1920s Lost Generation

As a nation coming out of a devastating war, America faced many changes in the 1920s. It was a decade of growth and improvements. As immigrants fled from Europe, the economy improved, and new machines offered convenience and luxury from the kitchen to the streets. However, with all change comes opposition. The 1920s revealed a conflict between traditional America and the new attitude and lifestyle through the changing role of women, continued dominance of Christian values, and racism.

The 1920s, often referred to as the Roaring Twenties, was a time of great change and a time of powerful enthusiasm in many areas of society. The world had just finished the biggest war in history, the First World War, and the United States was left almost unharmed by the war. The United States was able to experience a decade of peace and success following the war. During this decade, America became the wealthiest country in the world (Trueman, 2000). The people in the United States went through a colorful period during the twenties. However, at the same time the 1920s was also a very rebellious and difficult time for many. The culture of the 1920s has influenced the culture of America’s society today.

Often heralded as the world’s greatest nation, the United States is also considered home to the world’s greatest authors. Reputable authors such as Fitzgerald, Twain, and Steinbeck remain relevant even through the washing waves of time. One such timeless author, Ray Bradbury, ventured the hazardous path of taboo to write of change. Through his novels of innocent youths evolving into children enlightened beyond their years, Bradbury utilizes the motif of time, innocence, and the philosophical movements of existentialism, transcendentalism, and romanticism to describe catastrophic events the American culture could face if existing destitute judgments continue to prevail. Ray Bradbury dared to reveal his voice.

‘The 1920’s was a decade of reform in almost every aspect of society. Things were becoming modernized, and despite many objections to progression, Women’s rights to new music genres and to sports being better than ever, and new cars such as the model t being in production. The 1920s brought alot of high social and cultural trends. By the end of the decade there was almost one car per family in the united states.s and comportment, the new consumer’s society, the Harlem Renaissance and the new principles of this decade paved the road for Henry Ford’s new Model T, and a whole new America’(Weinberg). The 1920s was a good decade for people back then.with everthing to new music genre and to sports being

Fitzgerald superbly describes the era due to the fact that he himself lived a life of grandeur, he married his wife Zelda Sayre in 1920 and had a “raucous honeymoon in New York City’s famous Biltmore Hotel” (F. Scott Fitzgerald: An American Icon). Soon after the wedding, they rose significantly on the social scene of New York. Fitzgerald originated from St. Paul’s, Minnesota, he attended Princeton University and was a great writer from an early age, he enlisted in the Navy during The Great War. Five years into his highly dysfunctional marriage he conceived one of America’s most significant works of literature. The splendid story Fitzgerald composed closely mirrored his own life, it is because of this that he was able to accurately depict the feelings and behavior of an era. Many sought pleasure through the form of materialism and happily indulged in the vices of mankind, Fitzgerald beautifully captures this all whilst enduring personal hardships of his own. He lived the life of a sensualist, just like the characters he wrote about in his magnum opus. Fitzgerald’s participation in setting the atmosphere of the decade and embodying the Roaring Twenties is the gift that he has bestowed to American literature, without it there wouldn’t be a text that can as precisely sum up some of America’s greatest years. Another major literary figure in the 1920s, though they had their differences, was a close friend of Fitzgerald nonetheless.

There is a controversial debate about the 1920s, whether it was “roaring” or whether is was destitute. In the perspective of some historians, the 1920s brought a rapid increase in urbanization and boom in the economy, however, these historians fail to see the evident terrors that the 1920s brought. The positive uproar on the 1920s did not stand a chance against the rising negative roar of residential schools, the Stock Market Crash, and credit debt. Due to these tragic events, 1920s was brought a dark and negative atmosphere rather than one of contentment.

Document B perhaps shows an example of this change in idea, with a bridge, supposed to signify the path taken to change motives from past ideals, to new and more important ideals. Older generations often considered younger generations spoiled brats who wasted the technological marvels bestowed upon them. This tension between careful and free consumption gave rise to the "Lost Generation" of authors. Document A portrays one of these writers in particular, Lewis Sinclair. Sinclair criticized this excessive materialism as "at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom.” Such criticisms indicate the belief that such mindless consumption blinded Americans to intangible glories of the past. And yet, the conflict between old and new was not insurmountable. Document F describes one of the few people that could connect to both the old and young generations in Charles Lindberg. The Document goes on to say that his likeability, present in both New and Old America was perhaps the biggest thing that he had done.

