身為一位在一九二零年代具代表性的美國作家之一，費茲傑羅生動的呈現了那個時代的社會和文化背景。於一九二五年出版的<大亨小傳>，在美國經歷大移民的背景下，費茲傑羅對於不同階級與種族在一次世界大戰後奮力跨越社會階級有相當的論述。在美國經歷大移民的背景中，三K黨的崛起和一九二四年的移民限制條例，伴隨著麥迪森‧格蘭特(Madison Grant)和羅斯洛普‧史托達德(Lothrop Stoddard) “偽科學種族主義”的出版下彰顯了美國本土的強烈排外意識以及對於弱勢種族的區分。在種族的論述範疇裡， 一些批評家認為本書主人翁蓋茲比，儘管他在經濟上巨大的成功，還是在跨越社會階級的界線中失敗了，而這是歸咎於他雖然身為白人，在文本裡卻象徵種族裡的他者(通常聯想為黑人)而無法逾越社會的階級。並且更有批評家指出，本書的敘述者尼克‧卡洛威在敘事的過程中有排外的傾向並且對於弱勢種族有既定的刻板印象，進而指出這是由於費茲傑羅本人的排外意識造成。

因此本論文的目的在於探討費茲傑羅對於種族和階級真正的意識，認為他真正的目的在於嘲諷白人北歐理論(Nordicism)和當代對於種族他者的排外恐懼，同時強調蓋茲比如何透過自己創造的美學(Esthetics)宣稱自己在上層社會的存在性，以及如何面對階級的不可踰越性及霸權。第一章將探討湯姆‧博勘能和一九二零年代的北歐理論，對照白人意識形態的偽善和本書裡的移民猶太人惡棍梅爾‧吳夫山是一樣邪惡的。第二章將討論蓋茲比的政治美學，以及其他在低階社會階層的角色如何透過美學的呈現擠身上流社會階層，顯示比起種族的滲透，費茲傑羅更關切階級在歷史呈現裡難以打破的霸權。

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) articulates its discourse of the Twenties through characters of different classes and races striving for position in the social hierarchy. The activities of Ku Klux Klan, the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 expressed a national anxiety and racial tension toward ethnicity in America, along with the “pseudo-scientific racism” publication of Madison Grant and Lothrop Stoddard. Within the paradigm of racial discourse, some critics claimed that Gatsby’s failure to rise in the upper-class society is due to his racial otherness related to the black. Moreover, others accused Fitzgerald of weaving the nativist consciousness into Nick Carraway’s narrative and his racial stereotype of ethnic groups.

This thesis argues that Fitzgerald’s intention is to ridicule the Nordicism and nativist fear of his contemporaries and simultaneously highlight the intractability of class through the manipulation of Gatsby’s aesthetics in the upper-class society. Chapter One analyzes the crisis of white masculinity. Then the next section unravels the hypocrisy embodied in Tom Buchanan and Nordicism in the 1920s, indicating that Anglo-Saxons’ hypocrisy is no less evil than ethnic gangsters such as Meyer Wolfshiem. Chapter Two probes the politics of Gatsby’s aesthetics and analyzes other characters who endeavor to rise from the lower-class society, revealing Fitzgerald’s concern with the hegemonic power of members in upper class in the representation of history.

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