Was Gatsby black?

By Elizabeth Manus

Aug 11, 2000 | Read the story

These double back flips of reasoning serve only to illustrate the narrow-mindedness of their self-absorbed sources. Such people can only relate to the theme of a literary work by squeezing it into their own restrictively defined situation, instead of recognizing the universality of their situation in a larger world. It is not "the manifestation of Fitzgerald's deep-seated apprehensions concerning miscegenation between blacks and whites." It is only the story of "the outsider trying to be an insider, of the self-invented man." The story is popular, and relevant, because of its widespread application to all men of all social, and racial, groups. This sort of thing happens to all of us, Professor. If it has also happened to you, one can only say, "Welcome to humanity."

-- Tom Chisholm

The most obvious flaw in the argument is: If it takes an African-American scholar versed in the nuances of "passing" to derive the information that Gatsby was black, wouldn't it require someone with a similar background to write it? Was Fitzgerald "passing" then?

Rather than spend his time looking up the number of times the color yellow was used, the professor might better use his time researching Fitzgerald and supporting where Fitzgerald obtained all this specialized knowledge.

-- Bobbi Stas

It is obvious to me that the character Gatsby was Jewish, not Black. His name was originally Gatz. Gatz or Getz is a common Jewish name. His first name was Jay, another common Jewish name usually representing Jacob. It was common for Jews to change their names coming to this country in the early part of the 20th century since many Anglo immigration agents couldn't deal with Eastern European names and Anglicized them. Many Jews chose to have English-sounding names to make themselves more acceptable in the Anglo society. This is just what Gatsby did.

-- Linda Dorfmont

"Gatsby" was about class more than anything else. Both in the terms of rich vs. working class and in terms of people from pedigreed families vs. people from broken homes. Secondarily it was about the Midwesterner as outsider in the East.

Fitzgerald was a straightforward writer and if he had meant for Gatsby to be a passing black, it would have been clearly indicated in the text.

-- Joy Shaffer

Thompson's theory reminds me of a satirical term paper I wrote as a high school sophomore. I proposed that the movie "The Wizard of Oz" was a drug parable. Dorothy was on an acid trip (LSD was discovered the year before the movie was made); the Wicked Witch tried to kill Dorothy and her gang with bad heroin -- the poppy field. And the Good Witch revived them with cocaine -- falling snow. My "reasoning" went on and on.

I knew I was I kidding.

-- Kent Westmoreland

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