The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg is a symbol in The Great.
In The Great Gatsby, in the middle of a strange, gray landscape, there is a giant billboard of eyes without a face.It's a very significant image in the novel because several characters seem to be disturbed by it.Did you know that F. Scott Fitzgerald did not make up this advertisement?If you look at "oculist shop sign," you'll see that it was a standard way to advertise places that sold glasses.
What would a reasonable everyday image look like if it were transformed into a sign of the macabre?The characters who see the billboard are affected by it.In this article, I will talk about the places where the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are mentioned in the novel, explain their symbolic meaning, and give you some jumping-off points for writing essays.
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Let's get a general idea of what this object is.
There is a billboard in the middle of Queens, near George Wilson's garage, where the characters go to get from West Egg to Manhattan.An "oculist" is an ad for an eye doctor.The ad has a pair of giant blue eyes covered in yellow glasses.The billboard is dirty and the rest of the face isn't pictured.
Before we can figure out what the eyes mean, let's take a close look at the moments where they appear in The Great Gatsby.
The first time we saw Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, we were in the midst of terribleness.Queens is a depressing, crumbling "valley of ashes" that is "grotesque" and "desolate" according to Nick.Tom is going to introduce Nick to his mistress.
After a moment, you can see the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.Doctor T. J. Eckleburg's eyes are blue and big.They look out of nowhere, from a pair of huge yellow glasses which pass over a fake nose.Apparently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in Queens and then sank down into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved away.I followed Tom over a low white-washed railroad fence and we walked back a hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburg's persistent stare.(2.10-20)
The eyes of Doctor Eckleburg are presented in a strange and confusing way, just like the green light in Chapter 1.
Nick first describes giant eyes that are hovering in the air, instead of saying that there is a giant billboard.
The eyes are both blue and yellow.The eyes are connected to other blue and yellow objects in a novel that is color-coded.
There are elements of horror in the description.The "gigantic" eyes have no face or nose.
Even after we learn that the eyes are part of an advertisement, they are given agency and emotions.They don't simply exist in space, but "look out" and "persistently stare," the miserable landscape causes them to brood, and they are even able to "exchange a frown" with Tom despite the fact that they have no mouth.
A huge, displeased watcher is what these eyes stand for, and it's clear from this personification of an object.
After seeing T.J. Eckleburg's eyes for the second time, Tom, Nick, and Jordan are on their way to Manhattan to see Daisy and Gatsby.
We drove for a while in silence because we were all so angry with the fading beer.As Doctor T. J. Eckleburg's faded eyes came into sight down the road, I remembered that locality was always vaguely unnerving, even in the broad glare of afternoon, and now I turned my head as though I had been warned.The giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept looking over the ashheaps, but I felt that other eyes were looking at us from less than twenty feet away.
In one of the windows over the garage, the curtains had been moved aside so that Wilson could see the car.The number is 7.136-163.
The eyes are a warning to Nick that something is not right.The real problem at the garage is that George Wilson has found out that Myrtle is having an affair, even though he thinks the car is low on gas.
Nick was distracted by the fact that Myrtle was staring at the car from the room where George had imprisoned her.She is looking out the window at what she thinks is the yellow car of Tom, and giving Jordan a death stare under the mistaken impression that she is Daisy.
It's important that the word "vigil" is used here.Staying awake for a religious purpose is what it refers to.Both meanings don't apply here, and the word is used in a sarcastic way.
The billboard eyes point to a potential higher authority whose "brooding" and "caution" could also be accompanied by judgment.She is wrong to put her trust in Tom because she is vigilant enough to spot him driving.She was killed because of her trust in Tom and the yellow car.
During a private moment between the coffee shop owner Michaelis and George Wilson, our last visit to the eyes happened.Since Nick isn't there, this must be his version of Michaelis's testimony to the police.
Have you ever been to a church, George?Maybe even if you haven't been there a long time.I could call up the church and get a priest to come and talk to you.
Wilson's eyes turned to the ashheaps, where small grey clouds scurried here and there in the faint dawn wind.
After a long silence, he muttered, "I spoke to her."She couldn't fool God, I told her.He leaned against the rear window with his face pressed against it after taking her to the window.You can't fool God."
Michaelis looked at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, who had just emerged pale and enormous from the night.
