What is the valley of ashes in great gatsby?

The Valley of Ashes is a desolate and impoverished industrial area located between West Egg and New York City in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, "The Great Gatsby." It is described as a bleak and lifeless landscape of ashes, smoke, and industrial waste, symbolizing the moral and spiritual decay of society during the Roaring Twenties.

The Valley of Ashes is home to George Wilson's garage and gas station, where the working-class residents of the area reside. The valley is also the setting for Tom Buchanan's affair with Myrtle Wilson, George's wife, highlighting the corruption and moral decay of the wealthy upper class.

The valley serves as a stark contrast to the glamorous and lavish lifestyle of the residents of West Egg and East Egg, representing the stark divide between the rich and poor during the Jazz Age. It also symbolizes the empty dreams and shattered lives of those who are left behind in the pursuit of material wealth and social status.

Overall, the Valley of Ashes serves as a powerful symbol of the moral decay and corruption that underlies the wealth and excess of the 1920s, emphasizing the themes of class division, disillusionment, and the emptiness of the American Dream in Fitzgerald's novel.