en what is apparent and what is real. As Goldhurst writes:
Considering the context of Gatsby's world and his papiermache palace with its tinsel trappings, Owl-Eyes' surprised discovery (that the books in the library "are real -- 'they have pages and everything"') is not without relevance. Fitzgerald has extended the implication of Eckleburg's divinity (as a god watching the people and seeing inside them the negative qualities they try to hide even from themselves) and applied it to Owl-Eyes, one of the few characters in the novel who can distinguish between the apparent and the real (Goldhurst 38).
If we consider that God in the novel is seen as a billboard, an advertisement for an optometrist, then we can see that Fitzgerald is clearly portraying the "degenerate state of religious belief in the modern society Fitzgerald is depicting. The image -- 'God is a billboard,' -- is appropriate to the morality of self-interest that animates most of the major characters in the novel" (Goldhurst 38).
The behavior of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and George and Myrtle Wilson is a series of examples of actions and thoughts which serve to argue that America is full of people concerned only with their own self-interests and not caring at all about the ethical standards which are supposed to underlie the American Dream.
In Fitzgerald's novel, business and the worship of money are shown to be inextricably tied in with religion, and in fact replacing religion. It is clear that the American Dream in Fitzgerald's view is based not on the opportunity for any individual to succeed, but rather on the opportun
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