Of Empresses and Indians

Abstract

Published in Collier's magazine on 22 June 1940, “The End of Hate” stands as F. Scott Fitzgerald's final testament to his lifelong interest in the South. As numerous critics have noted, Fitzgerald's engagement with the South in his writing was in part due to his upbringing. Marcia Noe and Fendall Fulton summarize the region's allure for him, noting that he “wrote and acted in a Civil War play, Coward, for St. Paul's Elizabethan Dramatic Club” and that the “specter of John Wilkes Booth haunted him all his life, perhaps because an ancestor by marriage on his father's side, Mary Surratt, provided the house in which the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln was hatched and later was hanged for her incautious hospitality” (164). Indeed, “The End of Hate” draws on this particular incident as well as on Fitzgerald's broader interest in the South as protagonist Tib Dulany overhears conspirators in the assassination plot the night of Lincoln's death. Fitzgerald's return to the South as a source for material at the end of his career, then, is not surprising. As Scott Donaldson has remarked, “This tendency to glamorize the South, inherited from his father, Scott Fitzgerald never lost” (3).What is not immediately apparent in reading “The End of Hate,” however, is the amount of time and diligent revision that Fitzgerald had to undertake in order to get the story published. Written over a three-year period, “The End of Hate,” in Matthew J. Bruccoli's words, has “the most vexed history of any Fitzgerald story” (Price 740). Originally entitled “Thumbs Up,” the story was repeatedly rejected on the grounds of length and questionable content—namely, the titular incident in which Tib, a Confederate soldier, is captured by Union soldiers and strung up by his thumbs instead of being hanged. In addition, the second half of the story, which shifted locales from America to France during the Franco-Prussian War, met criticism for being arbitrary and unexpected. From August 1936, when Harold Ober wrote to Fitzgerald, “I like THUMBS UP very much indeed. I think it is one of the best stories you have written for a long time” (Bruccoli 278) until June 1939, when it was accepted for publication by Collier's, Fitzgerald thoroughly revised the draft, sending his protagonists not only to France but also, in another draft, to Minnesota, where local denizens fear the possibility of an Indian attack.An examination of the typescript versions of the text, variously entitled “Thumbs Up,” “Dentist Appointment,” and “When This Cruel War—,” reveals Fitzgerald's painstaking revision process, including not only condensing the story's original eight-thousand-word length by nearly three thousand words but also reworking the ending, eventually settling on the revenge story that ends in Washington, DC, on the night of Lincoln's assassination. Prior to addressing how Fitzgerald dealt with and altered specific issues throughout the course of his revision process, a brief summary of the major differences between the extant versions of the story will provide a necessary foundation. All versions open during the Civil War, focusing on a scene in which Tib Dulany encounters a pair of Northerners, Dr. Pilgrim and his sister Josie. While Josie and Tib share a brief flirtation, the doctor is forced to perform a tooth extraction on a man that is supposedly the cousin of Napoleon III. After the extraction, a Union patrol arrives on the scene and, rather than execute Tib as an enemy soldier, they tie him up by his thumbs, which in all versions eventually leads to their being amputated.After this opening section, the versions vary wildly. In the initial typescript, entitled “Thumbs Up,” Fitzgerald transports his main characters to France during the Franco-Prussian War, where Tib desires revenge against Dr. Pilgrim, whom he blames for the loss of his thumbs. In a surprising exercise of historical license, Fitzgerald has the French Empress urge reconciliation between the pair, after Tib has helped her escape the Prussians. In the next draft, “Dentist Appointment,” Tib is not bent on revenge. Instead, the characters coincidentally encounter one another in Minnesota, where a group of Tib's acquaintances, dressed as Indians, kidnap Dr. Pilgrim in order to make him operate on an Indian chief. When an actual group of Indians arrive, they are pleased to find that Dr. Pilgrim is indeed willing to perform surgery on the chief, in spite of the doctor's earlier espousal of racist beliefs. The third typescript, “When This Cruel War—,” follows Tib to Washington, DC. This version reworks the revenge plot of “Thumbs Up,” as Tib, having tracked down Dr. Pilgrim, hopes to achieve personal vengeance by shooting the doctor's thumbs off. He is stopped by the arrival of Josie, who openly declares her affection for him. At the same time, the final scene descends into chaos as Fitzgerald reveals that Tib has sought out the doctor on the night of Lincoln's