This is a Valley of Ashes...

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. 

I like this sentence because it make something that represents destruction seem like something that represents growth. When I think of the word "ash" I think of fire or a volcano eruption. However, Fitzgerald relates the word "ash" to a farm and crops, and houses' chimneys releasing smoke, but he also relates it to men who are corrupt, damaged and depressed. I think Fitzgerald was trying to show how all the "stuff"of this time was good but the people were not.

My Version:

This is a prosperous time with new technologies and all the industry and development is great, but it is all happening by way of men and women who are depressed and morally decaying and it is causing society to crumble.