The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg strike again

In 10th grade American Lit, we read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. One particularly memorable image from this novel is an old billboard with a pair of painted eyes on it, representing God looking down on the characters. The eyes actually belong to an image of a man called Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. They are near the top of the cover of the book as well:


At the start of English class the other day, I walked in to find these hanging on the Pizarra Estúpida:


Mrs. Saxsma said that they had been a gift from her mother. When I later asked her (on the Day of Silence) to remind me where her mother had gotten them she responded with


Anyway, the first day they were up (when she could talk) she told us the story of her mother walking into said antique store and seeing the eyes. She had immediately associated them with the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, and had told the man behind the counter that she had to get them for her daughter. He had asked, "What, is she an optometrist?"

"No," Mrs. Saxsma's mother had replied, "she's an English teacher!" as if this explained everything.

The man, who did not see the resemblance, had just looked at her as if she were crazy. The way Mrs. Saxsma put it, he had wanted her to "take your eyes and get out!"

Ah, the things we do for literature. By the way, I saw the resemblance even before Mrs. Saxsma told us what they were.

And the word for this in English is "recognition" and it is spelled
r-e-c-o-g-n-i-t-i-o-n.