death. This version would finally be published, with minor alterations, as “The End of Hate.”As the story developed, so too did Fitzgerald's thematic considerations. The relationship between Tib Dulany and Josie Pilgrim is more passionately drawn and developed in the later drafts. For once, a Fitzgerald protagonist is not dismayed and defeated by an elegant, strong-willed, independent woman. Most important, increased attention to the earlier drafts of “The End of Hate” helps combat the lingering misperceptions of Fitzgerald's late career, a reputation marred by a perceived indifference to quality. Access to the typescripts, heretofore under-examined by scholars, allows for an extended analysis of the changes Fitzgerald undertook in order to publish “The End of Hate,” the most important of which are his shortening of the visceral scene where Tib is hung by his thumbs, his shifting conception of Tib and Josie's romance, and, most significantly, the drastically disparate second half of the story, which again variously transports the characters from France to Minnesota to Washington, DC. By examining the various drafts, we can see that, to the end of his career, Fitzgerald was a consummate craftsman dedicated to revising and improving his work.Written during a period of personal and professional turmoil, “The End of Hate” proved to be one of Fitzgerald's most prolonged compositional struggles. In an unsent letter to Kenneth Littauer, editor of Collier's, he wrote, “Finishing this story was a somewhat harder job than writing ‘Tender is the Night’” because “[w]hen a conception goes wrong repair work is twice as hard as building a new story” (Bruccoli 384). Though Harold Ober responded positively to the story, he sensed emendations were necessary from the start: “It is a little long and perhaps later on can be cut” (Bruccoli 278). In the revision process, Fitzgerald not only shortened the latter half of the story, but also made changes throughout that led to a more concentrated and tonally consistent whole. The opening paragraph presents Josie as flighty and immature: Despite the July heat she wore a light blue dress of bombazine cloth and on this subject she had listened politely to her brother's strictures during the drive down. If she was to nurse in a Washington hospital she must not present herself in gay regalia. Josie was sad about this. It was the first really grown-up costume she had ever owned. A lot of boys at home had observed the unholy glow of her hair since she was twelve, but Josie belonged to a strict family moved out to Ohio from Massachusetts. Nonetheless she was approaching the war as if she were going to a party. (“Thumbs Up” 1) Originally, Josie seems poised to join a long line of Fitzgerald heroines as an independent-minded young woman, with noticeable sway over the local boys. “Thumbs Up,” however, is tonally inaccurate for such a character—the darker, more serious subject matter that is to come melds uneasily with such descriptions. Fitzgerald became increasingly aware of this as his drafts progressed; while the second, “Dentist Appointment,” includes the line “she had prepared for this trip as if she were going to a party” (“Dentist” 1), the paragraph is drastically shortened in the next draft, “When This Cruel War—,” and then retained for the printed version: The buggy progressed at a tired trot and the two occupants were as warm and weary as the horses. The girl's hair was a crackly yellow and she wore a dress of light blue bombazine—the first really grown-up dress she had ever known. She was going to be a nurse in a wartime hospital, and her brother complained that she was arrayed like a woman of the world. (“When This” 1) By leaving out an actual description of her character, Fitzgerald both tightens his story and allows for Josie's subsequent actions to establish her personality.What immediately became of more pressing concern than length was the violent scene hinted at in the story's misleadingly lighthearted title. After the introductory scene, Dr. Pilgrim and his sister Josie come across a group of Confederate soldiers, at which point the doctor is asked to “pull a tooth out of one of the real Napoleons, a cousin of the Emperor, Napoleon III” (“Thumbs Up” 5). The Frenchman, apprehensive at being operated on by a Northern doctor, is comforted by Tib, who remarks, “Prince, if he doesn't do well by you we got some apple trees outside and plenty rope” (“Thumbs Up” 8), a remark that remains in subsequent versions of the text. After the extraction, a Union patrol comes across the group and, thanks to a yell from Doctor Pilgrim, captures Tib. Pilgrim discourages their hanging Tib, but quickly acquiesces to the soldiers’ alternative proposition: “I don't think you should hang him but certainly this type of irregular has got to be discouraged.”“We hang them up by their thumbs, sometimes,” suggested the corporal.