The Great Gatsby and Capitalism

The novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, attempts to show the power of the wealthy elite and the misery of the poor working class. It uses elements of setting, characterization, and mood to reveal capitalist domination at its worst.
Fitzgerald set the book in two very distinct locations. The valley of ashes is where the working class lives. It's the location of the industrial city, filled with factories and thick, black smoke. All its descriptions are grim, calling it a place "where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens." The only images we get are th…