I'll be your mirror A dominant symbol within F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is the billboard eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes focus around the novel's symbolism of the loss of spiritual values in America during the 1920's, and the corruption of America's people. The American Dream originally centred around the discovery of happiness yet by the 1920's, this had evolved into a desire for wealth irrespective of the means, following the belief that money brings happiness. Within the text a man;s success is measured by his money as opposed to his sole, and Fitzgerald shows the impossibility of achieving happiness through symbolising the emptiness of growing commercialism in America through these eyes.