"That's an advertisement," Michaelis said.He turned away from the window and looked into the room.Wilson stood there for a long time, his face close to the window.(8.72-105)
The billboard's eyes are a watchful God because George Wilson was completely distraught over the affair and then drove past his breaking point by her death.Wilson does not have access to the moral instruction that will help him control his impulses because he doesn't go to church.Wilson wants God, or at least a God-like influence, in his life because he wants to make her feel bad about everything she's been doing.
In the way George stares " into the twilight" by himself, there is an echo of what we've often seen.Both men want something big and both want ordinary objects to have a lot of meaning.
This lack of a larger moral compass is what leads George to commit the murder/suicide.When characters reach out for a guiding truth in their lives, they are also led to tragedy.
There is no moral center in the world of The Great Gatsby.The characters are shown to be selfish, delusional, or violent.Nick, our narrator, turns out to be a misogynist bigot because he is supposed to reflect on who is good and bad.None of the characters are shown to have faith.Tom seems to be swayed by a book about how minorities are going to overwhelm whites when it comes to being led by an outside force.
It makes sense that Nick, whose job is to watch everyone else and describe their actions, pays attention to the billboard with the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg.
The site of the novel's biggest moral failures is watched by a billboard.The garage is where Daisy killed Myrtle.The "ash heaps" of Queens show what happens to those who cannot succeed in the ambitious, self-serving, predatory world of the 20's that Fitzgerald finds objectionable.
The problem is that the billboard can't stand in for a civilizing and moral influence because the characters who notice it cower under its gaze.Tom frowns when he feels that he is being watched, but this does not affect his actions.Wilson wants Myrtle to be frightened by the idea of this watcher, a God-like presence that is unfoolable, but she is also undeterred.Wilson is convinced that the billboard is just an advertisement and that nothing can stop him from acting out.
The billboard is a sham representation of a deeper idea.They are externalizing their anxiety about the moral vacuum at the center of their world if they want to read God or at least an overseeing presence into it.
Nick Carraway.Nick was the first to notice the billboard.The misery and desolation of the "ash heaps" that separate Long Island from Manhattan is something he finds discomfiting.The billboard is an impartial, objective observer of the events surrounding it.
George Wilson.George seems to think that T.J. Eckleburg has an idea of an ever-present, all-seeing God.He told Michaelis that part of his reaction to Myrtle's affair was to make her afraid of a God who is watching her.George stares at a billboard in the same way that he looks at the green light at Daisy's dock.It's possible that when Michaelis tells George that the eyes are just an advertisement, he removes the last barrier preventing George from acting out his violent intention.
There are morals and ethics.The novel's values seem to be: get whatever you want for yourself, as much as you can, and don't get caught.No one has an internal moral compass or an external one.TJ Eckleburg's eyes are close to being an external motivator for characters to at least consider the morality of their actions, as they cringe and become uncomfortable under the eyes' gaze.
Money and materialism are related.The billboard reflects the huge capitalist influence in everyone's lives because it is in the first place an advertisement.There is no moral or ethical underpinning to the lives of these characters because their world is based on greed and money.The object that is the closest thing to a religious figure is trying to get people to buy it.
The valley is called the valley of ashes.The valley of ashes is an industrial section of Queens that connects the rich neighborhoods of the Eggs on Long Island and the similarly booming Manhattan.The way those who can't claw their way to the top get left behind in the lawless Wild East is an indictment of the way the poor are treated.
Let's figure out the best way to approach the Doctor Eckleburg symbol in an essay after discussing the significance of the billboard.
There are some possible essay arguments.You can either argue their opposite or use them as jumping-off points for your own interpretation.
Wilson wants someone to punish the bad characters and reward the good ones when he looks at Doctor T.J. Eckleburg.Wilson takes justice into his own hands because there is no supervising authority in the novel.
The problem isn't that there are no moral rules in the novel, but that everyone is flawed and it would be hard to figure out who is right.An object is the only appropriate God figure.
The eyes are placed on the road between Manhattan and West Egg because it is a place where characters could make different choices, and where they can make the decisions that affect their lives in either of those destinations.
Tom and George have different reactions to the billboard's eyes.
The valley of ashes is one of the settings in the novel.
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