What Does The Symbolism Represent In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the great masters of symbolism. He uses lots of symbols thought the novel The Great Gatsby. When he uses symbolism he is trying to make the reader think deeper into the novel and try to discover something deeper. F. Scot Fitzgerald shows more than one good symbol in this novel. The symbols he uses all require a good amount of thinking and yet he still does a great job of representing these symbols. Fitzgerald uses the eyes of the oculist sign as one of the things he symbolizes. Fitzgerald also uses the owl eyed man as a symbol. Both of the symbols that Fitzgerald uses give deeper meaning to the novel. There is a billboard that is introduced in the novel. The billboard has a set of eyes on it with glasses and the billboard says "The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg". It can be mistaken as a regular old billboard but there is actually lots of meaning behind it. There are lots of different meanings of the symbol that people have come up with, but it's more of a personal opinion on what the billboard says. The eyes are looking ahead at the future and are saying what is to come is better. "But his

The owl eyed man actually plays a very significant role for being such a small sudden part. He acts like a father figure to nick which makes nick have to make his own decisions and fend for himself. The owl eyed man is not a big part of the story but he is one of the few people that showed up to Gatsby's funeral and apologizes to nick for what has happened. "'I couldn't get to the house' he remarked 'neither could anybody else'" (175). For him to show up at the funeral shows he secretly has a bigger role than previously thought. He went to the funeral because of Nick and Gatsby, he believed he could have done more than he did and he felt responsible which symbolizes him trying to father Nick. He just is not a regular man he has a lot more meaning than anyone previously thought he would have