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How can The Great Gatsby be considered a racist novel?
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The novel contains elements considered racist due to the portrayal of characters like Tom Buchanan, who espouses eugenics and racial superiority theories. Tom's views, such as his fear of "colored empires" and disdain for Gatsby's "new money," reflect 1920s racial tensions. Additionally, Jewish characters are depicted negatively, often linked to criminality. The absence of African American characters and Nick's depiction of black individuals further highlight racial undertones, despite Fitzgerald's implicit critique of racism through Tom's character.
The Great Gatsby is not primarily about race, which in itself raises questions about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of American society in the 1920s. The almost complete absence of African Americans in this novel has often been noted.
Fitzgerald’s objection to racism is implicit, rather than explicit, and is presented wholly within the character of Tom Buchanan, who essentially has no redeeming positive characteristics. The theme of eugenics, which was very popular in the 1910s through the 1920s, is raised in the scene where Nick first goes to the Buchanans’ house. Tom is eager to espouse his support of the views in a book on the “colored empires” that he is reading, which promotes the superiority of the “dominant,” “Nordic” races against the supposed threat of “other” races. None of the other characters overtly challenges him.
Tom later objects to the affair between Gatsby and Daisy not only because...
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Daisy is his wife but also because he associates it with other breakdowns of social boundaries: “people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they'll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.” Although he is not saying that Gatsby is black, he intends to insult him by comparing him to a black person.
The absence of race has often been noted as unusual in a novel concerned with the Jazz Age. By locating the huge parties in Long Island, Fitzgerald effectively sidesteps the question of integration and of white patronage of Harlem clubs in the 1920s. The pianist playing ragtime at the big party Nick describes is named Klipspringer, and his race is not specified.
Nick also seems uncomfortable around black people, as shown by one of his few mentions of African American people, the occupants of a passing car in Manhattan: “three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl.” Seeing them laughing, he continues, “I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.” Thus, they are not characters with defined, speaking roles; they only elicit Nick’s reaction to their stereotypical appearance.
References
Although The Great Gatsby is intended to offer commentary on human behavior and materialism, there is an element to the novel that can be viewed as racist. For instance, when Nick Carraway visits his cousin Daisy’s home, Daisy’s husband Tom engages him in conversation. Tom is apparently reading a novel entitled, “The Rise of the Colored Empires” and he energetically supports the author’s view that “colored” races are trying to take over a world that should rightly be dominated by “white” men. Although Nick offers no outward agreement with Tom, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, intentionally created a character that espoused racist views. Likewise, Gatsby’s business connection, Meyer Wolfsheim, is only one of several Jewish characters mentioned in the text. These characters have a minimal role in the text. Yet, they represent almost the entirety of criminality. They are depicted as shady, dishonest and crooked. Fitzgerald makes these Jewish representations responsible for nearly all of the criminal acts in the text.
How does The Great Gatsby relate to modern society regarding racism?
Near the beginning of the book, Tom Buchanan discusses race.
"Civilization's going to pieces," broke out Tom violently. "I've gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read 'The Rise of the Colored Empires' by this man Goddard? This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things."
Like today, race in the 1920s was a volatile topic. Because Tom is a disagreeable character, we can interpret Fitzgerald putting these racist words in his mouth as a critique of racism. Yet Tom's fears are relevant, because certain groups in the United States and Europe worry today about the influence of Islamic refugees in the West.
Tom associates Gatsby, whose real name is Gatz, with possibly Jewish origins. Tom is threatened by Gatsby as the possibly non-white other who might invade and take over his civilization. He does his best to exclude Gatsby from his circle of influence, for example by discouraging Gatsby from joining him and his horseback riding friends for dinner. He sneers at Gatsby and his "new" money.