The answer is letter a. It forms a heedful distinction with the wealthy resorts of East and West Egg, and serves as an uninviting notice of the underbelly of society. Literally and symbolically it is the place of the hopeless. The picture of ashes also has implications of delicateness; the people who live here have no real substance to their lives, as the allusion to them 'crumbling' stresses. Their surroundings are the visible sign of their misery. The Valley of Ashes does not simply signify poverty and despair, it can also be said to indicate the corruption of society as a whole. Wealth in this novel is normally shown to be founded upon materialism, greed, excess, and not on anything worthwhile or truly fulfilling, leading to problems and separations both in society and also in individuals. The Valley of Ashes, then, can also be taken to represent the ethical decay, the spiritual emptiness, of modern urban society.
