Was Gatsby Great? The Great Gatsby Part 2: Crash Course English Literature
“Nothing was made whole by the tragedy of the Great Gatsby. I think that’s why some readers find the novel to be depressing and hopeless, even amid all the lush language and witty turns of phrase. But I don’t think it is hopeless. Remember that line from the first chapter? ‘Gatsby turned out all right in the end, it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams….’ As individuals, and as a collective, the tragedy isn’t in dreaming; It’s in chasing an unworthy dream. So in the end, is Gatsby great?”
you were not absent from our loneliness: Jay Gatsby was black: an explanation
So let me explain this theory for those of you who haven’t 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 it’s 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 ‘green light’ of upper class american romanticism from afar.
Themes of insurmountable class barriers permeate the entire novel right from some of the famous opening lines:
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
And so here’s the theory:
Jay Gatsby was black, passing for white (“High yellow”)
Lower class vs upper class. Old money vs new money. East Egg vs West Egg. White vs black. Don’t believe me?
- Early in the novel, Daisy’s 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 “three modish negroes”
- Numerous references are made to Gatsby’s notably dark skintone in comparison to Daisy’s lighter skintone
- “I 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 didn’t— at least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn’t— drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound.”
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 Gatsby’s whiteness is actually a omission of detail rather than a specific indicator that he was white.
From the article Was Gatsby Black?
Thompson adds, “When I ask people what basis there is for Gatsby being white, I get silence. I have asked students, colleagues. They don’t know. They cannot give me any evidence to back up the speculation. And why haven’t people made this argument so far?”
Of course as with any theory or reading of a classic text, there’s room for disagreement:
Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli has one answer. “Because it’s mishigas! If Fitzgerald wanted to write about blacks, it wouldn’t have taken 75 years to figure it out. If that’s 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 ‘The Great Gatsby’ and bad for students who get exposed to this kind of guessing game.”
But why shouldn’t we play a guessing game with it? We don’t have Fitzgerald around to verify any of these details so why not have a bit of fun with the text? It’s 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 can’t be with their own Daisy.
Why shouldn’t Gatsby be black? And why can’t 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, it’s probably not literally the case (as Fitzgerald intended it) –- but what’s much more interesting is everyone’s utter inability to take it seriously as a legitimate reading of the text, which it is.
(via bigfatfeminist)
"One study had people sit in front of an array of objects, then grab and manipulate a specific sequence of objects, as directed by a computer voice. Sometimes the computer voice said things like, “Move the box.” Other times it added a filler word, saying, “Move the, uh, box.” The task wasn’t complex, and people had no trouble following the directions. Still, they were quicker to follow directions that involved objects they hadn’t yet manipulated when their instructions included an “uh.” To listeners, “uh” indicates that something new, which requires more mental processing on the part of the speaker, is about to be introduced. This helped the study participants put themselves in the right mindset of choosing from the as-yet unfamiliar objects. So even a word that’s no more than a grunt is helpful. Which is good, because all languages have verbal filler. American Sign Language has a sign for “um,” and most languages have some monosyllable that has no meaning but indicates a pause"
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Every language needs its, like, filler words (via aminatou)
This is probably one reason it can be so hard to digest a lot of academic and straight-news writing. And, uh, therefore a helpful writing tip.
(via annfriedman)
Time to write a script to insert filler words into academic papers. “Subject B was a member of, like, the control group.”
(via maxforfree)
(via second-breakfast)
(via vintage-cover-art)
ALL of this. Encourage people to try new words, to mess them up, to experiment with vocabulary, to learn complicated adjectives and verbs and nouns, because words are fun.
Also, don’t be a jerk.
For whatever reason someone ‘mispronounces’ a word- don’t be a jerk
(via fatbodypolitics)
Academic Men Explain Things to Me: Portrait of the Artist as a Powerpoint
I was taking my English 100 requirement my freshman year of college and our professor gave us a low ball assignment where we basically just had to do a power point presentation about a famous author. One guy decided to do his on James Joyce and when he asked for questions or comments I raised me hand.
“Um, on the slide where you talked about his books-” I started before he interrupted me.
“Yeah, I know,” He said, “His books are really long and complicated. It’s okay if you don’t know them.”
“It’s not that I don’t know them-” I tried again.
“Oh, so you didn’t get them? Yeah, they can be pretty difficult, but if you work hard you should be able to get some of it.”
“Actually-” I tried again and this time I was treated to a mansplaining of the themes that he had just gone over. Finally when he finished, I looked him square in the eye and said:
“If you’re done telling me how much more you know about James Joyce than me, I just wanted to let you know that it’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” not author.
Been there, done that, glad to be finished with grad school.
Congratulations, College Graduate. Now Tell Us: What Did You Learn? | LinkedIn
A few years ago, two researchers tracked a representative sample of 2,300 students at 24 colleges and universities who took the CLA three times in their college careers: at the beginning of their freshman year, at the end of their sophomore year, and finally, before graduation.
The study’s bottom line: 45 percent of students in the study made no gains in their writing, complex reasoning, or critical-thinking skills during their first two years of college. After four years, the news wasn’t much better: 36 percent failed to show any improvement.
The main reason for this, the researchers found, was a lack of rigor. Through surveys they learned that students spent about 12 hours a week studying on average, much of that time in groups. Most didn’t take courses that required them to read more than 40 pages a week or write more than 20 pages over the course of an entire semester.
Students who studied alone did better, as did students whose teachers had high expectations or assigned a significant amount of reading or writing. Those who majored in the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences, and math did the best. And the majors that did the worst? Education, social work, and the most popular major on US college campuses: business.
(via green-street-politics)
See The Fascinating Evolution of Cover Art From 12 Legendary Queer Books
Looking back at a century of cover designs from all over the world for beloved queer books like Tipping the Velvet, Orlando, The Color Purple, Annie on my Mind, Rubyfruit Jungle and more.
