“All the world is a stage / And all the men and women are just players.” » This quote from William Shakespeare compares the world to a stage and life to a play where men and women are only actors playing their roles. This message is not so different from that of F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel The Great Gatsby (1925). The rich characters in The Great Gatsby are Shakespeare's actors; and the Valley of Ashes is part of his scene, where the terrible consequences of their moral deficiencies play out. The Valley of Ashes is a desolate area covered in ash dumped by industrial companies; it is described as a “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat” (Fitzgerald 24). Beneath the ashes, George and Myrtle Wilson eke out a meager living running a gas station next to a billboard advertising an eye sighting business in Queens. This billboard has two eyes facing the Valley of Ashes, which seem to observe and judge the characters who cross it. Here in the Valley of Ashes, the stage is set upon which shallow, material-oriented characters can display their selfishness. Additionally, the effects of their immorality are also illustrated. Fitzgerald develops the symbol of the Valley of Ashes to reinforce the thematic idea of ​​the effects of total corruption and selfishness in The Great Gatsby; this can be expressed through the scandalous affair of Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson, the tragic murder of Myrtle Wilson, and the pronounced rage of George Wilson. Tom Buchanan, Daisy's immensely wealthy husband, has no moral reservations about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle who lives in the Valley of Ashes. The case begins with an innocent train ride, but Tom's own lack of moral standards contributes to the... middle of paper ... by the mind - they possess no inherent meaning; on the contrary, people give them meaning. Fitzgerald uses the symbol of the Valley of Ashes to further analyze the thematic idea of ​​corruption and selfishness in The Great Gatsby. Multiple events occur in the Valley of Ashes throughout the novel, three of which illustrate Fitzgerald's theme very well: the amoral affair of Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson, the murder of Myrtle Wilson, and the rage displayed by George Wilson. . The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013. Print.