Corruption In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The American Dream, the hope for newfound wealth and success that many hold onto during their lives as they believe that they can achieve anything they set out to do. However, this “dream” may not be as ideal as it seems. In actuality, the American Dream has proven itself to bring along corruption rather than riches and happiness in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, where sin prevails all good in the world while the eyes of God hold no power against the corrupted American Dream. Through F. Scott Fitzgerald's use of the ominous motif of eyes in his novel “The Great Gatsby”, it is represented how the surreal American Dream has brought corruption to all those seeking the hope and wealth of it. As it has grown, its sins have accumulated in

such a way as to become invincible to all power and light, leaving only darkness within the contrastingly extravagant world of the novel.

Over the course of the novel, eyes have been watching over the pure corruption of the world in complete isolation and eerie silence. One of the hauntingly quiet observers in The Great Gatsby is T.J. Eckleburg, an overshadowing billboard of two spectacled eyes placed in the dim valley of ashes. As he is first introduced to the death that lies within the valley of ashes, Nick notices “, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg” and their “blue and gigantic”(23) appearance. The extravagance of such enormous eyes juxtaposes against the bleak image that lies underneath its visage. Contrasting the two ends of this spectrum of wealth, Fitzgerald puts emphasis on both the poverty of the unfortunate landscape and the dominance of the overlooking eyes of Eckleburg. All the while, corruption, sin, and cheats sweep across the valley (infesting it along the way), only to be ignored by the seemingly powerful image. The ignorance of such corruption by the authoritative figure leads the reader to question its true power, as the billboard is represented as lacking enough strength to acknowledge the growing corruption

of wealth. As the novel carries on its plot of wealth, love, and deception, Myrtle Wilson, the voluptuous mistress of Tom Buchanan, is suddenly killed by a hit and run (whom we find out later to be Daisy’s doing). After hours of sitting in agony, trying to realize what has just happened, Myrtle’s naive husband, George Wilson, looks out the window and repeatedly screams out towards the overarching billboard “God sees everything” (170). The eyes of the mysterious, over-lurking Doctor T.J. Eckleburg is now seen as the eyes of God himself, as George can only look at it as such now during these dark times. Like God, the sign truly sees everything for what it is, as it observes the corrupted world driven by selfish wealth that revolves around it (ie; American Dream). Despite all the lying, cheating, and gambling, Eckleburg sees everything for what it is, no matter how vulgar it may be. Nonetheless, the Doctor does nothing except for watch the chaos of death and violence continue on. Putting emphasis on the sign’s new vulnerability and powerlessness to such evil, Fitzgerald depicts how strong the sins of wealth have become, as they have overcome the power of God himself.
Another strikingly powerfully silent observer of The Great Gatsby is the isolated Owl Eyes.

This mysterious character is first introduced to Nick, our narrator, at his first attendance to the grand “Gatsby” parties. Rather than being in the crowd, indulging in alcohol, music, and overall extravagance, Owl Eyes is found “staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books” in Gatsby’s “ high Gothic library, panelled with carved English Oak” (45). From the start, this strange man stands out from the rest. Unlike the other party-goers, he is paying close attention to every detail around him, observing in the same manner as the previously mentioned Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. This resilience from the surreal, blurry life of constant celebration that so many American Dreamers follow through depicts how Owl Eyes is prohibiting the sin of wealth from infecting him. Instead, he plays a role of a watcher, a man who looks at the sin around him in pure concentration. However, despite having putting so much focus on the immoral lavish life that the indulgers around him live in, Owl Eyes ignores any plan of putting an end to it. At the end of the novel, this demeanor of watching over the scene with much intent is continued as Owl Eyes attends Gatsby’s lonesome funeral. Standing out from the rest once again, Owl Eyes is the only one besides Nick in attendance to the funeral for the recently fallen Gatsby. When thinking back to the many extravagant parties that Gatsby held throughout

his somberly short-lived lifetime, he recalls how people “used to go [to the parties] by the hundreds” (187). Through Owl Eyes’s eyeful focus on Gatsby and him being the sole attendee of the funeral, is depicted how Owl Eyes, like his name infers, was always watching throughout the night and observing the corruption that had infested the current world. Nonetheless, he does nothing about the sinful acts of those around him once again. This ignorance suggests that he holds no power to have any impact on the selfish wealth around him, as he is left to simply watch the acts unravel in his way. In turn, the American Dream is seen as no longer positive and joyful, rather it is a nightmare of selfish lying and ignorance of truth.
As seen through the ominous T.J. Eckleburg and the mysterious Owl Eyes, two main representatives of the eye motif used throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald describes how the American Dream is not a dream at all. Instead, it is a hopeless idea that only brings along mass corruption and sin, covering all true hope in living a blissful life of positivity. The “dream” in “American Dream”, one may say, has died, but in truth it was never born.