Cultural Differences and Racism in "The Great Gatsby"

Introduction

As America set upon the year 1920, our nation found itself once again, divided. In the time period that historians commonly refer to as ‘the cultural civil war’ many conflicts arose between new wealth and old wealth, pro-Prohibitionists and anti-Prohibitionists, older generations and younger generations, Whites and African-Americans, and traditional women and ‘new women’. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, does an astounding job at exemplifying the many cultural differences between these feuding groups. Therefore this essay will analyze the representation of cultural differences and racism in The Great Gatsby.

How the Jazz Age Divided the Nation: Racism in The Great Gatsby

The Jazz Age begun with the booming start to the Harlem Renaissance, and in the North African Americans strived culturally. Centered in the city of Harlem, and diffused throughout the rest of America. The way the rest of the country viewed them had finally started to change for the better. However, racism had remained more active than ever in most parts of the country, with groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Five years prior to the Harlem Renaissance began there were vigorous attempts to revive the population of the K.K.K.. These attempts centered in Atlanta, Georgia proved successful, and their population surged to a record setting 4 million members by the year 1925. The terrorist group held rallies, parades, and marches around the country. This time period was one of the most dangerous for African Americans as the K.K.K. would carry out many scare tactics such as beatings, bombings, shootings, lynchings, and cross burnings against Blacks as well as other ‘foreign’ demographics. In the Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan nonchalantly praised ‘the Rise of the Coloured Empires’ a anti-black book written by a white supremacist by the name of Lothorp Stoddard saying, “It’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. 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 been proved.” Tom Buchanan was a racist that believes whites should be wary of African Americans, before the White race isn’t dominant anymore.

The Jazz Age can’t be discussed without mentioning the crown aspect of it, the introduction of jazz music. Jazz music was a controversial topic for many people during the time, brought about by African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance, the music became increasingly popular among middle to upper class white Americans. It widely strayed from all the typical music genres prior to its birth, and that’s one of the reasons that many people loved. Most of the younger, more urban generations loved jazz because of the exuberant sound and the freedom it let them experience on the dance floor. They loved to participate in dance crazes such as the Foxtrot, Cake Walk, the Charleston, and the ever so famous Cab Calloway Jitterbug. On the other hand, the older, more traditional generations abominated jazz music for its crudity, and the ‘moral disasters’ that it promulgated (Tyler 30). 

Despite its controversy, jazz was beneficial to the African-American community, as it served as a vector leading to the integration of certain aspects of black culture into America’s white dominated society. In its origin, jazz was considered ghetto and intolerable, but as time went on America’s urban youth came around to love it. Though many whites had accepted the black culture they didn’t like the idea of actually socializing with African-Americans, entrepreneurs realized this and created clubs to the unfamiliar excursionists. These clubs, such as the famed Cotton Club, would feature the best of Harlem’s black jazz performers on a stage playing, while the middle to upper class white partygoers let loose on the dance floor. This scene is displayed in the Great Gatsby during Gatsby’s extravagant parties. At his party he had a stage set up with several black jazz musicians, they’re surrounded by many dancing white musicians, yet they are never seen socializing with any of them.

Women’s Role

The Jazz Age was an eventful time for the women’s suffrage movement which brought about privileges such as the Equal Rights Amendment, the right to vote, and more general freedom. Along with these newly arisen rights, became a three-way feud between traditional women, working women, and flappers. The traditional women were considered basic, family oriented women. Working women were women that ‘did a man’s job’ and entered the workforce. Then finally, flappers were sexually free, carefree women closely tied to jazz music and clubs. Each group of women ultimately looked down upon one another for their values and beliefs.

Prior to World War I all women were held to practically the same standards, they were expected to find a man, get married, have a family, and do all of her ‘womanly duties’ to keep her household stable and function. After the war, there were many opportunities for women in the job market, as many of the male soldiers never returned. So, women went to work and filled in the previously male dominated positions. These women continued to fight for opportunity, and gender equality rights. Even though they had the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, there was no true equality or even job safety for women. Some women feared that all of the new legislation would set new, lower minimum wages and maximum hour limits for women, and others feared that it would stop companies from hiring women altogether. To this day, the women’s suffrage movement continues, as women continue to be discriminated against in the job force, and continuously make less than men… but in a trend beginning in the Jazz Age, working women have became the new ‘traditional women’.

Beginning in the Jazz Age, the flapper woman was a new, young, and trendy lifestyle being adopted by upper-class white women. Flappers were characterized as women who wore their hair in a bob, and extremely revealing short skirts. They went to parties, danced proactively, smoke and drank with the men, and oftentimes said inappropriate, vulgar things. These women were in a word, wild, and held different values than women in the past. Flappers lived life in the moment, and focused more on fun than they did on starting or maintaining families. The connotation behind flappers, is one of equality and sexual freedom, as they lived more liberated lives than the other women of their time.

In the Great Gatsby, the character Daisy Buchanan, is an exact embodiment of the average flapper woman. She was a free and careless spirit, and she only cared about living a lavish, self-centered life. Daisy wore flapper attire, went to parties, drank alcohol, and didn’t truly value her family whether it be Tom or her daughter, Pammy. Daisy’s flapper mindset can be attributed to her actions as well as her words. It’s clear by her saying of her daughter, “I hope she’ll be a fool -- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool,” that she believed women should live a free (flapper), simple lifestyle void of any responsibility. Some would claim that Daisy couldn’t be a flapper, because she’s settled down with a family. However, she doesn’t seem too objected to divorcing Tom Buchanan, and she doesn’t seem to care, or know much about her daughter. When asked about her daughter, the only reply she could muster up was, “I suppose she talks, and—eats, and everything.” Therefore, F Scott. Fitzgerald seamlessly summarized the flapper into his novel through the characterization of Daisy Buchanan.

