Context of Great Gatsby

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Overview and the Author, F. Scott Fitzgerald

There are many parallels between Fitzgerald, his wife Zelda, and the characters of Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan:

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/context.html

The novel is set in the summer of 1922, although it was written in 1925. The decade was known as the 'Roaring Twenties' because of the emphasis on austerity, decadence and enjoying yourself that was prevalent until the Great Depression hit in 1929. World War I had recently ended, and this is reflecting within the novel's characters and its plot.

The novel is set over a three month period, and this relatively short period of time represents the fast moving society of the 1920's. Its main location is Long Island, New York, however it does occasionally move to Manhattan. The novel is largely narrated by Nick Carraway.

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Music and Entertainment

The Jazz Age

'The Jazz Age' is the name given to the post World War I movement sweeping through America in the 1920s by F. Scott Fitzgerald himself, during which jazz music became popular.

The Jazz Age is associated with modernism, exuberance, sophistication, consumerism, decadence and the introduction of jazz music.

The birth of jazz music is associated with African Americans, but both black and white people were responsible for its immense popularity.

Jazz music developed in the speakeasy cellars in the cities of New York and Chicago combining elements of Blues, Ragtime and Dixie music, and characterised by improvisation and syncopation.

The rise of jazz was helped by the rise of radio broadcasts and recording technology in 1920, and by 1922, jazz music had become mainstream. This also paved the way for the popularity of 'potter palms'; A popular type of radio show consisting of amateur concerts and big-band jazz performances broadcast from cities such as New York and Chicago.

As well as new styles of music, the Charleston, a dance originating from Charleston, South Carolina among the black community, also became popular.

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Dance

The new type of jazz music led to new styles of dance being created. New dances evolved, which were eagerly learnt by the young women and Flappers of the era.

The new, exuberant dance moves required considerable freedom of movement and this influenced the convenient, less constricted fashion of women in the 1920's.

The dances included the Charleston, the Black Bottom, the Shimmy, the Turkey trot, the Cake walk, the Bunny hop and the Lindy Hop.

Hollywood

The success of Hollywood during the 1920's can be attributed to the rising prosperity of the time. Because of increased consumerism, in both labour-saving devices and entertainment, and the decadence people now lived in after the recession was over, people now had the time and money to spend on going to the movies.

The movies were a cheap form of entertainment meaning Hollywood was a booming industry.

The first movies in Hollywood were in black and white, and lacking in sound, with the story of the movie being conveyed by a melodramatic acting style with overstated body language gestures and exaggerated facial expression. Title cards were also used to explain the movement of the plot.

Silent movies were accompanied by piano or organ music that conveyed the drama and emotion of each scene.

The first major feature length silent movie was the highly controversial 1915 'Birth of a Nation'. Its running time was 133 minutes and it was directed by D. W. Griffith. The inflammatory movie brought protests by the NAACP and there were riots in Philadelphia and Boston.

In 1922 the first all-color movie called 'Toll of the Sea' was released starring Anna May Wong.

The first 3-D movie to be shown in front of an audience, 'The Power of Love', was premiered at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel in 1922.

In 1925 the first movie with sound effects and music, called Don Juan, was made by Warner Brothers. It starred John Barrymore and Mary Astor.

The 'talkies' started in 1927 by Warner Brothers when Al Jolson starred in 'The Jazz Singer' consisted mostly of music with only a couple of hundred spoken words. However 'The Jazz Singer' and the talkies were an immediate success and brought about the demise of the silent movie and its world wide audience with no language barriers.

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Page 3

Women

The role of women was in a period of transition during the 1920's. This was a result of:

The work they were engaged in during the First World War (1914-1917), as they had enjoyed the freedom their jobs provided, and so the number of women working after the war was higher than before the war. During the 1920's, this number also increased by 25%.

In 1920, women were given the right to vote, which increased their status.

New divorce law reforms meant that divorce was easier, and there was a growing resentment among women who were no longer content to stay at home and persevere in a failing marriage. This meant that that the number of divorces during this period doubled.

The increased consumerism of the period caused labour-saving devices, such as new cookers, electric irons, refrigerators, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners, to become more affordable and more popular, which improved women's home lives, and freed up their leisure time.

Women in Employment

Women's roles in employment included factory workers, secretaries, salesclerks and telephone operators.

The number of women attending college rose to 10% of the population by the end of the 1920's.

The Influence of Fashion

Women started to wear clothing that was more convenient and comfortable, as opposed to wearing the tight, restrictive clothing of the past. Skirts became shorter, and corsets were no longer worn. This represented a shift in the values that had been in place since the Victorian era.

Long hair was being cut into shorter, bob hairstyles, symbolising modernism and independence.

Some women even started dressing in more masculine ways, which emphasised the slowly narrowing gender gap.

