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On Earth As It Is In Hell
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On Earth as it is in Hell
Many times we hear of society’s affect on people; society influencing the way people think and act. Hardly mentioned is the reverse: peoples’ actions and lifestyles affecting society as a whole and how it is characterized. Thus, society is a reflection of its inhabitants and in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it is a wasteland described as the "valley of ashes." Since the characters of this novel make up this wasteland, aren’t they the waste? Symbolically, this waste represents the lack of ethics of the 1920’s society and civilization’s decay. In The Great Gatsby, morals deficiencies such as a lack of God, selfishness, and idleness are reflective of a society doomed as "the valley of ashes." The worldliness of the 1920’s society contributes to the image of the wasteland as "hell-like" and deprived of God. The "valley of ashes" symbolizes a society which has forgotten the importance of God, who takes a back seat to profane desires. A lack of seriousness towards God is evident in this corrupt society when Gatsby uses God’s name in a lie, declaring ‘"I’ll tell you God’s truth.’ His right hand suddenly orders divine retribution to stand by. ‘I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle West- all dead now.’" (p.65) During the Puritan era, this would be considered blasphemous in contrast with the moral standards of the 1920’s society. A backwards people have dethroned God, replacing him with false gods of pleasure, g...
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