Generation Gap

With the Jazz Age the country witnesses something that it had never experienced before, rebellious American youth, that had completely shedded the morals and values of their parents and elders. The older generations were a people based on tradition passed on from the generation before them. On the other hand, the younger generation had made up their own wildly different culture, void of all traditions held by their parents. Innovations such as the introduction of jazz were considered to have turned teens onto the wrong path. The older generations believed that jazz was a sinful music, and that it promoted youth to rebel and perform uncivilized, odious acts. It also helped bring about the previously mentioned change from traditional women to flappers. The invention of the automobile also had an immense impact on youth culture at that time. Henry Ford had cut the price of an automobile down to an easily affordable $290 in 1925. Cars gave young people the ability to freely go wherever they wanted, whether they were going to clubs, or to petting parties (hook-up get togethers). In the Great Gatsby Tom and Daisy Buchanan exhibited the exact same qualities of the ever so careless Roarin’ Twenties Youth. The dysfunctional was described as, “careless people… they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness… and let other people clean up the mess they made.”

Prohibition 

At midnight, on January 16th, 1920, the 18th Amendment, supported by the Volstead Act, shut down every bar, tavern, and saloon in the United States. The temperance enacted by these legislations was known as the Prohibition era. These new national laws prohibited the manufacturing, sale, and transportation of all intoxicating beverages. Prohibition laws proved controversial from the minute they were placed, and two sides were formed - those who were pro-Prohibition, and those who were anti-Prohibition. While support on each side of the movement remained strong for the most part, in the year 1933 President D. Roosevelt introduced the 21st Amendment, which essentially ended Prohibition in the United States.

Those who were pro-Prohibition had some strong support during the early years of the temperance movement. As a nation, our level of alcohol consumption fell by over 70 percent, and that was one of the intended effects of the laws. The main demographic of prohibition supporters was comprised of social reformists, religious groups, and medical doctors. Doctors believed that abstaining from alcohol held many health benefits and religious groups saw drinking liquor as the devil and figured it a disruptive force for families and individuals, causing them to sin. With a more complex thought process, social reformists believed that outlawing alcohol would return America to more simple times. Rural areas tended to have a much more strict adherence to the Volstead Act, as there were less illegal speakeasies (illegal bars) and bootleggers (illegal vendors). Despite, the initial lowered alcohol consumption rating the negative-side of prohibition caused it’s support to become scarce.

While pro-Prohibition support was strong during the early stages, as the years progressed, the majority of Americans found themselves abominating the laws, and becoming anti-Prohibitionists. With the embargoment of alcohol came many unintended consequences, many of which outweighed all the benefits of temperance. The most detrimental consequence of the prohibition legislation was the rise of organized crime and mobsters. Gang members became bootleggers, and their control over the streets grew, which then resulted in a rise of violent crimes. Mobsters such as Al Capone seized the opportunity for power the laws provided. Capone pulled in over 60 million dollars annually, and was believed to have over half of Chicago’s police force on his payroll. In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby himself was a bootlegger and he had become wealthy doing it. Even though Jay didn’t drink, everytime he threw one of his renowned parties there was an abundance of illegal alcohol in stock. On the other hand, many amateur bootleggers were arrested, and jails across the country became overcrowded. These inexperienced wine and beer producers were also responsible for the deaths of thousands over the course of Prohibition. To sum it all up, the 18th Amendment did more harm to the country than it did help.

Old Money vs New Money

Money makes the world go round, but it always causes conflict in the process. The conflict that arose from money in this time period happened to be between rich people and rich people. The only difference between the two types of rich people was when they had acquired their wealth. People that had been born into affluent families and maintained their wealth from past generations, were classified as ‘old money’. Those who had just recently obtained their wealth were classified as ‘new money’. However, the reason that the two groups often clashed didn’t have that much to do with the time their wealth was procured, but rather the way that each group tended to act. Old money tended to be more sophisticated and classy, while new money seemed to be always strutting around their wealth in an attempt to impress as well as belittle others. In the Great Gatsby, the character Tom Buchanan falls into the old money category, while Jay Gatsby would be classified as new money. Tom lives in East Egg which is mostly comprised of those from old money backgrounds. Tom was born into a wealthy family, and he knows how to formally act with his money. On the other hand, Gatsby lives in West Egg, which is mostly made up of new money magnates. Gatsby buys unreasonably priced, flashy items to impress others (most specifically Daisy). The fact that the two of them didn’t like each other would have been probably for the time period.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Jazz Age was perfectly captured by author F. Scott Fitzgerald in his book, the Great Gatsby. His work was able to exemplify the cultural differences and conflicts that happened between new wealth and old wealth, pro-Prohibitionists and anti-Prohibitionists, older generations and younger generations, Whites and African-Americans, and traditional women and ‘new women’. Sadly, with the Great Depression came the end of the Jazz Age, though with it two things will ceaselessly continue to the future. The first being Fitzgerald’s work, all of the timeless classics that he created, will forever line the library walls, and will never become outdated. The second thing being the cultural differences he described, how people will never be able to get along, and our nation will forever find itself divided amongst multiple faults, for unlimited reasons. The Gatsbys and the Buchanans of the world will never see eye-to-eye, will never see compromise, they will see right and wrong, and when conflict arises there is no such thing as two correct sides.

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