Owl eyes, the name given to a man found in Gatsby’s the library, is a minor character that is often forgotten. He is only really a part of two scenes: where he is looking through Gatsby’s Books and at Gatsby’s Funeral were he calls Gatsby poor. Normally, Owls represent inner wisdom, self-actualization, intuitiveness. Therefore to say this man was “owl eyes” is to say he saw inner wisdom within people or wisdom to give to others. The fact that he was given this name, and this name only through out the book symbolize the character he was meant to play in The Great Gatsby.
Lets take for instance, the library scene. While everyone is out networking, drinking, dancing, and enjoying themselves, Owl Eyes is looking in Gatsby’s Library. He claims he likes the solitude, but then why come to a party at all? and why look through the books when he could find peace in solitude by simply sitting? You could say he was bored but why would Fitzgerald add this detail of Owl Eyes looking through the books, with intent, if it didn’t mean something to his character?
I believe that Owl Eyes was trying to use the books Gatsby collected to see what kind of person Gatsby is, what Gatsby values and buys in hopes of reading. As someone who reads, I can tell a lot about a person just by the books they have on their shelf. If a book is beaten and ragged it was well loved, if the spine is broken you can open up the exact page an individual spent hours looking at, and if they look new you know what topics the individual is intrigued but uncomfortable with.
It could very well be that Owl Eyes is making those same judgments about Gatsby as he looks through his shelf. I find this interesting because this means, Owl Eyes believed he could learn more about Gatsby through his shelf than he did by staying at the party and watching him interact with others. Considering themes of performative class cultures within the book, it speaks to Owl Eye’s Character that he can also see past the facade and go straight to other ways of learning more about someone.
This logic follows at the scene of Gatsby’s Death, when all those who spent time “getting to know him” didn’t show up to his funeral because in reality they only learned the idea of Gatsby. Along with Nick and Gatsby’s Father, Owl Eyes was the only other person to show up for Gatsby’s funeral, and that’s became Owl Eyes actually did know Gatsby. Owl Eyes learned who Gatsby was, not by asking him and being told a spin of made of stories that Gatsby tells everyone, not by watching him and seeing what Gatsby wanted him to see, but by going behind the scenes, an unguarded vault of what Gatsby’s mind looked like unfiltered. It was because of his time in Gatsby’s Library that he knew Gatsby well enough to come to his funeral and mourn his absence.
So when Owl Eyes Called Gatsby a “poor son-of-a-bitch”, calling him poor spiritually/within his relationships, this came from a deep understanding of Gatsby as a person therefore held more truth to Gatsby’s character than perhaps any other comment made of Gatsby in the book.
I believes this was due to Owl Eyes’s ability to not be persuaded by the riches, the external forms of power, and his ability to find wisdom in places he was likely to find the true heart of others. This is why I assigned him the Hierophant card. The hierophant card while meaning wisdom also means tradition, this is why I placed this card in reverse. Owl Eyes is about viewing the world in different ways than what is culturally excepted, like an owls head turning upside down. and in this case, the Hierophant is more about breaking cultural norms and finding wisdom in places one might not expect.
"The Hierophant Reversed reminds you that you are your own teacher. All the wisdom you seek comes from within – not from some external source or power."
-lucid lamb