The Great Gatsby and Complicity In Racism

I wrote an essay for my American Fiction 1900-1945 class. I don't think it's very good yet despite two weeks of trying... :( but the proceeding is what I turned in. I'm going to eventually we-work it (possibly in a collection of essays?) because I think it has the skeleton of thoughtful literary criticism. This is the direction I'm going to take my blog as well. I've been posting poems for years and after I release my next book of poetry (The Night I Died and Other Poems) I'm not going to post much more poetry on my website. My American Fiction Professor mentioned in a lecture he was giving about William Faulkner's, The Sound and The Fury, that Sherwood Anderson suggested that Faulkner stop writing poetry and focus on Short Stories and Novels. I never thought or considered not writing poetry. And maybe the correlation between what Anderson suggested and Faulkner not being as famous a poet as he is a novelist is coincidental, just thought the idea of not writing poetry anymore, at least to myself a self-proclaimed poet, was a bad thought to consider. I still want to write the third part of Heavenly Decay; maybe that'll be the next time I share my poetry. I'm not burdened to write that shit anymore though, I feel tritely free or how people feel when they tritely say, "a burden has been lifted off of my shoulders."

I do want to post more social/political commentary (editorials), short stories, photos, and videos. 

The Great Gatsby and Complicity In Racism

            Despite the absence of major characters of racial backgrounds other than white, racism is still prevalent in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Tom Buchanan represents the racism of the time period and of the dominant society. Tom’s character also alludes to how white people ignore that the immoral racial views come from immoral people who have flaws that are not just bad for the races they hate but also the people around them. Those people who know and understand that race, as a marker for superiority, is asinine are willing to recognize the falsity but not denounce or defend the victims of racial marginalization because they benefit from the oppression too. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby there is no grand commitment to denouncing racism and although Nick’s views on race are not known he suborns Tom’s racism, which signals that others in the dominant society are complicit by being silent. Racism functions as an ancillary tool that frames the excess of the characters, and determines that racism is necessary and tantamount to sustaining white privilege and white supremacy.

            The overt racism of Tom’s rant early in the novel, and the reaction from Daisy and Nick is the frame for the complicit nature of racism in Fitzgerald’s work. Tom says,

“Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ […] the idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be­–will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff […] It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”¹ He is espousing his racist views simply because he was randomly inclined to, Tom’s racist views have no impetus or basis. The paranoia of the book, and subsequently Tom, is completely unwarranted especially considering his status in society. Tom and the other characters are socially and economically insulated from any of other races because society ensures it.

            Daisy enforces this when she responds to Tom’s rant, “We must beat them down” (13). When F. Scott Fitzgerald was writing The Great Gatsby, also the setting of the novel is the Jim Crow Era in the history of the United States. Jim Crow was a system of oppression that made it difficult for races not white, specifically black, to be upwardly mobile. Jim Crow was most notably a phenomenon in the American South but racism’s prevalence and affect was nationwide. These systems are necessary for resource scarcity, to allow for the exorbitant lifestyle description in the novel. Racism is absolutely necessary to sustain their comfort, it is the necessary subjugation of other races that allows the “Nordic” or the European to have the most influence and “produce all the things that go to make civilization–science and art” (13).

            Tom’s rant is trying to justify racism and Fitzgerald refuses to allow him to offer any scientific evidence because it does not exist. None of the other partygoers challenge what he says because they necessarily believe in the book's racism too. Tom is espousing what is generally thought in the room as evident in Daisy’s reaction. Tom keeps insisting that the findings are scientific and no other party guest asks for the data that justifies his claims. Tom is essentially just letting his racist views be known so there is no ambiguity in how he feels. He is admitting that he no longer wants to be complacent in the race war. He is choosing the side of white supremacy.

          Nick the narrator does not agree or disagree with Tom’s book review but he notes, “There was something pathetic in his concentration, as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him anymore” (13). The position of the partygoers, even the narrator who is of more modest means, is that complacency, because they understand that the system of government, the rule of law, the economic structure is there to protect them and their interests, which is wholly maintained by racism, white supremacy. Daisy and Tom aside no one has to openly admit to racism or being a racist, benefitting from the structure of the system determines that.  

            Furthermore, this also admits to paranoia and insecurity. White supremacy and white supremacists understand the destruction they are causing. White supremacists understand that you cannot hold a gun to the head of the world forever, despite how hard they are trying. The unfair resource distribution and the exploitation of nations and their resources as only valuable to the interests of European nations, they fear, will have desperate consequences. It is necessary to keep oppressing the other races so that the other races never eventually gain the power and ability to turn guns back on the European and the system. The partygoers understand that since violence and subjugation built the system that allows for their extreme excess. This paranoia understands exactly why the rest of the world or the races being subjugated would possible want revenge because that is how the white supremacists would react to their own subjugation.

