The Eyes of Dr TJ Eckleburg

On page 157 of The Best We Could Do the page depicts what looks to be an ocean, stained red presumably by the blood spilt from war. There are a few survivors desperately trying to surface for air and not drown in this ocean. Many miss the detail at the top though. The black smoke at the top of the page actually resembles a face with an eye. It sits horizontal at the top of the page looking down on everything happening. These eyes see everything, just watching over the tragedies. This is a direct parallel to the eyes of Dr TJ Eckleburg from The Great Gatsby. Recall that God Sees Everything, just like Dr TJ Eckleburg and these eyes in The Best We Could Do. This implication adds another religious layer to the story referencing a greater power and potentially even their absence of action. God is often referenced as a source of hope in dark times, this can add yet another layer. The fact that the face of god is made by smoke in the sky could be a representation of how the hope is impermanent. The hope disappearing into the sky just as the smoke does. This represents the hopes of the victims trying desperately not to drown in the ocean of war just below the face of god. In their final moments they cling to ideas of religion and salvation as their only hope, praying for god to save them. And as they take their final breaths before leaving this world, the smoke in the sky, their hope, finally disappears as their blood pollutes the water, becoming just another victim of the war.