Magsig 1
Olive Branches
Ms. Magsig
AP Composition
15 Mar. 2010
Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust: Fitzgerald’s Response to the American Industrial Revolution in
The Great Gatsby.
Working Thesis: Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as a response to the United States’
Industrial Revolution that occurred between the latter part of the 19th century and the first decade
of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is particularly critical of the rapid increase of the mechanical
nature of society, and he makes this criticism through his portrayal of the Valley of Ashes.
I. Event: The Industrial Revolution in America (1794 – 1903)
A. Who was Involved
1. Eli Whitney
2. Wright Brothers
B. What was invented
1. Interchangeable parts
2.
airplane
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C. Societal impact of Inventions
1. Interchangeable parts allowed for the expansion of factories and made
goods more durable because parts could be replaced instead of the whole
piece.
a. His efficient methods, especially the use of interchangeable parts,
revolutionized the small-arms industry, and gradually these
production methods were applied to most types of manufacturing.
(Van Dusen)
2. Flight increased the efficiency of air travel as well as influence war
strategies.
a. The invention of the airplane was a fundamental turning point in
history. It redefined the way in which the U.S. fought its wars,
revolutionized travel and commerce, fueled the process of
technological change, and helped to shape a world in which the
very survival of a nation would depend on its scientific and
technical prowess. (“Commemorating a Century of Wings - An
Overview”)
II. The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s response to the over-mechanization of American society
as a result of the Industrial Revolution.
A. Focus on the setting colors (gray, ashy)
1. What is the effect of this setting on the novel? (juxtaposed w/ E. and W.
Egg)
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a. This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like
wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take
the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally,
with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already
crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars
crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes
to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden
spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their
obscure operations from your sight. (Fitzgerald 27)
2. What does this setting say about Fitzgerald’s attitudes towards
industrialization?
a. “Both Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton, that is to say, clearly perceive
the existence of an American class-system dominated by the
money-power” (Millgate 339).
3. TJ Eckleberg—the distant, apathetic eyes of god
a. "God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been
doing. You may fool me but you can't fool God! [. . . ] God sees
everything" (Fitzgerald 167).
B. The action that occurs in the Valley of Ashes
1. Relationship between George and Myrtle Wilson
a. “He's [George] so dumb he doesn't know he's alive”
(Fitzgerald 38).
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b. “I married him [George] because I thought he was a gentleman...I
thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to
lick my shoe” (Fitzgerald 39).
c. “He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in, and never
told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was
out...I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried...all afternoon”
(Fitzgerald 39).
2. Myrtle Wilson and those of her “class.” Myrtle thinks she can create
importance by having an affair with Tom.
a. “Myrtle associates style with class in pretty much the same way
that Gatsby does” (Berman 88).
3. Myrtle Wilson’s death
a. Michaelis and this man reached her first, but when they had torn
open her shirtwaist, still damp with perspiration, they saw that
her left breast was swinging loose like a flap, and there was no
need to listen for the heart beneath. The mouth was wide open
and ripped at the corners, as though she had choked a little in
giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored for so long.
(Fitzgerald 144-45)
III.
Technology may not be as dirty today as it was back then, but we as a culture are still
consumed with its “progress.” And amidst this progress, we continue to lose our
humanity. Death is ordinary in our media. The common, middle-class citizen seems
invisible in the larger scope of our society. We, with the technological advancements
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of the Internet and virtual networking, are becoming anonymous and faceless to those
with whom we communicate, just like George Wilson was anonymous, and
indistinguishable from his surroundings. It was also technology and the chase for
progression that killed Myrtle Wilson. This is a cautionary tale, not just for an early
20th century audience, but also for the citizens of the 21st century. Technology and
industry is nice, if man is in control of it. But too often, perhaps more often than we
admit to ourselves, this same technology controls us, dehumanizes us, erases us.
A. “Fitzgerald's unique expression of the American dream lacks the optimism, the
sense of fulfillment” (Pearson 638).
B. “the world of Gatsby is a spiritual wasteland—materialistic and mortal, and by its
very nature doomed to ashes” (Pearson 641).
C. The valley of ashes is the result of Jay Gatsby's testament, the dust of a corrupted
and perverted American dream; and like its biblical counterpart, it has its
association with the worshiping of a false god, Mammon, incarnate in his son,
Gatsby. (Pearson 641)
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Works Cited
Berman, Ronald. “‘Oh, Science and Art, and All That’: Reflections on The Great Gatsby.”
Journal of Aesthetic Education 23.3 (1989): 85-95. Print.
“Commemorating a Century of Wings - An Overview.” U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission.
n.p. n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Macmillan, 1925. Print.
Millgate, Michael. “Scott Fitzgerald as Social Novlist: Statement and Technique in The Great
Gatsby.” The Modern Language Review 57.3 (1962): 335-339. Print.
Pearson, Roger L.. “Gatsby: False Prophet of the American Dream.” The English Journal 59.5
(1970): 638-642+. Print.
Van Dusen, Albert E.. “Eli Whitney.” Connecticut’s Heritage Gateway. n.p. 2003. Web. 9
Mar. 2010.