Back to category: Novels

Limited version - please login or register to view the entire paper.

The Eyes of T.J. Eckleburg - Great Gatsby

Somewhere between the West Egg and New York lies the Valley of Ashes. A dismal place, it is a dumping ground for things long forgotten. Lying in this wasteland is a myriad of abandoned things: people, ideas, and above all, God. In the 20’s, times were changing; people began to ignore God. To represent this, Fitzgerald places an innocuous billboard in the Valley of Ashes. It is an advertisement for an oculist, Dr. T.J. Eckleburg.
The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic – their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose....But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground. (27-28)
In this short section of a lengthy book, Fitzgerald expresses some basic attitudes towards God. In the novel, Eckleburg represents judgment of a corrupt society. When applied to today’s society, this passage takes on a...

Posted by: Gabrielle Gooch

Limited version - please login or register to view the entire paper.