The Valley of Ashes as a Metaphor in The Great Gatsby Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, location is a critical motif. The contrasts between East and West, between the East Egg and the West Egg, and between the two Eggs and New York, play an important thematic role and provide the backdrop to the main conflict. Yet there must be a happy medium between each of these sites, a buffer zone, so to speak; there is the great distance that separates East from West; there is the bay which separates East Egg from West Egg; and there is the Valley of Ashes which separates Long Island from New York. The last of these is probably the most striking. Yet the traditional literal interpretation does not serve Fitzgerald's theme as well as a more figurative interpretation: the "Valley of Ashes" is not literally a valley of ashes, but rather a figurative description of middle-class values and the suburbs which clash with those of New York as well as those of East and West Egg. Assuming that the Valley of Ashes is literally an ash-strewn valley, some technical problems arise. The ash is light and easily dispersed – one expects a Sahara-like desert, but the dust storms Nick describes are rather harmless, evoking very familiar human images (23); even the ones Wilson sees are sweet and “fantastic.” (160) Perhaps this state of doldrums could highlight the lack of change, but would still not account for the lack of effect of the rain. The rain would wash away the ashes, or at least cause damage, but it does not succeed; the valley of ashes remains, neither blown nor carried away - any alteration should eventually purge the valley of its ashes, if one sticks to a strict literal interpretation. Obviously, it is unwise to take Fitzg...... middle of paper ......ting in the novels of Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Bern: Herbert Lang, 1974.Miller, James E. Jr. “Fitzgerald's Gatsby: The World as a Heap of Ashes.” » In Critical Essays on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, edited by Scott Donaldson. Boston, Massachusetts: GK Hall & Co. 1984. 242-58. Moseley, Edwin MF Scott Fitzgerald: A Critical Essay. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1967. Pelzer, Linda Claycomb. Student companion of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 2000. Roulston, Robert and Helen H. Roulston. The Winding Road to West Egg: The Artistic Development of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 1995. Stavola, Thomas J. Scott Fiztgerald: Crisis of American Identity. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1979. Zhang, Aiping. Enchanted places: the use of setting in the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Westport, CT: Greenwood P., 1997.