1. FITZGERALD’S JAZZ AGE BY GRACE AND JESS

2. ROARING TWENTIES Economically, the 1920s boasted great financial gain, at least for those of the upper class. Between 1922 and 1929, dividends from stock rose by 108 percent, corporate profits increased by 76 percent, and personal wages grew by 33 percent. Nick Carraway's journey to the East to make his fortune in the bond business is not entirely unfounded. Largely because of improvements in technology, productivity increased while overall production costs decreased, and the economy grew. All this would come to a grinding halt, however, with the stock market crash of 1929, sending the U.S. into the greatest depression it has ever known. Fitzgerald, of course, couldn't have forecasted the crash, but in The Great Gatsby, he does suggest, on one level, that society was living in excess and without curbing its appetite somewhat, ruin was just around the corner.

3. The commercial growth of the 1920s resulted in rampant materialism, such as that presented by the characters of Tom and Myrtle. As people began to have more money, they began to buy more. In turn, as people began to buy more, profits grew, more goods were manufactured, and people earned more money, thereby enabling the economic growth cycle. People began to spend their money on consumer goods — cars, radios, telephones, and refrigerators — at a rate never before seen. People also began to spend time and money on recreation and leisure. Professional sports began to grow in popularity, and movies and tabloid newspapers gained a foothold on America, helping everyone to share, in one way or another, in the growing materialism that categorized the Jazz Age.

4. WOMEN The Great War had destroyed old perceived social conventions and new ones developed. The young set themselves free especially, the young women who shocked the older generations with their new hairstyles and revealing clothes. Clara Bow was the Hollywood actress which a majority of the Flappers were influenced by.

5. The Flappers were known for their slinky attire and were often arrested for their arrested for indecent exposure; described as being “born of the devil they are carrying the present generation to destruction” The Flappers also went out without a man to look after them, went to all- night parties, drove motor cars, smoked in public and held men’s hands without wearing gloves. Mothers formed the Anti-Flirt League to protest against the acts of their daughters. But after the horror of the First World War, the younger generation mistrusted the older generation and ‘did their own thing’ which flew in the face of the establishment.

6. JAZZ The growth in jazz led to new dances being created which further angered the older generation. The Charleston, One Step and Black Bottom were only for the young and the last one angered the establishment by name alone. The most famous jazzmen were Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Benny Goodman. The combination of the new music, new dances and new fashions outraged many. This links to Gatsby’s large parties with dancers, musicians, entertainers.

7. In 1918, Prohibition had been introduced into America. This law banned the sale, transportation and manufacture of alcohol. However, there was a ready market for alcohol throughout the 1920's and the gangsters provided it. Capone's earnings at their peak stood at $60 million a year from alcohol sales. Gatsby became a part of one of the largest money making endeavours of the 1920s. He became a bootlegger. As a result, sale and distribution of alcohol became illegal. The social climate of the era did not respond to this regulation. Many people became involved in an underground movement to sell and distribute alcoholic beverages. Through these illegal operations, Gatsby was able to obtain enough money to purchase a home just across the bay from Daisy. His mysterious connections with Meyer Wolfshiem leave the reader with questions of the extent of Gatsby’s involvement with the attempts to smuggle and consume alcohol in the 1920s.

8. "It was an age of miracles," Fitzgerald wrote of the Jazz Age. "It was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire."