While most of the places in The Great Gatsby are “extravagantly rich, the Valley of Ashes portrays a different side of this exuberant time”(Hearn). The Grim and Gray Valley of Ashes is an area where the houses seem filthy and there isn't money to be found for miles. This gloomy place symbolizes how the American Dream becomes a ‘wasteland’ when moral values are absent (Millett). When material items take over the american people's mind, we do not notice that ethics tend to go out the window. Because the Valley of Ashes represents the poverty and the dark side of the American Dream, New York City is the epitome of the money blowing upperclass. Readers observe that it does not matter where one lives, one cannot escape the immoral and corrupt effects of the American Dream has to