The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, at the billboard, looking down with a “persistent stare” at the citizens living in the Valley of Ashes, are the closest thing to God that Nick has ever seen in his time in New York. “I followed him over a low whitewashed railroad fence, and we walked back a hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburg’s persistent stare.” Like the eyes of God, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg sees everything, every sin that is committed, every choice that is made and every action that the characters do. It is almost as if they both have supernatural control over things and over people. As Nick said, when he, Tom, and Jordan stopped at Wilson’s shop, Nick felt as if the eyes were guiding his attention to something…show more content… The impression that is given is that the eyes can foresee the disasters about to happen, and once they actually happen, somehow the eye is always involved. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg in the Valley of Ashes is a representation of God’s eyes looking through the billboard, at all of the sins that are happening, and at all the people. Even though the eye does not interact with the character, they feel his presence staring at their souls, and even search for guidance, like the ones that have sin and seem to be lost looking for God’s guidance.
The Valley of Ashes is a representation of the failure of the “American dream”, capitalism, and it is also compared to hell. “Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night.”. The valley is a wasteland of human life. Living in such a place can destroy once spiritually, but for those, like Michaelis, and George, it’s nothing more than what they’ve always known. The people that live in the valley of ashes see and feel the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg as the eyes of God, or as a representation of him. They see and feel God in
