The Great Gatsby

At numerous points in the narrative, a green light emanates from Daisy’s dock, which can be seen from Gatsby’s house. To Gatsby, this light represents his hopes and dreams of rekindling his youthful relationship with Daisy from many years ago. Of this light and Gatsby’s attitude toward it, Nick says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (176). Beyond Gatsby’s feelings toward Daisy, the light has a broader meaning: It represents the American dream that beckons while remaining just out of reach. Gatsby’s success only emphasizes The Illusion of the American Dream in the 1920s. To achieve his social status, Gatsby had to become a criminal, and even then he is still excluded from the upper echelons of American society and watches it from across the water.

The valley of ashes is an industrial dumpsite filled with the waste created by the wealthy residents of West and East Egg. Both literally and symbolically, it represents the stark divide between rich and poor on Long Island. Given that Tom’s mistress Myrtle lives there, it is a place where the ostensible morality of the upper class is suspended.