“Then do that,” said Dr. Pilgrim. “He spoke of hanging me.” (“Thumbs Up” 13) Though Tib is granted a reprieve from execution, Fitzgerald quickly demonstrates the inhumanity of the action in a surprisingly violent scene: In the farmhouse it was quiet. Prince Napoleon was waiting for an ambulance from Washington. There was no sound there—except from Tib, who, as his skin slipped off his thumbs, gradually down the knuckles, said fragments of his own political verses aloud to himself. When he could think of no more verses he ruminated on what was happening to him.“Thumbs are like a glove—they turn inside out. When the nails turn over I'll yell out loud….” (“Thumbs Up” 14) This was compelling, and chilling, and, not surprisingly, too much for some readers. Ober immediately had trouble selling the story, writing to Fitzgerald, “The Civil War story is in many ways a good piece of work but it is not what editors expect from you” (Bruccoli 283). Two months later, Ober quoted an unnamed editor on why the story was turned down: “I thought it was swell but all the femmes down here said it was horrid. The thumbs, I suppose, were too much for them.” Continuing, Ober cited this as the chief dilemma in its lack of commercial appeal: “I have talked to several editors and I think it is mostly because of the incident about the thumbs that this story has not sold…. Do you think there is anything that you could substitute for the hanging by the thumbs—something that is not so harrowing? I think the story might be salvaged if you feel like doing a little more work on it” (Bruccoli 287).Undaunted, Fitzgerald felt compelled to retain the thumb scene, possibly out of its importance to his own family's history. In a letter to screenwriter and producer Edwin Knopf, he claimed that being hung up by the thumbs “actually happened to a cousin of my father's in the Civil War” (Life in Letters 430). Being inspired to write based on a case of family history reflects Fitzgerald's long fascination with the South; Frederick Wegener notes that “more than a conventionally defining benchmark, the Civil War thus became on many other levels an essential reference point for Fitzgerald, animating his imagination as vigorously (if perhaps not as grandiloquently or programmatically) as that of, say, Faulkner or Glasgow among his literary contemporaries” (253). In the second version of the story, “Dentist Appointment,” the thumbs scene is largely unchanged, although Fitzgerald did make some minor emendations to appease his critics. Specifically, he excised the line that Tib's skin slipped off “gradually down the knuckles,” as well as his darkly descriptive remark that “[t]humbs are like a glove—they turn inside out.” Tib himself remains defiant, still committed to repeating “fragments of his own political verses” (“Dentist” 11). In a letter to Ober, Fitzgerald ruminated on the challenges facing him in revising the story: “Here, or herewith is the revision of Thumbs Up. Maybe it'll go. It's an odd story—one editor says cut the thumbs episode, another says cut everything else—I've done the latter” (Bruccoli 302).The change would not be enough for Ober to sell the story, however. Fitzgerald therefore tried again in “When This Cruel War—.” Rather than cut any more of the violent imagery, Fitzgerald added a scene in which Josie helps Tib reach a doctor to treat his thumbs. In the first two versions of the story, Josie cuts Tib down but is unable to stay with him: Josie had waited till it was full dark and she could hear the sentry snoring on the porch.She knew where the stepladder was because she had heard them dump it down after they had strung up Tib. When she had half sawed through the rope she went back to her room for pillows and moved the table under him and laid the pillows on it.Josie did not need any precedents for what she was doing. When he fell with a grunting gasp, murmuring “—serve your country and nothing to be ashamed of.”—Josie poured half a bottle of sherry wine over his hands. Then, sick suddenly herself, she ran back to her room. (“Thumbs Up” 14–15) Though this section remained virtually the same in “Dentist Appointment” (Tib's remark about serving his country, however, is shortened to “Nothing to be ashamed of” [“Dentist” 12]), Fitzgerald added a scene in “When This Cruel War—,” which, in addition to explaining how Tib survived the ordeal, provides a more detailed explanation for the depth of emotion he and Josie feel for one another. While their initial courtship scene, in which Tib recites a line of his poetry, remained largely unchanged, the added scene makes their relationship more plausible. Part of Ober's initial concern with the story revolved around the indeterminacy of the romance plot: “It seems to me also that with the addition of a sentence here and there you might give a little more warmth in the relationship between Tib and Joseph [sic]. I don't think it would have harmed to have let him recognize her a little sooner” (Bruccoli 278). Fitzgerald struggled throughout the drafts in determining how their emotions should