Motif of Eyes in the Great Gatsby

Everyone has a face, whether it be literal or figural. But in the story of The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of how Nick Carraway observes the lives of others. Throughout the book he notices that each person has an outer apperance that they show to the world. But as Nick gets to know them, he realizes what truly lies within them. Fitzgerald tells the story of how a person’s appearance doesn’t reveal who they truly are through the literary devices of symbolism, point-of-view, and foreshadowing.

( 185 ) The eyes are only allowed to see certain things and they are portrayed in a careful watchful tone like those of the owl-rimmed glasses. The ever-present theme of seeing and not seeing. The eyes are condemning as they view the futile efforts of Gatsby as he tries to obtain the American dream. Nick becomes the eyes that see the full picture and how other people affect Gatsby through the writing of his book. The eyes see through everything and everyone through actions and words.

The Great Gatsby has a few ways to show symbolism throughout the book and one of the ways is through the eyes on the billboard. The eyes are mentioned multiple times throughout the book, typically when something bad is about to happen or is happening. They are usually called watchful and observant as well as judgemental. For the reasons i have mentioned, I think the eyes represent the way F Scott Fitzgerald sees God which is as a being who doesn’t interfere and just watches and judges.

You may think you can decieve individuals. You may think you can escape with anything you need. You may think nobody is observing in any case, you are continually being viewed. Ordinary somebody has their eyes on you. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald partners Dr.TJ Ecklebergs eyes to speak to that we are continually being viewed.

For Tom, this means running of to New York when it suits him and finding pleasure from his other romantic affiliations. Daisy is no more faithful. Throughout the novel, Tom expresses distaste for the very type of woman he married as well as the girls he continues to see. The “modern” woman is supposedly not at all to his taste, with all of the running around and flirtation. After his discovery of Daisy’s affair, he erupts, shaming the lifestyle he himself leads. “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (Fitzgerald 139). Tom and Daisy represent the failed American Dream completely- each unhappy, corrupt, and pretending to live a lifestyle inconsistent with their actions. The hypocrisy is overwhelming.

Daisy, Tom’s wife and the object of Gatsby’s romantic quest, for example, possesses a voice “full of money,” (144) which blatantly associates her character with wealth. Fitzgerald makes Daisy seem desirable, but never describes her physical features, which is odd considering she is the force behind the profound obsession of Jay Gatsby. Perhaps Fitzgerald chooses to ignore Daisy’s physical description to purposefully display her as a bare character. In essence, he dehumanizes her to better reveal her shallowness. One of the few times a physical description of Daisy appears comes in conjunction with Miss Baker, another character under the spell of wealth, when Nick comments on their white dresses with “their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire” (17). With

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, conveys and develops Nick’s attitude towards Gatsby through the use of imagery. Fitzgerald’s use of imagery provides the reader with reasons for Nick’s respectfully melancholic attitude towards Gatsby. Society derives the popularity of a person not by the character of a person, but instead by the benefits that comes from the person. Nick remembers the “cars going up and down his drive”. Fitzgerald uses the cars in Nick’s memory to signify Gatsby’s wealth.

For instance, Daisy specifically wants her husband to have money, power and a high status regardless of who it is. This is why Gatsby could not have his true love five years ago; “[Daisy] … [marries Tom] because [Gatsby is] poor and she [is] tired of waiting for [him]” (139). Daisy’s conceited and immoral character is revealed as one comes to realize that love holds little value in Daisy’s heart. Just like the other Bourgeoisie, she can only imagine living the American Dream. If Daisy had set these materialistic thoughts aside, she could have the perfect marriage and live a happy life. Furthermore, Nick is also unable to develop a relationship with his cousin Daisy because he is unable to see value in achieving the American Dream. Nick tries to do best for Daisy by setting up meetings between her and Gatsby after discovering that Tom is an imbecile brute; however, these efforts are wasted. Daisy’s desire for living the ideal life is too strong as she mercilessly leaves Nick behind. She proves that she and Tom are “…careless people …they [smash] up things and creatures and then [retreat] back into their money and vast carelessness or whatever it [is] that [keeps] them together...” (191). Nick is angered and offended by Daisy and Tom’s hunger for wealth because the couple cuts ties with Nick as he is a barrier standing in the path of their dream. Humans have clearly become materialistic; creating and maintaining human relationships are no longer the focus of life. Families and friends are torn apart by the American Dream; hence F. Scott Fitzgerald advises modern society to recognize that some dreams are not meant to be

Fitzgerald indicates that wealthy people are not always happy. At Tom and Daisy’s dinner party, Nick says that Daisy’s face “was sad and lovely” (13). The description of Daisy’s attitude and appearance shows the reader that her beauty intends to mask her despair. Many

