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Owl-Eyed Spectacles In The Great Gatsby

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Fitzgerald explores the theme wealth through the man with “enormous owl-eyed spectacles” (45). Despite the fact that this man is intoxicated, he makes a significant observation that astounds him, which is that “[the books in Gatsby’s library] are real...Absolutely real–have pages and everything” (45). Considering that Gatsby is economically prosperous, the man with the owl-eyed spectacles assumes that the library would be designed to only appear as a library for show and that the books would “be a nice durable cardboard” (45). In the early 1900s, books were a sign of wealth and status; therefore, some would buy fake books, since they were less expensive. However, in terms of Gatsby’s library, appearance still does not match the reality because
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What realism!’” (Fitzgerald 46), after he had given the library a closer inspection upon initially believing the books to be merely empty cardboard boxes. It is a decadent display of Gatsby’s wealth, of course, but, Owl Eyes finds, “‘[he] didn’t cut the pages’” (Fitzgerald 46), meaning he never read the books. Gatsby has the problem of viewing life on a purely surface level dimension.

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But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there—it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at his camp was to him” (158). The phrase “breathless intensity” characterizes Gatsby’s reaction to seeing such wealth, and the word “air” expresses a sort of intangibility of her wealth. The juxtaposition between Gatsby and Daisy’s perspectives, “breathless” versus “casual,” allude to an insurmountable gap between the idea of the self-made man and the difficulty of actually achieving upward class mobility in America. Here, Fitzgerald suggests that true wealth and class also require a comfortability and casualness toward luxury as evidenced by his comparison of Daisy’s house to Gatsby’s tent. Even when Daisy is ready to leave Tom and Gatsby has the extravagant lifestyle, he is not satisfied.

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