Gender Differences In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

For a moment, picture having an interest or hobby that you enjoyed, football for instance. But, sadly, almost everyone around you had a strong hatred for football. So, to fit in, you too pretend to both hate it and enjoy what the majority of people around you like; for example, golfing. While they’re both sports, they have numerous differences, so no matter how hard you try, in your heart, you constantly wish you were playing football instead of golfing. This can be used to depict how queer people may feel when oppressed for something that’s out of their control. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby portrays the queer experience during the 1920s; a period when same-sex relationships as a whole were so frowned upon that it wasn’t uncommon

Nick Carraway is likely a queer man either in denial or in hiding because certain descriptions of events from his point of view hint at him having an attraction to men or at least masculine features. For instance, there’s a point in the story where Nick goes to a penthouse with Tom Buchanon and his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who invites over both her sister and a friend of hers, as well as her husband—Mr. McKee. And after Nick and Mr. McKee leave, some questionable events occur: “‘Come to lunch someday,’ he [Mr. McKee] suggested, as we groaned down in the elevator. ‘Where?’ ‘Anywhere.’ … ‘All right,’ I agreed, ‘I’ll be glad to,’ … I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands” (Gatsby 37-38). Within the quote, there are a few key points to look a bit deeper into. First, Mr. McKee seemingly out of nowhere asks Nick to have lunch together some time, despite them not talking much beforehand, which in of itself isn’t too odd. However, then the remains of the quote play out: depicting Nick somehow ending up alone in Mr. McKee’s bedroom, with Mr. McKee unclothed, not

Before the following quote, Gatsby and Nick are outside Gatsby’s household, with Gatsby worrying about Daisy after confessing to her in front of her husband, and of course it not ending well for anyone, while Nick comforts Gatsby, and before he leaves, this happens: “‘They’re a rotten crowd,’ I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.’ I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we had been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time” (Gatsby 154). With the compliment being something so direct and personal, even indirectly insulting his cousin in a way in the process, this may be a confession of sorts to Gatsby. Even if it’s not a confession per se, him stating that he disapproved of Gatsby from beginning to end, despite him romanticizing Gatsby from start to finish, either helps portray his denial or internalized conflict with how he feels about Gatsby. Either way, the prior reveal that he purposefully misses his train back east solely because of Gatsby shows he at the least strongly cares about him. Now on the topic of conflicted feelings, this will cause Nick to end up feeling isolated from practically everyone. During this quote,