The 1920s was a time of economic growth, inventions, and spending money. During the 1920s, America was renamed as “new society” and “new standard of living” (Foner, 773). Little did society know was that the 1920s was the reason for the Great Depression in the 1929. This time era had a rough start because there was a prohibition on manufacturing and selling alcohol (Foner, 742). There also an awakening of what America was really like for the immigrants, for example, the convictions of two Italians, Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco. Vanzetti and Sacco were accused of partaking in an armed robbery and murder of a security guard (Foner, 768). This raises about the corruption of the government, and how it destabilized basic American freedom because these men were seen as threats to the American Life (Foner, 769). There were no evidence against Sacco and Vanzetti, yet they still got the death penalty (Foner, 769). The 1920s were also famous for the Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties (Foner, 769, 770). The flappers were women who were young and sexually liberated (Foner, 770). The speakeasies were nightclubs

The “Lost Generation” is essentially a term that is used to describe the young adults of the 1920’s who were changing with the times and rebelling against what America had become after the war. They populated areas like Paris and London where they expected to find literary freedom and a cosmopolitan way of life. The “Lost Generation" of American writers and poets left America, seeking refuge from the broken culture and devastation that had come from the war, and ended up in Paris, a city that had a thriving art culture where they could write freely and lavish in the Bohemian lifestyle without rules. They drank, traveled, had love affairs, and wrote. They were influenced by the paintings of artists like Dada and Picasso and collected their works, as well as socialized with them. They critiqued each other’s writing and often met in bookstores, cafés, and bars to talk about their works and life in general. They had mostly upper-middle-class upbringings and were sustained in hard times by their parents' fortunes. They chose to come to Paris to seek artistic fulfillment and ended up writing what is possibly considered some of the best fiction of the 20th century. It was the time when writers, painters, musicians, and composers went to Paris to work and

Anything Goes: A Bibliography of the Roaring Twenties by Lucy Moore and The Modern Temper by Lynn Dumenil are two books that wonderfully captures the essence of the 1920s, with two different texts that hold a different point of view of the era to effectively highlight the important events and characters of the time. Moore focused on the icons that made up the decade, giving her subjective survey of the principal occurrences and characters of the time that depicts The Roaring Twenties as the age of iconic events and people, of talismanic names and episodes that which she openly explores. She gives her perspective on the fascination of the 1920s rather than the catastrophes of it, which is exactly what Dumnil highlights in her own book. The

A ten year gap can really impact a society. This is evident in the times of the 1920s through the 1930s. These decades are very different from one another. This paper compares and contrasts the traits of these times in the world of pop culture. Pop culture is an accurate way to observe the past because it shows everything that was mainstream and a staple of the time.

After World War I had ended, Americans found themselves living in an exciting time, often called the “Roaring Twenties”. This Features such as the prevalence of Automobiles, women finally receiving suffrage, and the rise in the variety of entertainment, all had a positive impact on America at the time. There were also social problems such as high levels of racism, constant infringement of the eighteenth amendment, and nativism. The “Roaring Twenties” were, in fact, the transitioning years to the twentieth century. The Twenties, as people had said, was a great time to be alive, because of all the positive aspects of it.

The 1920’s was the era of not only mass consumerism, social changes, and profound cultural conflicts but that of the Lost Generation and the effects of World War I during this time period. World War I had a significant impact on the lives and the writing styles of the Lost Generation, changing their perspectives on both the government and their lives.

In 1920s, America undergoes a period of cultural and social revolution. After the shocks by the chaos and violence of WWI, with a burst of economy which brought unprecedented levels of prosperity to the country, the generation turned into a lifestyle of wild and extravagant. Both published in 1925, the time when the jazz age at it’s peak, “The great Gatsby” by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway depict the fragmentation of the soared society by narrating the experience of characters.

The term 'lost generation' embraces Hemingway, F.Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish, Hart Crane, and may other writers who made Paris the