The Great Gatsby was published 100 years ago today.
While it was a flop at first, it captured its era well. I’m not talking about jazz, but about the nativist, racist rhetoric it critiques through Tom Buchanan’s portrayal. In 1925, the KKK had a massive parade in D.C., and Tom is exactly who would have participated (and likely made his employees go too).
(I’m not claiming the most successful book of the year or author was racist, but it’s ironic that the best selling book of 1925 was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes…)
Whenever I think of The Great Gatsby, though, I remember reading it for Eighth Grade English. Staring at the book cover one day, I noticed that eyes had naked female forms.
When I alerted the teacher to my discovery, he panicked a bit, asking us to not tell our parents. In our puritanical town, he could have gotten into a lot of trouble.
