Why Won’t Nick and Jay Just Get Together?  A Queer look at The Great Gatsby

 

           Sexual subversion, or queerness, in canonized literature may not be easily detectable to the modern reader, but it certainly abounds in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.  It is possible to unearth some of this queerness by examining the individual lives of, and the homosocial relationship between, the two main male characters in the novel, Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby.  Moreover, the queerness, or sexual and gender fluidity, that is demonstrated through various signs in these two characters helps to undermine the heterosexual relationships in the story; Nick’s queerness undermines his relationship with Jordan and Gatsby’s queerness ultimately undermines his relationship with Daisy.

           Much of Gatsby’s sexuality is detectible in his youthful relationship with Dan Cody.  The queerness of this relationship is first apparent in that all Gatsby had to do was smile at Cody to get his attention. Cody was obviously attracted to Gatsby and employs him in a “vague personal capacity” (Fitzgerald 106).  Cody further substantiates his affection for Gatsby by buying him new clothes.  According to the text, Cody was 50 years old when he met Gatsby, and Gatsby was a young man.   As these aspects of their relationship highlight, Cody functions as a father figure for Gatsby. However, it is because of these queer signs that their relationship clearly has sexual undertones.  After all, Gatsby stays with Cody for five years and then only leaves him because he dies.  Obviously, Cody cares much about Gatsby and Gatsby cares a great deal for Cody. The fact that Gatsby was supposed to inherit all of Cody’s money, and that he still keeps a portrait of Cody up in his house confirms the affection Gatsby had for Cody and shows how their relationship has remained important in Gatsby’s life even after Cody’s death.

           Gatsby’s sexuality is also illustrated by his mannerisms, by the clothes he wears, and by the items he possesses.  Lois Tyson says that “Gatsby’s fastidious grooming and flamboyant clothing and other possessions function effectively as gay signs” (348).  Some of these signs include Gatsby’s “shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple green and lavender” and his pink suit (Fitzgerald 97-8). These colors have “been long associated with gayness,” according to Tyson; the color of Gatsby’s shirts functions as a queer sign because of their association with queerness and because of the way in which other people perceive his clothing. 

           These queer signs are precisely what undermine Gatsby’s heterosexual relationship with Daisy.  One of the most important of these signs is Gatsby’s pink suit.  The narrator, Nick Carraway, describes it as a “gorgeous pink rag of a suit” that “made a bright spot of color against the white steps” (162).  More importantly, Tom Buchanan perceives the pink suit in a more derogatory manner than Nick does.  Because of the suit, Tom does not think that Gatsby could possibly be an “Oxford man.”  He says, “Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit” (129).  This is an obviously homophobic statement, but perhaps Tom is noticing something about Gatsby that the other characters do not.  The pink suit is absolutely a queer sign to Tom and it affects his treatment of Gatsby. 

           Tom’s overarching perception of Gatsby affects Daisy’s view of him as well.  In the confrontation scene between the three of them that occurs in a hotel in New York City, Daisy’s hesitance to proclaim that she only loves Gatsby shows that she is drawn to Tom’s stronger masculine personality.  Besides, Tom is her husband and she cannot help but be influenced by his opinions.  Indeed, by the end of the scene, she is begging to go home with Tom and is alarmed when he tells her, “You two start on home, Daisy.  In Mr. Gatsby’s car” (142).  Tom has no fear that Gatsby’s “presumptuous little flirtation is over.”  That Daisy allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson that night proves that she no longer cares for Gatsby.  Daisy has accepted her husband’s homophobic view of Gatsby; therefore, it is primarily Tom’s perception of Gatsby’s queerness that ends the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy.

           Nick Carraway is even more sexually subversive than Gatsby is. Queerness permeates his life so much that it affects his every day actions.  As Lois Tyson explains, “He is just turning thirty, has never married or been engaged, and his heterosexual affairs notwithstanding, he doesn’t let his romantic relationships with women get serious” (351). In addition to these signs, Tyson also points out that “Nick fits the profile of thousands of young men who discovered their gay orientation during World War I.”  Also, according to George Chauncey, the same-sex environment that these soldiers were placed into “increased the chances that they would encounter self-identified gay men and explore their homosexual interests” (145).  Nick fits this profile of the former World War I soldier because he had just come back from the war himself before he decided to “go east and learn the bond business” (Fitzgerald 7).  He cannot stand to go back to small town life once he has been abroad.  He may have had some homosexual experiences in the military, so he goes to New York City where gay subculture was reasonably developed in the 1920’s.  On the city streets, a gay man “could meet others like themselves and find collective support for their rejection of the sexual and gender roles prescribed them;” this underground aspect of city life attracts Nick (Chauncey 205).

           Nick even confesses to roaming the city’s streets after work because he liked the “racy, adventurous feel of it at night” (61).  He says, “I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives and no one would ever know or disapprove.  Sometimes, in my mind, I followed them to their   apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned back and smiled at me.” Although Nick says he is noticing women, perhaps this excuse is just a way for him to cover up the fact that he is truly participating in the underground queer sexual subculture that existed in New York City.  He mentions the “hidden streets,” and cares about whether people would notice or disapprove of such sexual encounters (181). According to Chauncey, parts of Fifth Avenue were gay cruising areas; this points to the underlying queerness in Nick’s description here. That Nick even mentions these aspects of the city further demonstrates that he was attracted to its underlying sexual subculture.

           In addition to these quite compelling queer signs, what is even more convincing about Nick subversive sexuality is his encounter with Mr. McKee.  Nick pays attention to Mr. McKee’s grooming when he first sees him at Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan’s party.  He follows him to his home, sees McKee in his underwear, ends up losing his memory for rest of night, and wakes up “in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station” (42).  For a clue as to what happens during Nick’s loss of memory, one must only look at the elevator scene that Nick describes just before he goes to Mr. McKee’s home:

           “‘Keep your hands off the lever,’ snapped the elevator boy.

           ‘I beg your pardon,’ said Mr. McKee with dignity.  ‘I didn’t know I was touching it.’

           ‘All right,’ I agreed, ‘I’ll be glad to.’”

Clearly, the elevator lever serves as a phallic symbol here.  The fact that the elevator boy warns Mr. McKee not to touch the lever demonstrates the danger of homosexual contact while the manner in which Mr. McKee says that he did not know that he was touching it demonstrates his closeted sexuality.