“All the world's a stage / And all the men and women are merely actors.” This quote by William Shakespeare compares the world to a stage and life to a play where men and women are just actors playing their roles. This message is not very different from that of F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel The Great Gatsby (1925). The rich characters of The Great Gatsby are Shakespeare's actors; and the Valley of Ashes is part of its stage, where the terrible consequences of their moral shortcomings are enacted. 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). In the ashes, George and Myrtle Wilson make a living by running a gas station next to a billboard advertising an eye doctor business in Queens. This billboard has two eyes looking out over the Valley of Ashes, seemingly observing and judging the characters who pass through. Here in the Valley of Ashes the stage is set on which superficial, materially driven characters can display their selfishness. Furthermore, the effects of their immorality are also exemplified. 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 between Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson, the tragic murder of Myrtle Wilson, and the pronounced anger of George Wilson. Tom Buchanan, Daisy's immensely wealthy husband, has no moral reservations about his extramarital affair with Myrtle who lives in the Valley of Ashes. The relationship begins with an innocent train ride, but Tom's lack of moral standards contributes to... middle of paper... from the mind: they possess no intrinsic meaning; rather, people invest them with meaning. Fitzgerald uses the symbol of the Valley of Ashes to further analyze the thematic idea of ​​corruption and selfishness in The Great Gatsby. Numerous events occur in the Valley of Ashes over the course of the novel, three of which exemplify Fitzgerald's theme very well: Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson's amoral relationship, Myrtle Wilson's murder, and George Wilson's manifest anger. Work Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013. Print.