            Karl Marx writes in a Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy, “The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness”² Tom, Daisy, and even Nick’s social position determine their need to believe in the need for racial oppression just as Dilzy in William Faulkner’s The Sound and The Fury is necessarily moral because her outright denial or refusal to fulfill the Compson family wishes could result in harm coming to her and her family. Faulkner in an interview at the Virginia Colleges says, “Dilsey, the Negro woman, she was a good human being. That she held that family together for not the hope of reward but just because it was the decent and proper thing to do.”³ Dilsey is not allowed any true feelings because of the condition of her environment. Tom must believe in racism because it will keep him in a position of privilege and wealth and Dilsey must be moral because of her position in a society. She is under duress; although her care may be genuine she has no opportunity to explore the possibility of decent. Dilsey is necessarily the most moral person because gaining any wealth because of white supremacy and believing in the superiority of the white race and the necessary subjugation of other races is immoral, which disallows any of the white characters any moral superiority.

            The extreme excess and the disparate and horrid ways the United States and the capitalist structure is continuing its dominion over the planet is personified in the partygoers complacent attitude towards Gatsby and his path to acquiring his wealth, as long as they can continue to enjoy his wealth too. Rumors begin to swirl at a party at Gatby’s mansion, “Gatsby. Somebody told me–[…] the thought he killed a man once. […] its more that he was a German spy during the war. I heard that from a man who knew all about him, grew up with him in Germany” (44). Not only are the partygoers enjoying their time in the home of someone with such shocking and seedy rumors about them they associate him with a German spy. Germany was one of the United States’ enemy in World War I and also held the colony of Namibia until 1915, while colonizing Namibia, Germany’s Second Reich killed over 80% of its population.⁴ The complacent nature of the world because the colonizing European powers were practicing white supremacy, performing similar genocides all over the African continent. The average European citizen no matter their political allegiances would not believe that the brutality in Africa would befall the people of Europe.

            It was okay when it was Africa, then Germany’s Third Reich, and not just Africans were being indiscriminately exterminated, Germans were murdering their own people too; lame children, the mentally ill, and of course the Jewish community. Then as now, there seems to be a white supremacist contingency in the United States that is sympathetic to the genocidal nature of certain German regimes. It is this same complacency where it does not matter how white wealth was acquired, maintaining white supremacy is most important to ensure that the racialized world does not make any gains. They fear that the world wants retribution for the atrocities committed and continuously being committed for no other reason than a false belief in racial superiority to justify economic gains. It does not matter if Gatsby is a possible enemy and aligned with a nation who asserts its dominance not only as a white race but the master white race. He is rich, he throws nice parties, and despite the curiosity and suspicions, that is all that matters. The complacency and suborning of evil and oppression of any people will ultimately become the reality of those who can afford to be complacent. Power especially power built on subjugation will spread like capitalism until there is no one else to oppress.

             Nick as a surrogate for the complicit middle class to the acquiring of excessive wealth by the upper classes is highlighted not just by suborning, and taking a laissez faire approach to Tom’s racism, the oppression of other races, but also to the credibility of those who have excessive wealth, namely Gatsby. The questions about the acquiring of wealth and influence over resources is not worth believing or validating, just as the credibility and prestige of those who have this wealth in not worth truly seeking. After, Gatsby tells Nick briefly about his upbringing, Nick notices, “I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,” or swallowed it, or choked on it as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all” (65). There is not a warning sign great enough to challenge this complacency, to retreat from Gatsby’s company. There is no attempt at understanding the possible consequences of being involved with Gatsby. Similarly, the accumulation of wealth the western world possesses was wrought by people who have similarly sketchy backgrounds, filled with fairy tales and falsehoods, filled with the exaggeration of accomplishments, filled with supreme delusions of grandeur that create tyrants and dictators, their supporters and their complicit detractors.

            Despite the white supremacist notions throughout the novel Nick, who the reader eventually discovers is the name of the narrator, remembers a quote from his father, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (1). This seems reasonable and the edict of modern liberalism but if white supremacy is necessary to gain and keep advantages then Racialized people necessarily are kept from advantages so this is fake empathy. It is moralizing to attempt to hide the true motives of those who want to ensure that their families can prosper for generations.

             Tyrants, like Hitler or Leopold II, or Joseph Stalin, or Benito Mussolini are not the only ones to blame for mass genocide and continuing subjugation of multiple races of people. What is not said is that the complacent nature of those that benefit from the system of racism white supremacy, those who seemingly benefit from the death being caused by their government are just as culpable. Even if they oppose the tyrants rise to power, the inability to fight against the violence, or at the very least speak up against it, and their own privately held prejudices only ensures that in a world dominated by white supremacy there will always be another megalomaniac murdering millions of people, these awful people will continue to not only persist but thrive. That is how racism functions in The Great Gatsby, as a necessary tool to help maintain and justify the excess created by white supremacy.

·      Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. Third Norton Critical Edition. Conversations. Session Ten. Pg. 278

·      Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby, the Scribner Trade Paper Back Edition 2004. P.1 Pg. 13

·      Marx, Karl. A Contribution to the Critique of a Political Economy, excerpt, Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism 2^nd Edition

·      URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-41596617/namibia-s-reparations-and-germany-s-first-genocide. BBC News. Namibia's reparations and Germany's first genocide. October 12, 2017. June 04, 2018.