The Self and the Other in the 1920s American Literature Case Study: Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)

Abstract

The central concern of this research study is to show how some minorities (blacks, Jews, and women) have suffered from segregation, discrimination, and racial biases within the 1920s America. This study focuses on the identification of the difference between the Self, as a dominant entity, and the Other as a marginalized, a dominated one. It exposes the various relations existing between the Self and the Other through the analysis of Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925). Furthermore, it elucidates that Fitzgerald consciously constructed some of his minor characters as Others different from the Anglo-Saxon race. Accordingly, he describes these characters with stereotypical markers of primitiveness, violence, and submission as if they were only objects. Finally, this study shows that Fitzgerald approaches the binary Self/Other from diverse ethnic, racial, and gender perspectives through the use of language in order to reflect the realities of the 1920s America