Fitzgerald's valley of ashes tips it's hat to TS Eliot's The Waste Land, but it was also a feature of New York at the time. The Ash Dumps were mountainous piles of ash up to 90ft high, a malodorous stretch of swampland in which coal ash, cinders, garbage, and human waste had been dumped. Lone figures wandered the desolate heaps searching for treasure or anything they could sell - a perfect image of a nation squandering it's promise in search of a buck.
Sarah Churchwell
How We Misread The Great Gatsby
New Statesman
2025
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Jack Hughes
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