Describe the ''valley of ashes.'' What does it look like and what does it represent?

The valley of ashes is a desolate area that exists between West Egg and New York City where everything seems covered in ashes. In fact, such a thick layer of ashes sits atop everything that it seems as if everything were actually made of ashes: the houses, hills, cars—even men. On one side, there's a small and dirty river where people who get stuck at the drawbridge are forced to look at the "dismal scene"...

The valley of ashes is a desolate area that exists between West Egg and New York City where everything seems covered in ashes. In fact, such a thick layer of ashes sits atop everything that it seems as if everything were actually made of ashes: the houses, hills, cars—even men. On one side, there's a small and dirty river where people who get stuck at the drawbridge are forced to look at the "dismal scene" for thirty minutes. This sad area seems to symbolize a loss of life—consider how ashes are associated with death—the loss of vitality and vibrancy in someone like George Wilson or the other ash men who live in poverty there. Further, we could interpret the area as symbolic of the moral corruption or decay that results when individuals live only to accumulate wealth. Think of how close the riches of West Egg, East Egg, and New York City are: it's as though the valley of ashes is the dark and sordid underbelly of all that accumulation and materialism.