develop. Ober wrote to Fitzgerald that Tom Costain, editor of American Cavalcade, “thought you would have a good story here if you would let it end after Josie cuts Tib down. The story would need a scene bringing it to a romantic ending. Costain thinks, as you and I do, that you tried to put two stories into one” (Bruccoli 295). Fitzgerald disagreed with the suggestion, replying to Ober, “Costain's story isn't good. One guesses the end right away. Sorry—I couldn't do it” (Bruccoli 297). His rebuttal proved to be correct; as Fitzgerald substantially revised the story in future drafts, he rejected Costain's melodramatic ending for the climactic confrontation between Tib and Doctor Pilgrim.As disconcerting as the thumbs scene was for editors, the uneven second half of “Thumbs Up” also made the story exceedingly difficult to sell. In his commentary to Fitzgerald, Ober wrote, “Another criticism of the story has been that it wanders about a good deal” (Bruccoli 287). Littauer, too, was apprehensive about the ending. Ober reported his comments to Fitzgerald: “The last half lacks point, if I am not mistaken. It is easy to understand that Tib should want to marry the girl but there is no good reason for his intent to murder her brother” (Bruccoli 312). Whereas “When This Cruel War—” and “The End of Hate” end with Tib's attempted revenge plot in Washington, DC, the earlier drafts of the story took a drastically diverse route, so much so that they could be considered almost entirely different stories from the final published version.For anyone who has read “The End of Hate,” which culminates on the night of Lincoln's assassination, the opening lines of the second half of “Thumbs Up” come as a surprise: “As always with victorious causes, the war was over in the North by sixty-seven” (“Thumbs Up” 15). Josie, nineteen now, is still popular with fashionable young men, but she refuses to marry them because, in the narrator's words, “Her eyes had seen the coming of the glory of the Lord and then she had seen the glory of the Lord hung up by the thumbs” (“Thumbs Up” 15). As in the published version, Tib reappears with the intention of exacting revenge against Doctor Pilgrim. Josie recognizes him and senses his motive immediately: Tib had not spoken, but Josie's mind was working so fast that words could not have made plainer to her the nature of his errand, though her appearance and the simultaneous arrival of the other visitor had confused him. The light in his eyes was of a purpose long conceived, long planned; for two years he had so haunted Josie's dreams that she had reconstructed in her imagination his awful return to consciousness that night. (“Thumbs Up” 17) Fitzgerald's writing here is sharp and tense; occurring immediately after the thumbs scene, Tib's motives are delineated clearly to readers.The scene is complicated by the presence of Captain Silve, Prince Napoleon's aide from the opening scene, as well as the doctor's insistence that he treat his black servant Candy before receiving his surprise visitors. Silve urges the doctor to come to Paris and work with “the great Doctor Evans, patronized by everyone in Paris” (“Thumbs Up” 19). Tib hovers around the scene with an air of uncertainty; in spite of the forceful directness of Fitzgerald's prose when Josie recognizes his intentions, Tib's actions are suspended in this scene, delayed by Silve and Pilgrim's remarks about Candy. Continuing, Fitzgerald introduces more delays, as Pilgrim leads the group to the jeweler to purchase a gold tooth for Candy. While readers may accept that Josie recognizes Tib almost immediately, the Doctor's inability to do so in this scene marks an uneasy contrast, particularly after he unwittingly discovers Tib's lack of thumbs: “He reached for the door-knob at the same moment as Tib and withdrew his own hand with a start. His thumb had pressed through another thumb, soft and tangible within its black kid covering” (“Thumbs Up” 21). Pilgrim is worried he has hurt Tib, before the latter remarks, “You didn't hurt me—that was an accident I was in. I haven't any thumbs” (“Thumbs Up” 22). Though Pilgrim was unaware of the amputation, the direct mention of thumbs and his proximity to Tib in this scene makes his inability to recognize Tib dubious. By the time Tib does confront the doctor by drawing a revolver on him, the initial drama has receded into anticlimax. He tells Pilgrim, “Once you ordered me strung up by the thumbs. I came to kill you but I reckon I'll just shoot those medals out of your hands” (“Thumbs Up” 24). As opposed to “The End of Hate,” in which Tib directly states, “I'm going to shoot your thumbs off. You won't be much use in your profession, but you may find something else to do” (Price 750), his decision to switch from killing Pilgrim merely to maiming him is abrupt and underdeveloped. The resolution, too, is unconvincing; Pilgrim tells Tib that it was Josie who cut him down (another difference from the published version, in which she escorts