The beginning of the passage sets the context in which the play is written, highlighting the fact that cars were just made available for everyone at that time. The colour of the cars fits with the description of the farm being described, which seems to be lifeless and sad, to add to this lifeless setting the author describes men full of grey ash, the same colour as the car, giving us an imagery of sadness. Fitzgerald contrasts the glamour of one side of the city with the industrial parts of the other, with hard-working men digging.  

Both pages 24 and 25 establish the scenario, where the areas of West Egg and New York are being compared. As seen in the passage, the fact that the author is using ashes to describe the scenario, shows how sad and depressing of a place that is. The town is being described as discarded area of the city, where the poor and the lower class people are destined to live. Also, the continuos repetition of the word ashes describes how contaminated the city is because of industrilization. F.Scott Fitzgerald shows how the rich are the ones that damage our societies, and at the same time shows how the poor are the ones that suffer the rich's decisions and actions. 

This passage uses imagery to describe a billboard advert for an eye doctor. The eyes seem to symbolise someone who is constantly watching over you, someone who sees all and hears all, like God. The eyes seem to be judging the American Dream as a moral waste land 

This passage describes the valley of ashes, located between West Egg and New York, as a home for poor people and a desolated city where the ashes cover the whole city because of industrialization. The valley is described as a disgusting and dirty city through the perspective of a rich narrator, Nick. This shows the comparison between the rich city of New York, and the poor, depressing city, the valley of ashes emerging the theme of wealth. 

This quote besides describing, through the use of imagery, the scenery of the valley itself, also makes reference to a pair of eyes, belonging to Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which are located on a billboard over the valley of ashes. There is a contrast emphasised between an endless and constant landscape and the attention grabbing billboard of the oculists' eyes. We can see a shift in attention move from the background into T.J.Eckleburg's eyes. 

This quote creates a striking image of ashes creating a solemn landscape to walk through. Fitzgerald uses oxymoron in order to emphasize the gloominess of the scene, with the workers blending into their background. The scene is made to look miserable, and this serves as an important introduction to the  general mood of the scene

This quote lets more of Tom's brutish personality shine through, where even though Nick Carraway makes it clear that he has no desire of meeting his mistress, Buchanan forces him. The diction in the passage clearly shows the manner in which he manhandles his cousin. Nick makes it clear that he was unwilling, emphasizing how Tom "forced" him, how "he insisted" to meet his girl and finally how all this, to Nick, felt as if it "bordered on violence". This whole scene helps characterize him as someone who insists on having what he wants in an almost childlike manner, and further accentuates his machismo and inability to restrain from using force. 

References an advertising billboard situated above the grey land, it's advertising the services of an oculist in the borough of Queens who got ruined in his own misery and lost his business soon after.