Racism In The Great Gatsby Essay

Throughout human history, race has been an integral part in understanding how humans interact. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is no different. During the 1920s, race relations were much different compared to today. In The Great Gatsby, the story is presumably dominated by the Caucasian race. Also, Tom seems to represent some the racial ideology of the time period. It is very possible that Jay Gatsby was in fact African-American in The Great Gatsby. We can see this by his mannerisms and the way he interacts with other characters.

Gatsby comes from the Platonic conception of Gatz and by comparing Gatsby to Platonic Idealism, the idea of Gatsby becomes immortalized and genuine. Gatsby, representing the lower class desires to alter his status to an unalterable conception, which epitomizes the new money’s desires. Tom Buchanan, the embodiment of the traditional upper class, is a domineering man who desires only one result, to maintain his status and wealth. Tom obsesses over maintaining a pure, rich class of Caucasians that he believes should never be challenged: “‘It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out, or these other races will have control…this idea is that we’re Nordics. I am, and you are, and you are, and…we’ve produced all the things that go to make civilization- oh, science and art, and all that’” (13). The only characters in this excerpt are Tom, Daisy, Nick, and Jordan and they all come from well-regarded families who are prosperous compared to the other characters in the novel. Since Tom only converses with them about their duty to protect civilization, it suggests that they are the class holds a responsibility to maintain its position. Tom is a symbol of the traditional wealth and he proposes that in order to protect civilization, their traditional wealthy class must be conscious of the threat they are under. These contrasting desires pose a difficult situation for the classes where they must

The purpose of this chapter is to show what Tom Buchanan is like, and how he acts towards other people and his money. Also, the reader is prepared to meet Gatsby as the party scene continues to build an aura of mystery and excitement around Gatsby, who has yet to make a full appearance in the novel. Here, Gatsby emerges as a mysterious subject of gossip. He is extremely well known, but no one seems to have any

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story about a wealthy man named Gatsby. Gatsby lives a luxuriant life in West Egg of New York. Gatsby’s wealth has an unknown secret because nobody seems to know where his wealth emerged from. Despite of having so much fortune, Gatsby’s true American dream has not been achieved. In the great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald develops Gatsby as a failed American dream to show the impossibility of the American dream in the 1920’s.

Through the means of characterization, Fitzgerald expresses Tom Buchanan as another immoral character. Tom is portrayed as an egotistical, hypocrite who advocates white supremacy. His hypocrisy is shown when he speaks to Gatsby, he conduct himself as a “high” class citizen but dwells as a “low” class citizen. “I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong.” “What about it?” said Gatsby politely. “I guess your friend Walter Chase

Tom Buchanan is the person most dominantly representing these people. His actions are generally self-centered and depict him as racist. Tom’s self-centered nature is revealed in his actions in East Egg. For instance, Tom cares only for himself and his well-being. He mistreats his wife Daisy by hurting her physically. This is evident when Daisy says, “Look! ... You did it, Tom… I know you didn’t mean to but you did do it” (17). Daisy is trying to trigger Tom’s guilt, but fails as he disregards her complaining and changes the topic of the conversation, thus, proving his self-centered ideals that concern no one other than himself. Moreover, Tom’s racist nature reveals itself when he discusses with Nick on the topic of a new book that Tom has been reading; ‘The Rise of the Coloured Empires’. Tom says, “It’s up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control over things” (18). Tom thinks that the white race is the supreme race and that all other coloured races are inferior, coupled with the belief that the supreme race should watch out or else they will end up losing their title. This ideal is common in the 1920’s and it correlates with the moral deterioration of the upper class in society since they are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the supremacy of the white race. Finally, Tom’s self-centered nature in East Egg best reveals itself when Tom excuses himself from the dinner table in order to talk to his mistress

Fitzgerald, in his sarcastic novel The Great Gatsby, frequently shows how racism and classism seriously influence the possibilities of achieving American dreams in obscure methods. The novel details Gatsby’s achievements and dream including Daisy, and makes comparison with other people in different races and classes indirectly but visibly. The fact that, though Gatsby is much wealthier than those in East Egg, he has never achieved the American dream, never owned Daisy truly and never acquired respect, but rumours, due he isn’t born in high class and makes money through bootleg. To some extent, the miserable end of Gatsby is the reflection of the disparity of classism. Gatsby’s mansion reminds people of the feasibility of making the American dream come true. However, his unexpected death that is not caught by police, but killed by Wilson, a white man in mid class, proves that it is related to races and classes closely. Fitzgerald takes us into the suffering of Gatsby to show us that the American dream is like a shell company, which makes everyone look forward to their future with great expectations, but only certain people can truly reach it because people are not standing on the same starting line.

