What was Jay Gatsby's ethnic background?

German or Swedish, no?

I thought that being the cabin boy of that old guy was the shameful past he was trying to hide.

Irish?

Some midwestern ethnicity. Back in those days the majority suspected anything from outside the Protestant UK as dirty immigrant trash, possibly anarchist. "Dumb Swede." "Kraut."

We don't know, which is part of the point. His real name was Gatz and the character was inspired by the real-life bootlegger Max Gerlach, so we can possibly presume German immigrant, or son of German immigrants.

Okay so the other evening when DL was locked and only paying customers could post, I started reading about unreliable narrators and stuff (due to the Turn of the Screw story thread). There are some people out there saying he was black (well, very light mixed race, but they say black for the effect). Some say Jewish, which is much more believable.

By the way, I am a person who never "got" the magic of the book. It felt like it was written to be a great novel, but it made me feel nothing. The Leonardo DiCaprio movie was lovely to look at and has made me a little more interested in it, but now Leo seems wrong for the role. It should have been someone more swarthy.

What's going on with Nick and that guy in their underwear?

R6, a lot of stuff says that Nick is gay and in love with Gatsby. I don't remember Nick and the guy in their underware, but I did read something that had a reference to that scene.

Poor German American farm boy. Lutheran.

We know his parents were Lithuanian immigrants who lived in North Dakota when Gatz was born, and he attended St. Olaf's College, which I remember for obvious reasons.

It's very possible he was Jewish, less likely that he was black or mixed race.

I always thought he was partly Jewish. And yes, Nick is gay. That's obvious if you know anything about unreliable narrators.

Nick Carraway is no fag, and I'm the dame that can prove it!

Not everyone has to be black, except in contemporary commercials.

He should be Jewish but Fitzgerald was nervous about writing him as Jewish. Adrian Brody should play Jay Gatz.

Cut?

"in their underware"

Oh, dear!

Max Gerlach, the basis for Jay Gatsby, was not Jewish. Fitzgerald very much viewed Jews as a man of his class and time would: think Meyer Wolfsheim. I have never come across anything in line with what R13 has written and would love to know his source.