monotonous, and generally depressing—all qualities that are associated with the ash heaps as well.

Here, Michaelis notes Wilson looking out to the valley of ashes, as if the landscape is speaking to him. Ace your assignments with our guide to The Great Gatsby! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. How does Nick Carraway first meet Jay Gatsby? Why did Daisy marry Tom?

Why does Gatsby arrange for Nick to have lunch with Jordan Baker? How does Tom find out about the affair between Gatsby and Daisy? How does Gatsby make his money? Myrtle's statement is ironic but not just because she is killed later in the book. If anything, the book shows that she is speaking the literal truth. Why is Wilson covered with dust from the ashes?

He is a dead character, in contrast to the tough vitality of his wife. The ashes do not cover her. Tom says that Wilson is too stupid to know that he is alive; the others pay no more attention to him than if he actually were dead. What is the valley of ashes between? The valley of ashes is the depressing industrial area of Queens that is in between West Egg and Manhattan.

The valley is next to both the train tracks and the road that runs from West Egg to Manhattan—Nick and other characters travel through it via both modes of transportation.

What do ashes symbolize in literature? The imposition of ashes — of dust — is a reminder of our death. It is a symbol of sorrow for our sins. The symbol of dust that comes from the Book of Genesis: "You are dust and to dust you will return.

How is the Valley of Ashes described?