Corruption in Valley of Ashes

Posted on May 20, 2019 by 20chend

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald,  Nick shows a friendly consideration toward Gatsby and he is truly correct in his assessment of other friends, which says:” They’re a rotten crowd’ I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together’”(Fitzgerald 154). In Nick’s perspective, only Gatsby is his real honest friend; others are all somewhat corrupted in their life. Fitzgerald shows that Daisy is corrupted by desire of money and power, Tom is corrupted by lust, and lastly, Mr. Wilson is finally corrupted to only enmity and revenge.

Daisy plays a significantly important role in Gatsby’s life, or we can say, she plays more important role in Jay Gatz’s life. Jay had been attracted to Daisy several years ago when Daisy truly warmed a lonely soldier’s heart. However, although the war split them apart from each other, Jay’s sentiment towards Daisy cumulates deeper into his heart. Therefore, when he finally becomes Gatsby and asks Nick to bring Daisy to his tea party, he is “pale as death”(86) because he is so nervous and anxious, and he can’t repress his love toward Daisy. However, Daisy, who already married to Tom due to his wealth at that time, accept the invitation without hesitation. Contrastly, she is wildly open to others while Gatsby abandons himself to the only Daisy through the tough years. She not only allures Nick in the party: “ If you want to kiss me any time during the evening, Nick, just let me know and I’ll be glad to arrange it for you” (104), and she also mentions: “ Or present a green card. I’m giving out green—-”(104). Green is a really important color in the novel. It does not only represent the future but also the American dream. Daisy’s behavior of giving out green cards can be interpreted as she is giving out her future and dream. She is trying to gain wealth and power by giving out her green card, and she literally destroys the American dream. As long as people become dependent, their passion to climb summit will just be wiped out for relying on others. Daisy’s own corruption destinies her failure, which ends up suffering from her relationship. Similar to Daisy’s self-corruption, Tom is also corrupted by lust, or his desire to possess other women.

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Tom and Daisy’s marriage exists in name only in the novel, not only Daisy betrays the marriage, Tom also cheats the sacred word with his endless possession. Therefore, the crazy desire of possession from Tom to Daisy does corrupt him eventually when he acknowledges the affair. This lust has corrupted himself deeply, he doesn’t want to divorce with Daisy to even though he knows her affair, all for his abnormal possession. Moreover, this lust even somewhat twists his mentality. Perhaps because of his envy toward Gatsby, he doesn’t stop the revenge from Mr. Wilson; instead, he chooses to tell him the “truth” about Gatsby. Although Tom doesn’t directly murder Gatsby, but his assistance indirectly causes the death of Gatsby without question. The death of Gatsby must impact tremendously in his life as he mentions: “when I went to give up that flat and saw that damn box of dog biscuits…, I sat down and cried like a baby”(179) He implies that his life is like a puppy now, all he can do is to spend time around Daisy and ingratiate her. That’s how deep Tom has been corrupted by lust, but it can’t even compare to one in a million of the corruption of Mr. Wilson.

Mr. Wilson is the perfect ultimate example of corruption in the novel. He used to be a hard-working man until he watches Mrs. Wilson’s death. Firstly, he became really depressed and guilty for arguing with her that night. But then, he chooses to revenge, not only for the death of Mrs. Wilson, but also the affair. We see this guilt when Wilson says: “‘I spoke to her,’ he muttered, after a long silence”(159). Quickly, the guild converts to anger and revenge. After saying “God sees everything”(160), Mr. Wilson finally decides to take revenge. If God ignores it for some reason, I will become my own God, Mr. Wilson has made his mind here. When he came to Tom, “he was crazy enough to kill [Tom] if [Tom] hadn’t told him who owned the car,” (178) and Mr. Wilson finally decides to let the revolver revolve. The conversion from a kind and God-fearing worker to an insane murderer is clearly the corruption of Mr. Wilson from deep corner of his soul. When Wilson looks at the eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg, the deep insanity and corruption from him, or from the Valley of Ashes shines out. But when “[Eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg] look out of no face”(23), it seems that people in the Valley of ashes all live in falsehood. “The real truth is behind the pair of enormous yellow spectacle which pass over a non-existent nose”(23). In order to look through the non-existent truth in Valley of Ashes, people need to wear a pair of yellow spectacle. However, in order to get a yellow truth, blue needs to be stripped from green. Blue represents wealth and hope in The Great Gatsby, and when wealth and hope is stripped from the future, which is what green represents, the only thing will be the truth that can not bear to look. This applies to not only the Valley of Ashes, but also beyond the dome of the novel.

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