Roaring Twenties Great Gatsby

The roaring 20’s has aspects of culture related to the Great Gatsby. This book showed how prosperous people were. Women embraced new freedom. Men finally came home from the war. The Great Gatsby is a book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was written in the time period of 1925. The Great Gatsby dealt mainly with the roaring 20’s. The roaring 20’s was a a main part of history. It dealt with music such as jazz, flappers, and wealth. It also dealt with prohibition (temperance) which was the ban on alcohol.

Bootleggers and the mob played a huge role in the 20’s. Many affairs took place during this time this also dealt with lying. After world war one the roaring 20’s took place.

Flappers played a major role in the 1920s. These flappers were young women. They gave off a very fun vibe. At this time this lifestyle was known to be very dangerous for these women. These flappers had help push economic, political and sexual freedom for women. The word flapper came about after World War I. These flappers drank, smoked in public places, and also danced in jazz clubs. The dresses that were worn were short and revealing. Flappers were known everywhere they were included on films and in books. Not everybody was a fan of these flappers. Some people tried passing laws on how short their skirts. Others tried to put a ban on dresses that showed to much of a women’s throat. Women who went to beaches in bathing suits that revealed to much were escorted off the beach or if refused they were arrested. The end of flappers came about October 29, 1929. This was due to the stock market crash which led to the Great Depression. Music also played a major role in the 1920’s.

Many new technologies were created to create the way music was made. One of these technologies was commercial radio. The most popular music in the twenties was popular dance bands, jazz, and blues. Dance played a major role on culture and music during this period. Dancing represented a lot of things. The most popular dances during this time were the Charleston, the black bottom, the shimmy, the foxtrot, and the lindy hop. The Charleston was the most popular out of all these dances. It was introduced in 1923 by a broadway show named runnin wild. There were many popular orchestras during this time that were considered the dance bands. These were Paul Whitemsn and his orchestra, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, and Ben Bernie and his orchestra. Many dance competition were held and this also played a major role on the music industry.

Jazz was the most popular music at this time. It hit the 1920s when African Americans from the souther part began to move to Chicago for work. The twenties were also kmown as the jazz age. The blues music in the 1920s mainly focused on an African Americans struggle with racism. Broadway also was important in the 1920s. These broadway acts took place in New York City. People with many different talents would perform such as composers, writers and musicians. The temperance played a major role in the 20th century. Drinking during this time period was very bad. It was consumed in large amounts and affected daily lives. In work it messed with how these people worked, and at home women’s lives and kids were affected. Temperance movements formed in Great Britain and the United States. Many of these movements involved lectures, marches, and sing that warned these people how bad the consumption of alcohol was. The United States began to ask to signs papers that asked them to stop consuming alcoholic beverages. The prohibition party also became important, they pushed for an amendment that would say no selling or transportation alcohol.

The use of alcohol made the men become violent to their wives. Than in 1917 congresses passed an amendment. This amendment placed a ban on the selling and buying of alcohol. This was the eighteenth amendment, it was approved in 1919 and went into effect in 1920. Many Americans though payed no mind to this amendment, they still began to drank. Bootleggers and criminals began to profit from selling the alcohol. The twenty first amendment was than passed that allowed people to consume alcohol. Crime was pretty bad in the 20th century. Mobsters had their own way of running business. In order for these monsters to get away with their illegal actions they would pay off cops. These criminals mad a lot of money off their illegal moves. From all the money coming in mobsters had to be smarter about their moves. They began to hire lawyers and accounts to cover their backs and handle their money. They began partnerships with other gangs, new shipping methods, and began investing in real estate. These mobsters became businessman and are now called organized crime. A guy named Charles “Lucky” Luciano bought together New York’s biggest Italian and Jewish mobsters. He wanted to control the bootlegging business. These mobs started to take a sudden bad turn.

In 1929 there was a war with seven rival gangs against al Capone. This was known as St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Alcohol was being transported in many ways. One way was through the Great Lakes the other way was through Lake Ontario over the Hudson River down to places in New York City. Prohibition was meant to stop alcohol but it led to worse problems such as these crimes. Marriages and divorces were often common in the 1920s. Women have gotten a lot more independence during this time. They finally viewed themselves more as just a house wife.

