Look at the opening paragraphs of chapter 3 and indentify details that depict a World of gaiety and comfort. Compare this atmosphere of alienation in the opening paragraph of chapter 2
Right away we can see this is a party for the filthy rich. They arrive "like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars." This is a world of the rich entitled who drive "Rolls-Royce" vehicles to such wild parties that, "eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before."
We can compare this with the cold and grey alienation of the 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."
Note the sense of light ,energy and opulence in Chapter 3 with the sense of grey rot and stagnation of chapter 2.
