Jay Gatsby was black: an explanation
So let me explain this theory for those of you who havenât heard it before already.
The Great Gatsby is a story of a man that makes his fortune bootlegging and throws countless magnificent parties all in hopes of attracting the attention of his old flame Daisy.
But itâs really a story about insurmountable class barriers. Daisy will never be with Gatsby, no matter how much she claims to love him. No matter how hard Gatsby tries, he will always be stuck on West Egg, only able to admire the âgreen lightâ of upper class american romanticism from afar.Â
Themes of insurmountable class barriers permeate the entire novel right from some of the famous opening lines:
âWhenever you feel like criticizing any one,â he told me, âjust remember that all the people in this world havenât had the advantages that youâve had.â
And so hereâs the theory:Â
Jay Gatsby was black, passing for white:Â High yellow.Â
Lower class vs upper class. Old money vs new money. East Egg vs West Egg. White vs black. Donât believe me?Â
Early in the novel, Daisyâs beau Tom goes on a full fledged rant about the oncoming threat of the rise of the black race in society
Another reference to race is made when Nick and Gatsby pass by a limo driven by a white chauffeur with âthree modish negroesâ
Numerous references are made to Gatsbyâs notably dark skintone in comparison to Daisyâs lighter skintone
âI would have accepted without question the information that Gatsby sprang from the swamps of Louisiana or from the lower East Side of New York. That was comprehensible. But young men didnâtâ at least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didnâtâ drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound.â
Not only was the insurmountable barrier between him and Daisy one of class and upbringing, but also one of race.
What we take for granted as Gatsbyâs whiteness is actually a omission of detail rather than a specific indicator that he was white.
From the article Was Gatsby Black?
Thompson adds, âWhen I ask people what basis there is for Gatsby being white, I get silence. I have asked students, colleagues. They donât know. They cannot give me any evidence to back up the speculation. And why havenât people made this argument so far?â
Of course as with any theory or reading of a classic text, thereâs room for disagreement:
Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli has one answer. âBecause itâs mishigas! If Fitzgerald wanted to write about blacks, it wouldnât have taken 75 years to figure it out. If thatâs what Fitzgerald wanted, he would have made it perfectly clear in April 1925. Great works of literature are not fodder for guessing games. This kind of thing is bad for literature, bad for Fitzgerald, bad for âThe Great Gatsbyâ and bad for students who get exposed to this kind of guessing game.â
But why shouldnât we play a guessing game with it? We donât have Fitzgerald around to verify any of these details so why not have a bit of fun with the text? Itâs a very modern reading of the text and it makes it not only more relatable but more heartbreaking.
Everyone has their own reasons why they canât be with their own Daisy.
Why shouldnât Gatsby be black? And why canât he really be with Daisy?
In this discussion about whether or not Beethoven was black, the point is made:
Another tight question along these lines: Was Jay Gatsby black? Again, itâs probably not literally the case (as Fitzgerald intended it) â- but whatâs much more interesting is everyoneâs utter inability to take it seriously as a legitimate reading of the text, which it is.
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