The 1920s had a low amount of marriages and a high rise in divorces. Women were still not as equal as men were. All married women were suppose to say at home and take care of the house, raise the children, and follow the husbands orders. Many women were stuck in abusive relationships. Divorce was only allowed in certain circumstances. A women who wished for a divorce had to go to the courts a prove of her husbands wrong actions. It was also a struggle for them to gain custody after the divorce. Women were left with very few things after divorce. People began to get scared for the amount of people not getting married and the amount of divorces that took place. Flappers were blamed for these low marriage rates and divorces. During this time period marriage counseling and prenuptial contracts came about. This was used to try to save all the marriages or to talk women into getting married.

Prenuptial contracts were something signed before marriage. It helps to get in order a husband and wife’s belongings and income. This was Incase of a divorce, or death. These prenups helped tremendously. World War One influenced the twenties in many ways. It happened after the association of archduke Franz Ferdinand. It was against Germany, Austria Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, japan, and the United States. There were two sides the axis powers and the Allie powers. The United States was on the Allie side. German u boats were used and they sunk United States ships. The Lusitania was sunk killing many American passengers. On April second President Wilson went in front of congress and called for war against Germany. World War One began In 1914 and ended in 1918. America though did not joint this war until 1917.

Over 16 million people died. It was fought on the western and Easter front, with many different battles in between. The policy of neutrality that was favored by President Woodrow Wilson went into effect. This war changed people social and economic lives. This is why we call it the roaring twenties. World War One was also called the Great War. People came home from this war bad both physically and mentally. Over four million people served in this war. People suffered tremendously from PTSD this was called post traumatic stress. If people were to cry or break down in the war they weren’t considered strong and were placed in mental asylums. Nobody understood what these soldiers were going through. There was advancements of technology, urbanization came about, immigration led to social upgrades. This all influenced the 1920s.

From the men suffering from so many injuries women were needed to work. They did this so they didn’t have to go back to their violent situations at home, they gained suffrage and independence. Women can finally wear whatever outfits they want. Many movements began such as pacifism, isolationism, and spiritual movements. Advertisement, manufacturing, cinema, and the automobile came about when people were sent to war. This made it harder for men to want to leave for war. Society after World War One grew rapid in a good way. F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the roaring twenties in many different ways in the Great Gatsby. He through insane parties. These parties included dancing and drinking. It included the new freedom for women. It included the music he had at his parties. This correlated with the jazz age. Everyone would show up to his parties including bootleggers. He also had flappers at his parties. These flappers in his novel also wore the short dresses. In the novel Gatsby lived in west egg which was the richer side of town. This showed how money was coming in. It showed the economic wealth. The person Gatsby was in love with was daisy. She lived in east egg which was the old rich side of town.

Many affairs took place in this novel. This showed just how poorly the women treat their husbands. It also showed how poorly the men treated their wives. Tom was having an affair with a married women named myrtle. Myrtle in the novel was married to George Wilson. Gatsby was in love with Daisy while she was married to Tom. Nick tried to help them get together. Tom eventually grew suspicious that Daisy was having an affair. This showed just how poorly marriages were at this time period. Fitzgerald was alive during this time period. So he correlated the book with the stuff he saw going on during this time period.

One of the many reasons Gatsby was so rich was that he participated in bootlegging. There was a difference between people being newly rich and old rich. Sometimes if you were newly rich you participated in criminal activities. Gatsby also had extravagant cars. He had over the top colorful clothing. In this novel he shows daisy just how extravagant his stuff was. He took her for rides in his car and he showed her all his colorful shirts. Gatsby though wasn’t at all as great as people thought he was. In the beginning Gatsby had no money. He began to hang out with crowds that had large money that eventually led him to having money. The parties he threw was one way he gained his popularity. Gatsby’s over the top stuff led to negative consequences though. In the end of the book myrtle gets hit by a car. Myrtle mistakenly thought it was someone else. People believed it was Gatsby because it was Gatbys’s car. In the end it was daisy driving his car. In the end this led to Gatsby’s death because people believed he was the one to kill myrtle.   

Did you like this example?

1076

45