#Scott 1920

[random-brushstrokes]

James Scott - Winter in Chateaudun (1927)

[fullcolorfright]

The Great White Silence (1924)

[sanguine-prince]

i’m sure i’m not the first to say something like this, but let me tell you about my poc-passing-as-white jay gatsby headcanon!!

for some background, in the 1920s there was an interesting shift regarding (white) skin tones. previously, tans were viewed as a sign that a person worked out in the fields, and therefore a trademark of the lower class. however, slowly after the industrial revolution, it increasingly became a representation of luxury, since the rich upper class would have the time to lounge about and sunbathe at their leisure.

i say all this to show that a poc gatsby would have the ostensible class and wealth for a tan, which would ‘excuse’ a slightly browner skin tone in the public eye.

(the 20s was also the setting of passing by nella larsen, so that’s neat.)

in my vision, he’s biracial (maybe his mother was black & his father was a german immigrant) with skin light enough to pass for white.

the fact that nick states that gatsby keeps his hair neatly groomed and cut might be to prevent it from curling up.

additionally, i think it could contrast tom’s white supremacy & his fear of poc social progress.

it would also create a deeper divide between gatsby and daisy, and once again the contrast between him and tom. in my mind, daisy wouldn’t know about it until the point where tom reveals everything about gatsby’s bootlegging etc. with jay revealing it to her in the car ride back (oops then she hits myrtle).

then, when she chooses tom and the life of comfort, wealth, status, etc that their marriage offers, she also rejects not only gatsby’s new money but also his race.

it’s a lot more thematically significant for the american dream as well—it’s still unattainable and essentially tainted by capitalism, and it also emphasizes that it’s restricted to the white upper class. social mobility only becomes available to gatsby when he disguises his racial identity.

similarly, it fits with gatsby’s identity reconstruction—the quintessential american is white, rich, and educated.

daisy and tom have that ticket into society because they have that inherent thing that he will never have—pedigree, in both class and race. that’s something that even nick has.

(in my mind, he tells nick all about it the night before he dies & nick understands as best he can and doesn’t think less of him, because it further highlights the differences between his & gatsby’s relationship v. gatsby’s relationship with daisy; namely, the transparency -> acceptance give-and-take that he and daisy never had. because of having to hide himself from daisy in order to maintain her affection, he builds an expectation that he must be someone that he is not as well as developing a transactional definition of love (he gives, and people love him as long as he can continue to give) in order to be loved. therefore, nick’s immediate curiosity and fascination with who he truly is is foreign to him. not to get too into their dynamic lmao i just think it’s really interesting.)

finally, the very last part where nick is sitting and looking at the bay and thinking about the first immigrants and their dreams and how gatsby embodied the purity and naivety of those dreams is further exemplified by his racial ‘otherness.’

and there’s,,, technically nothing in the book to explicitly refute this from what i remember!

(n.b.: it has been a hot second since i’ve read tgg, so lmk if i’ve got anything wrong!)

[heatherfield]

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Kissing in the Rain, Episode 10 “Daisy & Jay” [x]

[bigb-enthusiast]

1920s au suppliers RAAGHH

(Celestial duo and magic mountain)

[newyorkthegoldenage]

“So I’ve decided,” she continued, her voice rising slightly, “that early next week I’m going down to the Sevier Hotel barber-shop, sit in the first chair, and get my hair bobbed.” She faltered, noticing that the people near her had paused in their conversation and were listening; but after a confused second Marjorie’s coaching told, and she finished her paragraph to the vicinity at large. “Of course I’m charging admission, but if you’ll all come down and encourage me I’ll issue passes for the inside seats.”

     —F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," 1920

The photo above shows Muriel Redd, who was appearing in the show Tickle Me, having her hair bobbed by Lewis Morgan, the manager of the Hotel McAlpin barber shop, September 13, 1920.

Photo: Bettmann Archives/Getty Images/Fine Art America

[flashliiqhts]

Some fanart for @eternalduos 's fic, "Instructions for Stealing Stars"! The 20s-Era fashion is just really fun to draw

[bleach-vodka]

jordan baker lesbian icon

[haveyoureadthispoll]

[l-rose75]

who all up being borne back ceaselessly into the past rn?

[honeyedantique]

f. scott fitzgerald

[evadneares]

"They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby"

[thoughtportal]

It’s all about (gatsby’s) house

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

[cmonbartender]

Beach study (1928) - Henry Scott Tuke

[garadinervi]

Coretta Scott King, April 27, 1927 / 2023

(image: Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Zelda Fitzgerald's New York

Zelda Fitzgerald loved New York, where she lived in the early 1920s. A talented painter (as well as writer and dancer), she created these works over a period of years, from the 1920s to 1943. In 1996, her granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan, included many of her works in a book, Zelda: An Illustrated Life.

Eighty-three of her paintings are available for purchase as prints from art.com. These are the ones of New York.

Above: Central Park in the spring.

The Brooklyn Bridge, apparently after a party.

Fifth Avenue. The view is dominated by St. Patrick's Cathedral, in whose rectory Zelda and Scott were married in 1920. On 5th Avenue, everyone celebrates.

Grand Central Station

Grant's Tomb

Times Square. "Past the Rialto, the glittering front of the Astor, the jewelled magnificence of Times Square … a gorgeous alley of incandescence ahead . . . " (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned)

Washington Square

Scottie and Jack, Grand Central Time. This is the last of the pictures, painted in 1943, when her daughter Scottie married Jack Lanahan, seen here in his Navy uniform.

Photos from art.com and HuffPost