A dream is a personal goal in life to find success and happiness. The American represents this and more, the American dream is to be believed that if anyone was to work hard enough they could achieve any of their dreams and goals. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the decade that this American dream was at its. The settings throughout the book reflect what the American Dream really is and how it affects the different groups of people. The Valley of Ashes, West Egg and East egg are the three settings that are most affected or they show the truth about the American Dream.
In the text, the Valley of Ashes represents the poor and the people in poverty, it represents the people who are probably working the hardest, the ones who need the American dream for the hope that one day they will be rich and live the so-called American dream. The text explains The valley of ashes as “-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.”. It basically explains that where they live is a depressing place that they will never get out of. It represents the people that live in a poverty cycle that they are stuck in that and however hard they work they will never achieve their hopes and dreams because they were born into a life they didn’t get to chose. The people who do not live in the valley ashes shun it and look down to everyone who lives there which ruins all possible opportunities. An example of this comes from a quote from nick explaining what the passenger see “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour.” The American dream is supposed to create ambition for the people of The Valley of Ashes but just shows us the corruption behind this idea. Show us that no matter how hard these guys work they will never get to level others are able to because of where or who they are into.
West egg, is the next setting it represents all the new money people in the book like Gatsby and Nick. These people were not born into money and earned it all themselves so it would seem that they have achieved the American dream. But all these people have not achieved this money in a fairway. Because everyone who lives here has achieved the American dream corruptly as “Everyone in West Egg is a bootlegger” (A bootlegger is someone who sells or makes something illegally). Tom says this in chapter 6, it shows how much people at East egg look down on the west eggers just because they have all this money and enjoy to flaunt it, unlike the east eggers. “I lived at West Egg, the — well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them,”. East Egg and West eggs only difference being that one of them was born with money and the other wasn’t. So the fact that the East egg people look down to people who haven’t had the headstart in life they have had they are not as accomplished.
East Egg is full of people like Tom and Daisy Buchanan, people who have supposedly already succeeded at this American Dream when they were born. East Egg houses all the people who were born into their money and funds. The people of East Egg are supposedly more superior just because they inherited the money.“Across the courtesy bay, the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water”. This quote was said by Gatsby it tells the readers how all the characters knew it was the better place to live as it was so much nicer then west egg in every aspect. “Oh, I’ll stay in the East, don’t you worry,” he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me as if he were alert for something more. “I’d be a God damned fool to live anywhere else,” Tom says this to Nick. This quote is basically just saying that Tom really believes the East egg is really better than everyone else and only because their ancestors had money. It was Gatsby dream to get be like them, with their old money as it seemed like they had achieved the American Dream and was living the best life. But if you really think about it they weren’t really the ones who had achieved the dream it was their ancestors and they were just in this illusion everyone saw and just really lucky to have been born into a rich bloodline.
F. Scott Fitzgerald explores that the idea of the American dream is a fantasy. He used settings such as The valley of ashes, west egg and east egg to help show the readers how the different social groups were affected by the American dream and how it makes them look. This helps the audience to understand that the American Dream is unattainable and forced.