Motif Of Eyes And Spectacles In The Great Gatsby

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Taryn Perkins Ms. Williams AP Language & Composition 30 October 2015 80129@student.myscps.us In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the motifs of eyes and spectacles to the theme of god is watching and judging is played with throughout the book.. The first time significant eyes came up in the story was in chapter two when the face of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg was described as “…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.” (Fitzgerald 27). In the place of shame and a gray land with very little color these eyes should remind the people of the valley of ashes that god is always watching. But it doesn’t show …show more content…

Which is Mr. Wilson and Michaelis. Mr. Wilson doesn’t always gets the bigger picture but at the end of the novel he reminds Myrtle Wilson that just because he doesn’t always get the big picture; God always does and he tells her that when her discovers the affair. “Thou shall not commit adultery” is in the bible and for her to go against god in an abomination. Wilson looks and thinks that the eyes are the eyes of the lord. That’s why he does right by his wife. Michaelis didn’t look at the board as the eyes of God he viewed them as any old advertisement. “Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. ‘God sees everything,’ repeated Wilson. ‘That’s an advertisement,’ Michaelis assured him. Something made him turn away from the window and look back into the room. But Wilson stood there a long time, his face close to the window pane, nodding into the twilight” (Fitzgerald 167). This is …show more content…

But Mr. Wilson finally comes to the light when he noticed the expensive things that Myrtle Wilson has laying around the house, like the dog collar. ‘“Look in the drawer there,” he said, pointing at the desk. “Which drawer?’ ‘That drawer — that one.’ Michaelis opened the drawer nearest his hand. There was nothing in it but a small, expensive dog-leash, made of leather and braided silver. It was apparently new. ‘This?’ he inquired, holding it up. Wilson stared and nodded. ‘I found it yesterday afternoon. She tried to tell me about it, but I knew it was something funny.’ ‘You mean your wife bought it?’ “She had it wrapped in tissue paper on her bureau.” (Fitzgerald 166). Mr. Wilson and Mrs. Wilson are not financially stable to afford a dog so he notices that she's having an affair with someone rich but he loves his wife so he decides to beg and plead and ask Tom for his car so that he can get her away from East and west egg and the village of ashes on multiple occasions “With an effort Wilson left the shade and support of the doorway and, breathing hard, unscrewed the cap of the tank. In the sunlight his face was green. ‘I didn’t mean to interrupt your lunch,’ he said. “But I need money pretty bad, and I was wondering what you were going to do with your old car.” This last time that Wilson asks for the car Tom gives him the answer of “I’ll let you have that car,’ said Tom.

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