Owl Eyes in Great Gatsby

Although Owl eyes may seem insignificant, the character has in a way act as the person interconnecting the whole story line together. He was able to foreshadow the deaths as well as the immoralism in the novel.

The author has brought out the immoralism and indifference of the society in the novel through the irony of the character Owl eyes which in turn enhances the moral decay of the society in the novel. The author had his own special intentions by naming the character "Owl" which represents wisdom and "eyes" represents "vigilance", however Owl eyes name is in a way a paradox to his behavior. The way he was introduced to the readers, shows his infidelity and immoralist, he was drunk and was staring at Jordan from head to foot, hinting a sense of lust. In the latter part of chapter 3, Owl eyes ran his car into a ditch and he didn't want to take responsibility of his act, he uses excuses like "I know very little about driving", this projects the indifference in him because he shuns trouble. Just like Owl eyes the society also shuns trouble and they are immoral, they came uninvited to Gatsby's parties and they leech on his wealth, they came because Gatsby is a generous person, once a guests' dress was torn and the next day Gatsby gave her a new and better dress, but when Gatsby passed away no one was there to mourn for him, they all used the same excuse as Owl eyes that they "were not able to get into Gatsby's house".

Owl is nocturnal, they turn day into night and night into day. In the same manner Owl eyes turn bad into good.

Owl eyes was described as a man with an "enormous owl eyed spectacles", this again mark the irony of the character because although he was wearing an "enormous owl eyed spectacles" he was still blind as he ran his car into a ditch but he was able to spot the authenticity of Gatsby's books in the library, he mentioned that the books are "bona fide pieces" and that they are very expensive, from here the readers could see that just like Owl eyes who can only see the materialistic side of the world and is not able to embrace the more important aspects in life the society was no better than Owl eyes himself.

The incident of the car also foreshadows the death of Myrtle and Gatsby, since both their deaths are interconnected with cars. The car was the cause of the accident caused by Owl eyes, the car symbolizes materialistic values. Similarly materialistic values also drive Myrtle and Gatsby into the "ditch" or their death. This incident is metaphorical to the incident in America during those time, the Americans who were living their lavish lives led their country to the Great Depression.

As the readers can see in chapter 3, Owl eyes was so intrigued by the real pages of the book, "what realism", because he thought that those books were just