Chapter Two of The Great Gatsby has much symbolism in it:
The juxtaposition of The Valley of Ashes after the closing scene of Gatsby looking for the green light suggests the corruption of the American Dream by waste. In the grey valley of industrial waste, the green of life has been ruined. This contrast of images and ironic use of farm words to describe the Valley of Ashes, "the wasteland" --"a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens" suggests the wasted opportunities in America in the pursuit of wealth.
The most salient symbol in this chapter is the billboard of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg, "looking out of no face" with a pair of yellow [symbolic of corruption or gold/money] spectacles over a "nonexistent nose." Gone is the oculist who had him put there; all he does now is "brood on over the solemn dumping ground." The eyes are significant because like the God who gave man the New World, Dr. Eckleberg is also ignored.
As in Chapter One, the color white as a symbol is inverted and represents impurity and the lack of integrity and substance. Ironically, Nick says that he expects to see a white flock of sheep round the corner in New York, and he describes the West Hundreds"one slice in a long white cake of apartment houses. Later, however, after he witnesses the phoniness of Myrtle and the brutality of Tom, Nick remarks,
Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows much have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher....
Drunk, Nick's vision fades in and out as people appear and disappear, "made plans to go somewhere and then lost each other, searched for each other, then found each other" in wasted, artificial action. They are jaded, cruel, and artificial.
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