1. American Literature 1914-1945  After World War I – evolution to a world power - social breakdown & individual powerlessness - modern temper: fear, disorientation, liberation, and uncertainty  Evolution of new technology & pop culture  The spread of the automobile symbolizing Americanness -> “continual movement, lack of tradition, and rootlessness”

2. Two Thinkers  Sigmund Freud -Psychoanalyst -Unconscious controlling overt behavior -Repressed sexual desires from childhood  Karl Marx -Sociologist -The root cause of all behavior is economic -Antagonistic classes based on means of production -Individualism as a middle-class value

3. Jazz Age (1920s)  The Jazz Age describes the period from 1918-1929, the years between the end of WWI and the rise of the Great Depression.  The traditional values of this age saw great decline while the American stock market soared.  The most representative literary work of the Jazz Age -> F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925)

4. Jazz Age (1920s)  Affluence thanks to the soaring stock market  Personal freedom, social permissiveness, and the pursuit of pleasure  Prohibition (1919) –> encouraging organized crime and bootleg liquor  Indulgence in sexual pleasure & libertinism  The decline of traditional values  Embracing new ideas, attitudes, and technological innovation  Social acceptance of minorities & homosexuals

5. Jazz Age (1920s)  Movie poster for The Jazz Age (1929) with the slogan:  “A Scathing Indictment of the Bewildered Children of Pleasure....Riding the Gilded Juggernaut of Jazz & Gin”

6. Masculine Women, Feminine Men Masculine women, feminine men! Which is the rooster, which is the hen? It's hard to tell 'em apart today! Sister is busy learning to shave, Brother just loves his permanent wave, It's hard to tell 'em apart today! Girls were girls and boys were boys when I was a tot, Now we don't know who is who, or even what's what! Knickers and trousers, baggy and wide, Nobody knows who's walking inside, Those masculine women and feminine men!