World War I And The Great Gatsby

In the 1920’s, America was evolving into a fun, carefree, and entertaining country – or so many people thought. On the outside, many people observed Americans with prosperity, lavish lives, and new opportunities through new technology and inventions. However, although America seemed to be well off at the time and enjoying life, it was only a slight cover up. Inside the country, there was turmoil which included debt and war. For this reason, America earned the reputation of the 1920’s as the Roaring Twenties due to the positive outcomes of the economic conditions, developments in the arts, and developments in entertainment.

The 1920s was a major turning point in American history. Known as “the roaring twenties”, the citizens of the United States enjoyed the new found wealth from the economic turnaround. The United States’ wealth more than doubled as the nation turned into a consumer society. Not all Americans were fond of the changes in society, and not all of the changes were good.

The Roaring Twenties of America, which was from 1920-1929, saw a great social and economic prosperity. People were happy, and were celebrating the victory of World War 1. The gasoline price was lowered, right to vote for women was granted, and America was climbing towards a great success. In 1929, Herbert Hoover became the president of the United States of America, and he said, “ Given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation”(Roark, Pg. 703). After few months of his inauguration, his words contradicted, the Roaring Twenties halted. During the Roaring Twenties, the stock market prices increased steeply. The rapid

The roaring twenties was a decade of excitement. For the first time in many families’ lives, leisure times were extended thanks to the time saving inventions such as the vacuum cleaner, the refrigerator, and the washing machine. Another factor that made the 20s the best decade for many Americans was because of installment, also known as “buy now, pay later,” buying which allowed the middle class families to afford those products when needed and pay it off later. Clubs bustled with life, filled with the stench of alcohol, and the noise of tapping shoes as men and women danced their soles off their shoes. New thing occurred and made many Americans’ lives a paradise. However, there were few groups of people who didn’t view the same decade the

The 1920s was an age of rebellion and freedom. No one could deny the energy of the young generation and their youthful decisions. Some of the social activities that rose up in the 1920s are still very popular in the world we know today. There was a certain pressure in the air that people had to do these new things to fit in with the world. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the characters have a great weight on their shoulders because society was telling them to live a certain way.

The 1920’s were a decade filled with new inventions that not only improved society, but slung American societies into a whirlwind of social changes that defied almost everything they’d previously believed in. From the inventions of the television, automobiles, movies, the radio, and even drive in restaurants just to name a few, all paved the way for societies to interact more doing fun things, and people from all social classes would co mingle in these establishments and that was not typically heard of. “The Roaring 20’s” are referred to as such because the culture, social change, and inventions all combined to make for a booming era of newness people had never witnessed before.

Many of the most trying and eye-opening experiences America had ever encountered took place during the years of 1919 and 1930; ranging from the end of the war to the stock market crash, the nation stayed together and developed many inventions and ideas that would drastically change the future of America. Most of the time when people speak about the 1920s they describe them as roaring. They have mental pictures that reflect women in flappers dancing with wine glasses filled to the brim in one hand and a lite cigarette in the other hand. They imagine men in expensive tuxedos buying lavish and luxury items such as cars and mansions. They think of works of literature such as The Great Gatsby that depict the 1920s as a place where people were free to do what they wanted when they wanted, whether it was legal or not. The twenties are considered a time where people had more money than they needed and they spent it accordingly. However, that is not the entire concept of the 1920s. The twenties were not just a time of over spending. They were a time of fear. People had never had nor seen this much money in circulation. They had especially not grown custom to witnessing people spend the money on items they did not need.

Everyone knows about the “roaring 20’s”. Some people may only know about the 1920’s through Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, where it was described as a time full of lavish parties and fancy dresses. But of course the parties were not all that was to be remembered. Some of the nation’s most memorable moments happened in the 1920’s. From Chicago to Springfield, Illinois had a lot of action in the 1920’s.

The Twenties bought prosperity followed by turmoil to the surprised people in the United States. Economic growth soared through the roof, as mass production became available with Ford’s moving assembly line, almost half of America was able to own a car. The American dollar soon replaced the British pound; America produced most of the world’s goods. America was on a roll, she was on top and she was on fire. However not everyone in America was rejoicing with this great economic boom, almost half the population still remained in poverty, this boom in production cut many American’s out of jobs and farmer’s went out of business. Many American’s began to flee in hopes of something better. The early 1900, bought a corruption of government when Harding came into office, proposing the idea that if you had money you could get out of almost any crime imaginable. American’s began to charge against money they didn’t have, leisure

During the twenties, the poor economic situation together with isolation created social issues in the country. As the 1920’s progressed, wages increased and people were more able to purchase

Dubbed the ‘roaring 20s’, because of the massive rise in America’s economy, this social and historical context is widely remembered for its

Conflict is a recurring struggle throughout The Great Gatsby and Ken Allen’s “Roaring Twenties”. In Fitzgerald’s nonfiction novel, class was one of the main conflicts and reasoning’s behind many of the actions from the characters. A major social issue was class socialization. Class socialization refers to the rich socializing with the rich and the poor socializing with the poor. Classes of people were divided by wealth. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy would not be with Gatsby due to his lack of money. Since Gatsby descended from a poor family, Daisy would not accept him as a lover although she was indeed in love with him. Gatsby’s lack of wealth led to many other conflicts sustaining from his drive to earn money to prove his worth of her affection. Another conflict in The Great Gatsby was the stock market crash. The stock market crash was a major event during the Roaring Twenties. When the market crashed, prices on goods soared due to the low quantity of products resulting with millions of people becoming poor. In Allen’s poem “Roaring Twenties”, socialism

The roaring twenties was a time filled with hope and change. President Warren G. Harding promised a “return to normalcy”, which reflected his own conservative values and the voters’ wants for stability and order. Americans felt that they had been through more than enough, and desired prosperity. During the years 1919 and 1920 the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments were passed; the outlaw of alcoholic beverages and the right for women to vote, which ones of the many reasons society was turning their backs on Progressivism. Republicans were beginning to return to their previous dominance. The 1920’s was an economic boom for America, including everything from an increase in jobs, a rise in plentiful goods, new consumer products, and the reduction of taxes. The country was filled with jazz music, dance, and what appeared to be a brighter future. The 1929 crash of stock market was the beginning of a downward spiral leading in to the Great Depression. The stock market crash is often to be confused as the cause of the Great Depression, although that is false. A few of the issues that lead to the Great Depression included; farming (which decreased in demand as farms increased through the states during World War I), banking, and mass unemployment. Capitalism took shape as what was once the individualistic Protestant work ethic was reshaped into industrial work on a grand scale. Each worker contributed to the greater good, and the workers were presided over by a boss

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920’s. The twenties had a lot going on that was great for some people and not for others. The roaring twenties was a time of prohibition and large criminal activity. It also was a great time for the economy because there were more jobs for men who just came out of the war. Women of this time period wore shorter dresses, cut their hair, smoked, swore and were given the right to vote. People spent their money carelessly and partied hard. Others fought for their rights, African Americans had to fight for their right to move into northern cities because people were threatened by other races and their cultures.

Considered as the defining work of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, when America was just coming out of one of the most violent wars in the nation’s history. World War 1 had taken the lives of many young people who fought and sacrificed for our country on another continent. The war left many families without fathers, sons, and husbands. The 1920s is an era filled with rich and dazzling history, where Americans experienced changes in lifestyle from music to rebellion against the United States government. Those that are born into that era grew up in a more carefree, extravagant environment that would affect their interactions with others as well as their attitudes about themselves and societal