him to a doctor who amputates his thumbs). Tib is moved by her actions, remarking simply, “I guess I can't do it then” (“Thumbs Up” 25). He exits melodramatically, declaring, “I didn't know that, Miss Pilgrim…. You can't shoot through an angel” (“Thumbs Up” 26).The failed revenge plot and Tib's discovery of his savior seems a likely and appropriate conclusion for the story. Instead, Fitzgerald then transports his characters to France in the midst of the Franco-Prussian War. Josie is inexplicably haunted by the memory of Tib: “Even in France Josie sometimes saw the black gloves coming around corners” (“Thumbs Up” 26). When the pair meet by chance on a boat returning to the United States, their conversation (which reveals that Tib is working as a war correspondent) is interrupted by a group of men who claim the pair are “Madame Shirmer” and “Signor Mario Villizio,” spies for the Prussian government (“Thumbs Up” 28). The situation is quickly diffused; the accusers search Josie's hat for an unexplained item they believed she had procured and, not finding it, realize they have apprehended the wrong people. The brief scene ends with Josie reflecting on her time with Tib: The trains had moved so far apart now that she could see nothing but a small blot in the distance and her chance of seeing him again was as small as that. She stood desolately looking at the torn rosettes in the soup dish of felt. All her experiences with Tib had been like that. (“Thumbs Up” 29) Josie's longing here is at odds with the opening image of this brief section, in which she exhibits concern over the image of Tib's gloved hands. Like the encounter between Tib and Dr. Pilgrim, this potentially dramatic scene falls flat, lacking Fitzgerald's normal touch at developing effective levels of tension.The story's final scene, while less anticlimactic than the earlier ones, is problematic in its sheer incredulity. Once again, Tib arrives seemingly out of nowhere shortly after the end of the war. Worth noting is that Tib arrives with a boast of regional pride: “‘I am not an American,’ denied Tib. ‘I am a Virginian. Those two things will never mean the same again in my lifetime…. I am a citizen of nowhere, part of a lost cause, broken and beaten with it’” (“Thumbs Up” 31). Tib's remark here is among Fitzgerald's most openly romantic comments about the South, although considering Tib's general reticence in the story, the quote feels somewhat misplaced. Immediately after, Josie walks in and reveals that the woman to whom Tib made his declaration is in fact the Empress of France (Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III), who requests his help in escaping the country. What ensues is unintentionally comic; Tib suggests that the Empress act insane in case they are apprehended, a request that she accepts without hesitation: “‘I insane!’ exclaimed the Empress, ‘I begin to think I am. Let this young Virginian ride inside with us and we can talk about being exiles’” (“Thumbs Up” 33). The connection between the pair feels contrived, and the Empress's acquiescence to Tib's plan is too sudden. The story closes with Tib and Josie making arrangements with a French captain to escort the Empress to England. The final lines, too, focus on the Empress, as she expresses her desire that Tib and Dr. Pilgrim resolve their conflict: “You two men have looked at each other sometimes as though you had some quarrel. In memory of your great help to me and for the sake of the pretty Josie will you not forget it all forever,” to which Tib responds, “Our quarrel is over so far as I'm concerned” (“Thumbs Up” 37–38). As their fight had not been prominent in much of the second half of the story, this resolution feels unnecessary. Having the Empress, rather than Josie, end the quarrel is an unconvincing and ultimately unnecessary use of historical fiction.Fitzgerald acknowledged that his story wandered in the second half, writing to Ober: “I think I told you that it's [somewhat arbitrary] shifting around was due to my poor judgement in founding it arbitrarily on two unrelated events in father's family—the Thumbs Up and the Empresses Escape. I dont think I ever put more work on a story with less return” (Bruccoli 291). While openly concurring with the criticism leveled against the story, Fitzgerald's remarks here suggest his dedication in crafting the story; in March 1937, he told Ober he had shortened the story “to about 5500 words (from 8000) ± revised it thoroughly + written a new scene” (Bruccoli 302). Ultimately, “Thumbs Up” is a picaresque tale, with a superficial attempt at engaging with historical material and an unintentionally comic and shallow representation of the French Empress.1 In “Dentist Appointment,” Fitzgerald decided to eliminate the foreign locales and keep his tale rooted in America.Though largely similar to “Thumbs Up” in the first half, “Dentist Appointment” makes a marked departure from its predecessor, from both a narrative and tonal perspective, in