Why Is T. J. Eckleburg Important In The Great Gatsby

Stories can be interpreted many different ways when one happens to be trapped in a section of their lives. Their point of views and emotions all greatly affect the way they think and react. Especially in Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, people commonly act in their best interest rather than thinking about the impacts of their actions. The wealthy ones can easily do whatever they like without too heavily worrying about their consequences; however, the huge gap between the poor and the rich further encourage the rich to be blindness of their actions. Throughout The Great Gatsby, the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg symbolize the failure of the American dream, God watching over mankind, and serves as a warning.
The worn down billboard of T.J. Eckleburg

and the environment that surrounds it represents the failure of the American Dream.

The billboard was described as worn down which meant that in the past there were opportunities for Doctor Eckleburg’s business; however, the aged advertisement signified that the business no longer last. Fitzgerald described the billboard as, “The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic — their irises 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. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground (Fitzgerald 24).” Not only the advertisement identified the downfall of the

American Dream but the location of the billboard in the valley of ashes further portrays the failure in the area. The land was identified as, “This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight (Fitzgerald 23).”
The eyes on the billboard also represent God watching over the behaviors of mankind in the valley of ashes.

In the land of waste, the eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg still remains and continues to watch its people. The advertisement still stands strong in the land of waste conveys the idea that even in one of the worst condition, there is still hope and God is still watching. It was under the eyes of Eckleburg when Tom introduces Nick to his affair Myrtle. The death of Myrtle also happened as a result of the affair and took place in the valley of ashes where the billboard watches. After Myrtle’s death, her husband George Wilson claims that he doesn’t know who Myrtle cheated on him with but he states that God knows who the person is and go is watching everything. While staring at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, Wilson said, “I spoke to her. I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. I took her to the window and I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God! God sees everything(Fitzgerald

159).”
The eye-glasses indicates that there is a bad vision or problem just like how it symbolizes a sign of warning. In a car ride with Tom and Daisy to New York, Nick drove pass the advertisement of Doctor Eckleburg and remembered about Gatsby’s warning for gas. Nick stated, “We were all irritable now with the fading ale, and aware of it we drove for a while in silence. Then as Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s faded eyes came into sight down the road, I remembered Gatsby’s caution about gasoline (Fitzgerald 122).” However, the eyes were also a caution to the aftermath of getting gasoline. Due to the lack of gas, Tom recommends to stop by George Wilson’s garage and happens to be notified that Wilson knew his wife is having an affair with another man. With this stop at Wilson, Myrtle became jealous in Jordan which Myrtle thought was Daisy. The eyes caution for the consequences of Tom and Daisy’s action which later result in Myrtle’s death. Fitzgerald claimed, “A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting — before he could move from his door the business was over.
The ‘death car,’ as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, and then disappeared around the next bend. Michaelis wasn’t even sure of its color — he told the first policeman that it was light green. The other car, the one going toward New York, came to rest a hundred yards beyond, and its driver hurried back to where Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with the dust(Fitzgerald 137).” The eyes of T.J. Eckleburg cautioned about something bad is going to happen, but even when it happened no one cared that much. Daisy hit Myrtle with Gatsby’s car but she never stopped and tried to fix her mistake. In fact, Daisy and Tom decide to move away from the area and start their new life without any thinking of paying for their consequences.
Vision can lead to people being blind about situations and that has been symbolized clearly by Fitzgerald. George Wilson was blind when the valley of ashes had clearly failed at the American Dream but he continued to hope for that possibility. He was blind when his wife was killed in a car accident. Without any civil ways of dealing with the problem, he decided to believe in what he heard from Tom and murdered Gatsby and himself. Myrtle, Tom, and Daisy only can see power and wealth from the world that they are careless and don’t think about the consequences of their actions. When people are blind it’s not only a signal for trouble but also they lose their morals and reasoning. T.J. Eckleburgs eyes are like God’s view or an outsider’s view acting as a warning towards corruption of mankind and the failure of the American Dream.