The Great Gay-tsby

Nick Carraway, the protagonist in the novel The Great Gatsby grew up in the Midwest, surrounded by a typical midwest family. He goes to Yale for college before enlisting in the military, and when his enlistment is over he travels to Oxford. This whole period of his young adult years is spent dodging the midwest. Even though he says he has an everlasting love for the midwest, something is stopping him from returning home. This is the classic path for a closeted gay man at around the time the book was published. Nick also does not like anyone in the West Egg, except the mysterious Gastby. He is not attracted to the femine parts of women and even wakes up in a man’s bed in one scene. Therefore, it can be concluded that Fitzgerald intentionally wrote Nick’s character as a closeted homosexual.

“[Gatsby] smiled understandingly — much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you might come across four or five times in your life.”

Nick’s homosexuality starts with his almost immediate attraction to Gastby. Nick describes Gatsby like he describes no other character. When Nick first meets Gastby, “[Gatsby] smiled understandingly — much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you might come across four or five times in your life.” (Fitzgerald 48) This description is not one that a heterosexual man would give. A man would not describe another man based on their smile, but something they would be jealous of, like their masculinity. Fitzgerald adding these descriptions of what Nick sees is his way of showing Nick’s attraction to men. 

Furthermore, Nick not only notices Gatsby’s features, but the way he presents himself. Nick likes his “gorgeous pink rag of a suit” (Fitzgerald 162). Tom, who is a typical straight man in the novel, makes fun of his eye-catching suit, however Nick finds it “gorgeous.” When comparing the two characters, it is obvious that Nick is not like the other straight men in the novel. Nick finds femine things, like a pink suit, beautiful. This difference in Nick was intentional by Fitzgerald. He wanted to show how Nick is attracted to men, specifically Gatsby in this case. Pink is also a color traditionally associated with love. Valentine’s day, the day of love, is based on the color pink. So Fitzgerald’s selecting pink is his way of subtly showing Nick’s attraction to Gasby. Overall, Nick notices things about Gatsby that straight men would not. Nick’s extra detail when describing Gasby is a sign that he is gay.

Along with Nick’s attraction to Gatsby, it becomes clear that he finds women’s masculine traits attractive, rather than the femininity that men are expected to notice. An example of this is when he first meets Jordan. Instead of noticing her hips, eyes, or face he sees “a slender, small-breasted girl with an erect carriage which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet” (Fitzgerald 15). Nick is not attracted to her for her femininity. Instead he sees her ‘small-breasts,’ which makes her boyish and masculine in his eyes. He calls her a ‘young cadet’ as well. A cadet is a male trainee for the army. Nick referring to an attractive person as boyish shows that he finds men more appealing than women. In addition, Jordan is a professional golf player. Female athletes, especially at a higher level, usually have a more masculine build. They have broader shoulders and strong arms. Based on this, it can be concluded that Jordan had some of these traits, which made her look more masculine than other women Nick could have dated. This shows his homosexuality and attraction to masculinity. In another scene, Nick describes his ex-girlfriend from the Midwest: “All I could think of was how, when that certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip.” Nick could have noticed any of the beautiful parts of a woman playing tennis, like her body, clothing, or skill. Instead, he focuses on the disgusting sweat that accumulated. This shows that he might not actually be attracted to women, just men. But these comments were intentional by Fitzgerald. He added them to show how Nick did not like the women themselves, but their masculine traits. Thus, because of Nick’s love for the maculine traits in women, it makes sense that he has a certain level of desire for men. 

The final aspect of the novel that shows Nick’s desire for men is his drunk hookup with McKnee. The two characters met at a dinner party where everyone got extremely drunk. Nick then began to notice McKnee as a “pale” man (Fitzgerald 30). Fitzgerald specifically decides to describe McKnee’s appearances rather than his mannerisms or actions, which is a subtle hint about Nick’s attraction. Mr. McKnee then invites Nick to go to lunch with him after the party. They ride down the elevator with each other. Fitzgerald uses very specific language in the elevator ride like “lever” and “touching” (Fitzgerald 37). This word choice is quite erotic, a hint that Fitzergald drops about the hook-up that is to come.  

The scene escalates from there, and Nick wakes up in McKnee’s bed. Nick is either too drunk to remember what happened, or the author did not include the scene, but it can inferred that they had sex. Nick explains, “I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands” (Fitzgerald 38). Nick woke up in bed with an almost naked man the next morning. In a short novel of less than fifty thousand words the author chose to add these details. Fitzgerald is clearly trying to show that Nick does not fit the average mold of a man at that time, and is attempting to convey Nick’s complex attraction to men. 

Nick’s actions and thoughts in The Great Gatsby suggests that he is gay, but Fitzgerald would not have been able to bluntly call Nick gay. This is because at the time being gay was not widely accepted. It was very uncommon to be out, and if someone was out they would face persecution and descrimination in American society. So by adding subtle details to the text, Fitzgerald was able to portray Nick’s sexuality to the readers without facing the consequences of writing it openly. Fitzgerald wrote about Nick’s attraction to Gatsby and his love for masculinity in women. He even included a drunken hook-up scene, something that was not necessary for the plot of the novel. Overall, it is obvious that Fitzgerald is trying to depict Nick as a closeted gay man.