its latter half. In this version, Dr. Pilgrim is more opinionated and openly antagonistic toward the South: “Dr. Pilgrim, irritated by the government's failure to bring the south to its knees, left Washington and set out for Minnesota by rail and river.” To Josie, he remarks, “We are out of the area of infection…. Why, back in Washington rebels already walk the streets unmolested. But slavery has never polluted this air” (“Dentist” 12). In contrast to the earlier version, in which Pilgrim scarcely recognized Tib, here he maintains an almost paranoid obsession with him. Claiming to have seen Tib in Chicago, Pilgrim does not share his sister's relief that he is alive: “Glad? Frankly, that wasn't my thought. A Mosby guerrilla would be capable of vindictiveness and revenge—when such a man comes west he means to seek out desperadoes like himself, the kind who rob the mail and hold up trains.” Josie rebukes her brother, claiming that he is “vindictive” and that Tib “had a rather fine inner nature” (“Dentist” 13). Indeed, she openly seeks him out, perhaps because Fitzgerald wished to bring their relationship to the forefront of the story.Unlike the earlier or later versions, Tib is not bent on revenge in “Dentist Appointment.” Josie's approval of his character is quickly corroborated by the narration: Tib came to St. Paul with no knowledge of this. He had not recognized Dr. Pilgrim in Chicago, nor were his thoughts either vindictive or desperate. He was going to join some former comrades in arms further west, and Josie came into his range of vision as a pretty stranger having breakfast at the hotel lunch counter. Then suddenly he recognized her or rather he recognized a memory and an emotion deep in himself, for momentarily he could not say her name. (“Dentist” 14) Much more convincing and heartfelt than Tib's calling her an “angel” in “Thumbs Up,” this description provides a firmer basis for the romantic aspect of the story, which overrides the revenge plot. After being told by Josie that “[t]he war isn't over for my brother,” Tib denies any thought of revenge, claiming, “I can honestly say that at no time have I had such an idea” (“Dentist” 15). Tib reminisces about Virginia, prompting Josie to recall the line of poetry he recited to her earlier: “Lynchburg thy guardsmen bid thy hills farewell.” Tib is touched, and reveals to her his thoughts after the thumbs incident: “I remembered waking up that morning two years ago and crawling off through the woods trying to think whether a girl cut me down or whether it was part of the nightmare. Afterward I liked to believe it was you” (“Dentist” 18).The climax of the story hinges not upon the romance but rather on a kidnapping plot; a group of Tib's acquaintances dress up as Indians and capture Dr. Pilgrim in order to force him to operate on an Indian chief. What is most interesting about this scene is the emphasis on Dr. Pilgrim's racial beliefs, which are markedly different from the earlier version. In “Thumbs Up,” Pilgrim refuses to see Tib, not because he recognizes and fears him but because he claims to be busy treating a black servant: “I'm sorry, gentlemen,” said Dr. Pilgrim, “but I can't see you now.” To Josie, he said, “This is the morning that I've promised to devote to Candy's tooth—that's why I got up so confounded early.” He pressed past her and faced the two men. “We have a faithful negro servant whom I have long intended to supply with a tooth and I am afraid that I can have no other appointments for this morning. My sister will take your addresses and arrange any consultations.” (“Thumbs Up” 18) Though this speech possibly implies he is treating Candy solely because she has been a “faithful” servant, the doctor espouses an accepting and tolerant ideology: “‘I will give you just that moment,’ said the Doctor impatiently. ‘This poor colored woman needs me more than anyone and I have never thought to put white before black with those who need my services’” (“Thumbs Up” 18–19). Candy herself, however, is portrayed in a rather stereotypical and demeaning manner, as she quibbles with Pilgrim about the gold she wants in her tooth: Candy was enjoying the most important moment of her life and in spite of her respect for the Doctor there was to be no trifling about it.“Doctor, you told me I could pick my own tooth.” She looked up at the jeweler. “You got any real gilt?”Dr. Pilgrim sighed. He might have had a dozen clients this morning. (“Thumbs Up” 22) Pilgrim here is presented as patient and understanding, even as Fitzgerald's depiction of Candy is troubling in its insistence that a dental procedure could somehow be “the most important moment” of anyone's life. At best, the scene showcases an ill-advised attempt at humor. Still, the argument over the tooth ends with another surprising moment, as Dr. Pilgrim defends his servant. After Tib pointedly remarks, “And you would make a nigger's tooth out of that,” Pilgrim forcefully replies, “Sir, I don't know who you are or why you