Period 4/5 Blog #20

Why I Believe That Jay Gatsby Is A Black Man

August 25, 2000

Carlyle V. Thompson

Assistant professor of American and African literature at Medgar Evers

College, United States

Jay Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's opulent playboy hero, was a black man. Fitzgerald litters his novel with signifiers that suggest Gatsby to be black, although he "passes" as white. In The Great Gatsby, he is frequently described as "pale", as is his car: "It was a rich cream colour, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length" Yellow is a great signifier in Afro-American discourse to suggest miscegenation and racial passing. Here, Fitzgerald is also playing with the symbolic status of the car and with stereotypical images of blackness. Why does he do this? Why are there so many clues?

I have looked at similar themes of racial tension in works of Charles Waddell Chesnutt, William Faulkner and others. Gatsby has 40 acres: 40 acres and a mule are traditionally given to ex-slaves; he is associated with New Orleans and "black" jazz music; he trims his hair everyday - suggestive of African hair.

And he tells Nick Carraway that his family is dead. The word 'dead' is significant in that those light-skinned black individuals who choose to try and pass for white in society become symbolically dead to their families.

Fitzgerald was writing in the jazz age, a time of eugenics and the rise of white supremacy. He had already written on the threat of "the negroid that creeps northwards". Fitzgerald's racial anxieties shape the novel. A book popular in Fitzgerald's time, “The Rise of the Coloured Empires,” is cited by one of the novel's characters, Tom Buchanan, early on. The novel then explores (traditionally) the search for The American Dream.

There is one open discussion of race in the novel, where Tom insinuates Gatsby is a "black" individual, but Jordan defends him saying: "We're all white here." Jordan, however, is known as a liar: another hint.

More than that, every time we see black individuals -- such as “the three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl” in the limousine, or the “pale well-dressed negro” who describes the yellow car that hit Myrtle Wilson -- we see Gatsby or Gatsby has just left. Not to mention, the color yellow also suggests the term “high yellow,” which is a signifier for black individuals who pass as white.

Importantly Gatsby is identified as a "bootlegger.” Bootlegger means counterfeit, and here Fitzgerald implies that Gatsby was racially counterfeit. The narrative constantly whispers the presence of blackness. In my paper, "The Tragic Black 'Buck': Jay Gatsby's 'Passing' in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby,” I wanted to make people read a favorite book as they had never read it before.

My audience was skeptical at first, but they have been reviewing the evidence. A CNN "quick vote" poll showed that 15 percent of voters agreed with me that Gatsby was black.

I would like to see Denzel Washington or Laurence Fishburne, not Robert Redford, playing Jay Gatsby and dancing with Daisy.

Your comment must be at least 370 words. Due by Tuesday 3/13 at 11:59pm. Your reply to a classmate is due Thursday 3/15 at 11:59pm.

-In our reading so far, how have you pictured Gatsby in your head?

-What do you think of the authors argument here? Do you believe he has some sound evidence?

-If Jay Gatsby really is supposed to be a black man, how does that change the significance of the book?

-Consider the time period this was written in and that Gatsby is from West Egg and therefore seen as “other” or “less than” the people of East Egg. What about the fact that it seems society is determined to keep him from achieving his American Dream. Do these considerations reinforce the idea that Gatsby may be a black man?