Racism and Otherness Theme Analysis

Despite some progress in terms of mainstream attitudes to race and racial difference, the interwar period was nevertheless haunted by unequivocally racist attitudes—as evident in the works of writers like Fitzgerald and his white contemporaries. Trivial or insignificant ethnic minority characters form the backdrop to the European experience that the white expatriate community enjoys in Tender is the Night. As Dick and Nicole Diver and their set move effortlessly between various cities—partying frivolously thanks to the wealth their ancestors accrued from the exploitation of colonized peoples around the globe—the novel’s non-white characters are consigned to minor roles, as exotic lovers, greedy musicians, or troublesome criminals. As a modern reader, it is impossible to ignore the racial slurs and discriminatory caricatures littered throughout Tender is the Night, or that the novel is a textbook example of the widespread racism of the 1920s.

The presence of widespread racial discrimination during the interwar period is evident in Tender is the Night through Fitzgerald’s distinctly racist depictions of black characters. Four innocent black men become entangled in “a race riot” in Paris when Abe North—drunk and careless—falsely accuses a black man of stealing a “thousand-franc note” from him. The disposable nature of black lives is exemplified when Abe continues drinking at the bar, knowing full well that an innocent man, Freeman, remains in jail because of his mistake. Later, when Jules Peterson—the “small, respectable” black man who acted as a key witness for Abe—arrives at the hotel, he is prohibited from entering the bar, which is reserved for white clients only. The narrator depicts him in caricatured terms, with “insincere eyes, that, from time to time, rolled white semicircles of panic into view,” and a voice of “distorted intonation peculiar to colonial countries.” Peterson is thus depicted as a burden and a menace, desperate, unintelligent, and frightening. When Rosemary finds Peterson murdered—“she saw that a dead Negro was stretched upon her bed”—the narrator fails to identify Peterson by name, thus stripping him of his personhood, and defining him first by his blackness. The presence of a black body in Rosemary’s hotel room is intended to illicit shock and horror, rather than grief or sorrow. Indeed, as Dick carelessly discards of Peterson’s dead body in the corridor, he tries to reassure Rosemary that it’s not worth being upset about a black man’s death, referring to Peterson by the n-word. The use of such debasing and racist language reveals that Peterson’s life is perceived as worthless to the white characters. Dick also overlooks how Abe is entirely responsible for the whole affair, thus reinforcing stereotypes about black criminality and barbarism, while masking Abe’s own culpability.

In contrast to the white American characters—who are confident that they belong in Europe despite their own particular foreignness—the novel’s non-white characters are constructed as outsiders and foreign “others.” Throughout the story, Fitzgerald portrays Dick’s fraught attempts to police the parameters of whiteness, and preserve his position of racial superiority in the world. Dick arbitrarily uses the racist insult “spic,” for example, to refer pejoratively to those he perceives as not-white-enough. In a jealous outburst, he directs the slur towards Rosemary’s Italian lover, Nicotera. While European, Nicotera is probably dark skinned, and although Dick has become tanned in the Mediterranean sun himself, he uses the slur to racialize and “other” Nicotera when it suits him, positioning himself as whiter, and therefore superior, to his rival in love.

The politics of whiteness are complicated further when Dick meets Mary’s new husband, the Conte di Minghetti. Hosain is of nondescript “Asiatic” heritage, but his wealth and British education afford him various privileges in Europe and enable him to marry a white woman. Feeling resentful and threatened by the idea of foreign men marrying white American women, Dick refers to their union disparagingly: “Abe educated her, and now she’s married to a Buddha.” Later he disrespectfully confuses Hosain’s sister for a “native servant” because of the color of her skin. After dinner with Mary and Hosain, Nicole chastises Dick for being drunk and bigoted, saying “Why so many highballs? Why did you use your word spic in front of him?” Nicole’s reprimand reveals that the Divers understand full well that it is no longer socially acceptable to be openly racist—at least in the company of wealthy ethnic minorities. Indeed, Dick perceives himself as innately superior to those he deems as the “other,” and struggles to adapt to the societal shift in traditional race relations underway during the 1920s. As Dick becomes increasingly troubled by alcoholism, he becomes prone to bigoted outbursts: “he would suddenly unroll a long scroll of contempt for some person, race, class, way of life, way of thinking.” Thus, as Dick loses control over his health, marriage, and profession, he becomes increasingly intolerant of foreign “others,” whom he perceives as a threat to the power and superiority he has been accustomed to his whole life.