Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Group Four: The Valley of Ashes

Group 4—The Valley of Ashes
Hazen—Writer
Decker—Revising and posting
Pasternak
Harley
Posted by at

2 comments:

taryn said...

Literally: The Valley of Ashes is based on the Corona Dump in the borough of Queens. It's halfway between West Egg and New York City, and you must drive through it to get to either location. There is a large billboard of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes looking over the valley. George Wilson and his wife Myrtle live there, as he operates a financially questionable car garage.

Symbolically: The ash dump is in limbo, hovering like the edge of the world. It is hell, it is emptiness, it is moral depravity, and most importantly, it is poverty. It represents things that have been used up, and thrown out; it replaces the humanity and consciousness of its human inhabitants with a void of head and heart. The ash is the bi-product of the factories that these people work in, and their lives are constantly monitored by the only all-seeing being in the dump, the poster of the Doctor. Their lives are consumed by the industry, constant expenditure to support the ridiculous lifestyle of East and West Egg inhabitants. They work constantly for their money, unlike Tom or Gatsby. The Doctor's face looms over them like an omniscient god, keeping them subservient and trapping them.
The ash dump is a force of its own. In its total dominance over the people who have to live and work there, it creates a landscape that mirrors a natural one and eventually "transcends" to make the shape of men, who consume any real object or person that enters their path. The ash replaces a human-inherited soul with one that mirrors a human soul but has no depth, and the people who live there live in limbo to the rest of the world, even though they grow, age, and die.
Myrtle is trying to escape. She is described as living with a fierce energy that contrasts her surroundings, even her husband. In the whole dump, she seems to be the only person who is alive, not just existing. However, she burns just like the factories; as she fuels her mad desire to leave the dump and her economic situation, she burns more and more energy, covering her surroundings in dust (she burns up Tom's money and energy. She does not seem to be consumed or overwhelmed by the oppressive presence of the ash dump.

Important Quotes:
"This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight." - Pg. 23
"There was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body where continually smoldering." - Pg. 25
"A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit & his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity--except his wife..." - Pg. 26
"[Wilson's] so dumb he doesn't even know he's alive." - Pg. 26
"You can't live forever; you can't live forever." - Pg.36

April 21, 2010 at 6:18 PM
Bishop said...

Hello--

I do not know what to say about this say response.

So for now, I will only say this: if I was given three days and nothing else to do, I could never write something that is as good as this.

When I read this response I was blown away--pushed to chills at some points...but more importantly, humbled to have teachers as wise and intelligent as you.

Thus, I thank you for providing a response that has taught me so much about a novel I previously thought I knew so much about.

With gratitude and thanks,
AK

Grade: I really don't think this matters...do you? But more to the point, I think we all know what the grade is, thus I say again, I really don't think it matters.

April 22, 2010 at 6:25 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)