The Roaring 20s

The Jazz Age The 1920’s were known as the Jazz Age and the era of Prohibition. Fitzgerald’s work portrays a slice of New York during this time. After WWI, the country experienced prosperity and optimism. This was especially true in NY. The country saw many social and technological changes that revolutionized American life - telephone - movies & newsreels - electricity - radio - automobile - suburbs - time for leisure & pleasure Americans became obsessed with the frivolous: - alcohol, music, dancing, and promiscuous behavior

Post World War I Modern warfare (automatic & chemical weapons) led many people to question traditional beliefs – Americans left with sense of alienation, isolation, disillusionment… Those returning from war experienced restlessness and boredom with the status quo.

Historic and Cultural Events Women were given the right to vote. They experienced new freedom and financial independence. Flappers were this new type of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, wore makeup, drank alcohol, smoked and listened to Jazz music. A “bob cut” is a short haircut that was created in Paris and made popular by the flappers. The Waldorf-Astoria began to serve food to women who were not accompanied by a man. This was unheard of and was scandalous. The popular dances of the time were the Charleston, the Black Bottom and the Shimmy.

Prohibition brought with it the speakeasy, bootlegging, rum running, and organized crime. The most famous were Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel and Dutch Schultz. Dance marathons became the rage starting in 1923 Harry Houdini and baseball were very popular during this time. This was the time of the Harlem Renaissance, but also when the KKK had it highest enrollment.

Historic and Cultural Events The Miss America contest started in Atlantic City in The first winner, Margaret Gorman, was sixteen. Charles Lindbergh flew the first Transatlantic flight, from NY to Paris. The average income was $1236 yr. and for teachers it was $970 yr. Life expectancy was 54 yrs. old. It took 13 days to go from NY to Calif. Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debate evolution in the Scopes trial. Leopold and Loeb killed a 13 yr old, just to see how it felt. They were defended by Clarence Darrow. Movies were becoming more popular. The first movies were silent movies, but sound was added in the 1920’s, as a sound track that was played along with the movie. The first theatres were called Nickelodeons.

Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald ( ) Fitzgerald began to write this story in 1922 and it was published in He based the story partly on his life, where he was living when he started it and on the people and lifestyle he experienced there. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Mary McQuillan & Edward Fitzgerald He was named after the author of the National Anthem, who was a distant cousin. Midwesterner whose family had social pretensions, but not enough money (his mother’s family is wealthy but his father is unsuccessful at business so money is always an issue); charm and good looks; traveled in best social circles; but were aware of gap in wealth

He is poor but he attends prep schools, - St. Paul Academy (MN) & the Newman School (NJ) – but feels like an outsider. He went to Princeton, and fell in love with Ginevra King, a wealthy socialite whom he met in 1915, but didn’t graduate. He went into the army in When he was stationed in Alabama, he met his future wife, Zelda. She was the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge. Edith Cummings- friend of King and inspiration for Jordan Baker King was the inspiration for many of his characters including Daisy Buchanan

At this time he was working on his first novel, but it was rejected. Zelda would not marry him because he did not make enough money. He was 24 when his first novel, This Side of Paradise, a story which captured the hope of success and the fear of failure and poverty, was published. He became an instant celebrity and was able to marry Zelda. Fame and fortune went to their heads and they lived an extravagant lifestyle- wild, crazy, drunk, adulterous. They did have a daughter, Scottie. They moved to Europe in 1923, so that he could write in peace. It was during this time that he met Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound. They were known as the “Lost Generation”

End of life When they came back to America, Fitzgerald tried to write scripts for Hollywood, but this didn’t last long. He would later go back to Hollywood. Although he wrote and sold many stories, he was always in debt. His alcoholism contributed to that along with Zelda’s behavior. They were not getting along and when Zelda wrote her novel it caused him bitterness and resentment and they grew apart. Zelda’s behavior became erratic and she was hospitalized for mental problems throughout the rest of her life. She died in a fire while a patient at a hospital in He wrote four novels and was in the middle of his fifth when he died in 1940, at the age of 44.

Critics say that although Fitzgerald was obsessed with the romance of a glamorous life, and he pursued it for the majority of his life, he understood the corruption such a life produced and The Great Gatsby was “the last stage of illusion in this absurd chase.” “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”