Tom and Daisy, despite already living the American Dream, behave in a self-absorbed manner to continue to maintain their social standing. They show reckless disregard for the lives of others as well as their own loved ones, all driven by the compelling desire to be equated to a higher social class. As Nick and the Buchanans begin to have dinner they are interrupted by an unexpected call. While everyone is aware of the source of the call, Jordan breaks the news to a confused Nick that “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (Fitzgerald 20). The entire idea that Tom’s “got some woman” (Fitzgerald 20) shows readers the presence of

The books “ The Great Gatsby “ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and “ Their Eyes Were Watching God “ by Zora Hurston, are both examples of The American Dream and the role of class in society, where the main characters strive to reach there dreams. In the novels Gatsby and Jaine are searching for love but class interferes with this search, for both Gatsby and Janie. Gatsby has found his love, but can never have her because of the class difference of old money and new money. Janie though spends her search finding somebody who will truly love her and treat her equally. Even though there humble beginnings, they both acquire wealth, but neither has earned their riches, the money they have adds nothing to there character.

Nick enters the house to find the curtains blowing about the room. On the couch sits Daisy and her friend, Jordan Baker. The movement vanishes when Tom closes the windows, Daisy laughs and says, “‘I’m p-paralyzed with happiness’” (Fitzgerald 8). Fitzgerald emphasizes her feelings of being paralyzed through the stutter of the pronunciation, representing her indecisive attitude and position of confusion. Even from this early point the readers gained insight on the internal battle within her between fantasy and reality. Within Gatsby is her fantasy, a forbidden love filled with “what ifs”, while Tom is her reality, a planned romance with underlying faults. Her mind seems to struggle over the idea of choosing one or the other, favoring the fantasy while in the moment but retreating to the practical option in the long run by finishing the sentence. Swirling around within all of these thoughts and feelings was a false sense of happiness because she lived in a world where consumption and a dream mean everything. These dreams and ideas to have everything were held by many during the 1920s when life became mass produced. Falling into the common lifestyle, Fitzgerald captured the piece of it within himself in Daisy’s characterization, because “Fitzgerald, too, lived between the real and the ideal, fully aware that all is not gold that glitters but aware, too, that still it glitters”

“Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.”(Fitzgerald 165). Nick considers the behavior and value choices of Tom, Gatsby and Daisy, as the outcome to the wealth-obsessed society of New York. Nick comes into terms of how wealth influences a person to contradict with the ethics of the typical American dream of equality. That often becomes distorted. On the other hand, Nick remains to find success in the bond business and still stays intact with his personal morals and values of respecting others no matter the quantity of his wealth. “The modesty of the demand shook me. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths, so that he could come over some afternoon to a stranger's garden.” (Lorcher). Therefore, moral ambiguity becomes present when Gatsby is convinced that using his materialistic items, that wealth has provided him with, will help gain Daisy back. He fails to come to the realization that the past remains in the past, and the present is to be lived in the moment of, and not created through fantasies. All Gatsby had purchased, was in hope to woo Daisy back. Furthermore, Gatsby went against the American Dream with his mindset that

The name “Owl Eyes” is appropriately fitting; an owl’s nocturnal vision allows it to see things in what others would normally perceive as pitch black. Like an owl, this knowing stranger correctly assesses Gatsby’s feigned personality. Owl Eyes makes his final appearance as one of the few guests at Gatsby’s funeral. He sympathizes, “‘Why, my God! they used to go there by the hundreds.’ He took of his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in. ‘The poor son-of-a-bitch’” (175). Owl Eyes’ glasses are a symbol of his discriminating perception. In the manner of how their literal function is to correct vision, the glasses also metaphorically protect his judgment from the corruption of the distorted morals and ethics characterized by the East; before making his final conclusion about Gatsby, Owl Eyes cleans his glasses, as if wiping the fogginess of subjectivity and immorality off of his observations.

The idea of courtly love was still present in the roaring 1920’s but was only a means of the status similar to the Victorian era. The after effects of WW1 led to moral deterioration resulting in people living in excess. Daisy embodies ignorance and materialistic desire influenced by her environment. Her narrow judgement is clearly expressed when she cries over “such beautiful clothes”, an oxymoron comparing sadness with beauty ironically revealing her mistake in marrying Tom Buchanan.Gatsby’s enduring pursuit of love is his downfall as the love he desires is a superficial facade cultivated by the environment of East egg. Nick warns Gatsby “you can’t repeat the past”, Gatsby cynically replies “Why of course you can!”, the rhetorical question cementsGatsby’s quest for love as materialistic pride. Additionally, Fitzgerald's use of “heat” foreshadows Daisy’s materialistic meltdown as she exclaims to Gatsby "Oh, you want too much!”, an ironic hyperbole incriminating herself. Daisy is an ignorant woman influenced by the materialistic society of 1920’s America. Fitzgerald's own life living the 1920’s was influenced by money and materialism as his wife Zelda did not agree to his proposal until she made a name for himself. Materialistic gain falls back to the ‘’American dream’”, a belief common belief in the Roaring 20’s that irrespective of background