But he firmly decides that Gatsby should not attend the great party of the madam. Willing to attend, Gatsby even express his eagerness of “follow you in my car”. However, when Gatsby is ready and comes out, those three people have already “trotted quickly down the drive disappearing under the August foliage”. What a great satire it is. Fitzgerald is really a great writer. Under his pen, Gatsby’s eagerness of becoming a member of the upper class and the upper class’s refusing attitude has been vividly presented. Judging from the attitude of the upper class, Gatsby could never have the opportunity to enter this class. No matter how hard Gatsby tries, in the essence, he is still a nobody from the lower class. As a result, Gatsby’s “wealth dream” must inevitably been destroyed.

In the 1920's, when author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, it was common to use words to describe African American people that would be seen as offensive today. The purpose of using such words were to portray African Americans as objects, not human beings. When Nick describes the "two Bucks" and a girl passing them in a limousine with a white chauffeur he

Gatsby realizes that life of the high-class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby?s time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an enormously wealthy family, ?seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind.?(Lehan, pg.60) Nick describes Tom?s physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a ?hard mouth and a supercilious manner?arrogant eyes has established dominance over his face?always leaning aggressively forward?a cruel body?his speaking voice?added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed? (Lehan, p.61)

One of Tom’s most prominent traits is his disloyalty, especially to his marriage. During the dinner party at Daisy’s house in the East Egg, the telephone receives a call, from Tom’s mistress, resulting in Daisy exclaiming “She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time, don’t you think?” (Fitzgerald 15). Daisy is frustrated that Tom is cheating on her, but not for the right reasons. Rather than being upset at Tom for having an affair, she is upset because the phone call is merely disrupting the dinner party. One of Tom’s proudest moments takes place at the dinner party when Daisy, Nick, and Jordan discuss races in America and his opinions on it. He mentions that “It’s up to us, the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things” (Fitzgerald 18). Tom upholds the white community in America to be at a higher standard than those that were not born/raised in America. He sees members of the white community as higher beings than those who are not, holding himself at an upper level.

The social hierarchy is influenced by the amount of money one owns which determines whether one can attain their dream. By creating apparent social classes within ‘The Great Gatsby’ – old money, new money and no money, Fitzgerald strongly suggests that American society is intensely stigmatised. Daisy, Tom and Jordan represent the elite social class of society where despite their problems and failures they are always protected and immune by their wealth. Tom refers to Gatsby as ‘Mr Nobody from nowhere” and a “common swindler who would have to steal the ring he put on her finger” as he boasts about his hereditary wealth compared to the other distinct elite group of society who acquire their wealth through business deals, which are sometimes corrupt. Although Fitzgerald mainly attacks the rich, by making them look judgemental, superior and selfish, evidently the lower class of society are vulnerable within American society. This is shown where so many, like Myrtle,

Tom Buchanan is one of the many colourful, intriguing and enigmatic characters of the masterpiece “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He is the antagonist of the novel and rightly so. He is racist, a hypocrite, an immoral cheater, a short-tempered brute and misogynistic. Tom is also part of an old and out dated sort of world that is being swamped all-round the edges by a new and better society. That is the reason why he is acting so tough and also why he hates Jay Gatsby so much, it is because he is afraid, afraid that the world that he knows and all the old-fashioned values of love, wealth and masculinity will come crashing down on him. He dislikes Gatsby because he is part of the new generation and he got rich by a different way

Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, there is a constant theme present: social class. Fitzgerald makes a connection between the theme of social class, and the settings in the novel for example The Valley of Ashes which is described as a “desolate area of land” (p.21) and a “solemn dumping ground” (p.21) which is where the poor people live. The Valley of Ashes is situated between West Egg and New York, West Egg being the place where the aspiring classes are situated, which is the “less fashionable of the two” (p.8), this is where Gatsby lives. West Egg is the place of ‘new money’, Fitzgerald shows this by the idea of the main character Jay Gatsby, rumoured to be selling illegal alcohol (prohibition) which means he is quickly making vast

“I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth” (2). So speaks Nick in the beginning of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. This exemplifies how people born into different social classes are not born with the same character and ethics. Since people from different classes think so differently, this may cause conflicts between them and might prevent them from having substantial relationships with each other.