The Great Gatsby Blindness Analysis

976 Words4 Pages

The use of sight and blindness is seen multiple times throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Blindness causes people to miss things that are going on around them, it makes everything seem fine when really nothing is. Seeing opens people's eyes to the things around them that are going on and lets them see what wrong is being done. This story was told through the eyes of Nick, because he was seen as the most honest. Eyes appear all throughout this story, some of these eyes include: Dr. Eckleburg’s on the billboard, Owl Eyes in the Library, and Jordans gray eyes. There are also multiple quotes throughout the novel that refer to eyes such as: the dog on page 41 that is “looking with blind eyes through the smoke,” the man on page 59 …show more content…

Eckleburg was brought up multiple times throughout this story. An example is: “The eyes of doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high” (Fitzgerald 23). The characters saw him as someone who watched over them although it was only a billboard. He looks down disappointedly at the people in this story and how much character they lack. It was believed that he saw all the secrets people had to hide. George Wilson saw them as the eyes of God. But others may see them differently. They can be seen as the the universe watching over the people in the story, or maybe they are seen as karma. His purpose in this story was to make people paranoid and guilty about the things they have done, which is the reason so many people thought Dr. Eckleburg's eyes were representing God or some other higher power. Owl Eyes was also involved quite a bit in The Great Gatsby. He was similar to Dr. Eckleburg in the sense that he watched over the characters in the story. He is to be perceived as wise. He is the only character other than Nick in this story who sees the real Gatsby and attended his funeral. Owl Eyes could also be compared to Gatsby. He covered up for his drunk friend who wrecked the car and said that it was him, Gatsby did the same for Daisy when she hit