The History of Literature cover image

281 The Great Gatsby

The History of Literature

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Gatsby Is Black and Passing for White

If you read the book as Gatsby being black and passing for white, your reading experience will be a rich one. The search for textual clues to prove it one way or the other turns literature into a puzzle of hidden meanings and symbolism. I think that cheapens our readerly experience for grownups to try to definitively establish something that the author left as at best a little suggestive. But those readings sit side by side with the reading I prefer, which is the one I'm getting at. It's the shared narrative that we all have that unites us.

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