The Blue Eyes in The City of Ashes

Ok, let’s talk for a second. I was reading the Great Gatsby on a Saturday night-like most people with any ounce of brain matter do-when I came across a peculiar refence to “the valley of ashes”. The first time I read it, my mind assumed that Nick was mentioning the city of New York, describing it as dark and gloomy. His reference of Doctor TJ Eckleburg’s eyes on a billboard solidified those beliefs. In reality, it turns out that Nick was employing the tool of irony. The nineteenth century was the center of the industrialization movement and the color of ashes-grey-represented the dust from the factories. You could even look at it from a different perspective – a valley is located between two mountains. The mountains, in the case of The Great Gatsby, reference the filthy rich of society including Nick, Daisy, Jordan, Tom, and Gatsby himself. The valley on the other hand represented the working class. The people who worked the factories, and the factories that made it a “valley of ashes”.

Something else to come back to is TJ Eckleburg’s eyes. The cover of the book is a reference to the same billboard. The only difference is who’s eyes. The cover employs Daisy’s eyes. In those eyes, you can see two women and a teardrop rolling down her face. The subtle indication of Tom’s infidelity. Realistically speaking, The Great Gatsby (so far at least) has proven to be tough to read and tougher to understand, yet it’s caught my attention and now, well I am but a fish hooked on to the bait of Fitzgerald’s words, unable to pull myself away.


Signing off for now,

Reality Sucks 

Comments

  1. Arya ShahOctober 8, 2023 at 10:05 AM

    This is the first blog post I've ever read of yours, and I really like your style. The first couple of sentences makes me feel like I'm having a conversation with you, and keeps me engaged.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jaspreet SinghOctober 8, 2023 at 12:27 PM

    I really liked how you included colloquialisms—it felt like I was having a conversation with you. I also really liked the title because it felt like a general statement, when you were really describing a specific moment in the book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. katharina zakOctober 8, 2023 at 4:33 PM

    i really liked how you combined colloquial language with more sophisticated language, to conduct your rhetorical analysis. Also your last line was amazing that metaphor, was almost as the great gatsby itself. (thank you for reminding me to do my reading)

    ReplyDelete

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