In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece of literature “The Great Gatsby”, the eponymous character is shown to be an eccentric man with a shrouded past, which only becomes revealed to the reader in the final third portion of the book. Through his past, and many other subtleties laced into the book by Fitzgerald, it is heavily hinted at that Gatsby himself is African-American, being pale enough to pass as a white man in West Egg. The inklings of this idea are planted through this novel, both overt and symbolic, such as the geography laid out by Fitzgerald and characters’ placement in that, character interactions between Gatsby and harsh racists like Tom Buchanan, and Gatsby’s past that got him to West Egg and found him his fortune. Gatsby being black was a very hidden yet powerful statement by Fitzgerald on the upward mobility of African-Americans during the 1920’s when racism and racial violence were becoming extremely prevalent, and the lengths these people had to go to to achieve that mobility, with no guaranteed success.
In “The Great Gatsby”, the towering mansion that holds the lavish parties
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He has gone through serious lengths to remove himself from certain parts of his past so as to keep up an image that will afford him the future he wants in a world of little opportunity to him. He changes his name from James Gatz to differentiate himself and give himself a more white name “at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career,”(98). Another prime piece of evidence is the method through which Gatsby achieved his fortune. The bootlegging business he was involved with under the facade of a pharmaceutical business can easily be interpreted as symbolic as him having a facade to hide who he truly is. His business with Wolfshiem made him rich as much as hiding his race