The Influence of Music and Entertainment

Female singers such as Bessie Smith emerged during this period of postwar equality and open sexuality, paving the way for future female artists.

Source: Boundless. “The Jazz Age.” from https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-roaring-twenties-...

'Flappers'

The women fully enjoying these new freedoms of going to work, learning to drive, obtaining college degrees and exercising their right to vote were known as the 'New Women,' and the lifestyle of these women differed from the Traditionalists and the older generations.

Among the 'New Women' were a group called the 'Flappers,' who were known for wearing fashionable short skirts and drinking and smoking in public, without the restrictions of marriage tying them down.

The events of WWI made some women question traditional morality and values, leading to more rebellious behaviour.

The Flappers represented modernism and showed the clash of values involved in the changing status of women during the period. The free-spirited Flappers flouted convention, cut their hair, listened to jazz and scandalized the older generation. The independent, exuberant and unconventional attitudes of the Flappers challenged the traditional ideas by their choice to wear shorter skirts, bobbed hairstyles and cosmetics, and becoming sexually liberated.

However, although women did experience some change in their original housewife status, most women remained traditional housewives throughout this period, as these changes were not widespread in influencing all women.

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War

Although the USA didn't enter World War I until 1917, the conflict nonetheless affected American society.

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However, people that were previously occupied during the war had returned home, leading the way for joyous celebrations of the nation's success. This is reflected in the emphasis on enjoying yourself.

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The Government

The Prohibition

During 1920-1933, the government introduced and enforced the prohibition, which was a general ban on the consumption, production and sale of alcohol.

Prohibition supporters, called drys, presented it as a victory for public morals and health. Anti-prohibitionists, known as wets, criticised the alcohol ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant, and Catholic life.

Why was alcohol banned?

Economic: Company owners were beginning to complain that many workers were not performing their jobs properly as they were starting work either intoxicated or hungover.

Economic: There was a feeling that as most of the beer drunk in America was imported, drinking alcohol was strengthening the economy of other countries. One of the most notable examples is Germany, with whom American declared war on 6th April 1917.

Medical: By the 1910s,doctors were beginning to realise the detrimental effects alcohol could have on people's health; increasing numbers of American men were being affected by sclerosis, and there was a growing feeling that alcohol was making their men 'unfit.' During this time, the American Medical Association also opposed the use of alcohol for either beverage consumption or therapeutic purposes.

Social: Alcohol was a large contributing factor to spousal abuse and other family neglect, as well as unemployment. Many women's rights groups who believed that banning alcohol was vital supported the temperance movement.

Social: New physiological and epidemiological studies published around the new century portrayed alcohol as a depressant and plausibly associated its consumption with crime, mental illness and disease.

Social and Religious: During the 19th Century, alcoholism, family violence and saloon-based political corruption was prevalent. The Prohibition was an attempt by pious Protestants to cure the ills of society and weaken their political opposition.

Religious: The prohibition movement was often closely linked to religion, as many temperance movement supporters were of a religious persuasion, and these groups were powerful because of the amount of believers, playing a key role in the instigation of the prohibition. At church services, they sung songs against 'the demon drink,' even believing that those who drunk it were thereby influenced to be sinful.

Political: The prohibition bill was put through parliament by politicians because of their personal beliefs, as well as the pressure put on them by prohibition pressure groups. Wayne Wheeler was a skilled political operative who used the government's new income tax, growing tensions with Germany and allying with other factions to his advantage.

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Brown, A. How America Went Dry: The Road to Prohibition, All About History, Issue 6, pages 82-86

Linked to the prohibition, huge amounts of organised crime and corruption was a recurring event during the era.

Governmental taxes usually benefited the wealthy, which meant that the wealthy had more money to spend.

Divorce law reforms made divorces easier to obtain, especially if you were female.

Harsh immigration restriction laws are also introduced, in response to the big movement of immigrants to America following the war. Similar to today, American citizens were terrified that their jobs would be taken by immigrants.

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Class and Wealth

There was a brief economic recession at the start of the decade, however it would soon pass, leaving room for the age of consumerism. American people bought products such as radios, fridges and cars. Consumerism, as a result of technological advances and innovative inventions, was encouraged, as there was an emphasis on enjoying oneself and the newfound economic prosperity.

However, for most, the prosperity was not felt. Groups such as women, African-Americans and farmers experienced poverty during this period. Around 60% of the American population were in fact living below the poverty line. Black Americans living in the Deep South could also expect to experience racism and prejudice as well as economic poverty. Although women were able to enjoy more freedom and wear fashionable clothing, their economic status had little change, as most women were poorly paid in professions such as waitressing and cleaning.

There was a wide gap between the rich and poor. This was not helped by the governmental taxes that benefited the rich, making them more wealthy, and the poor more deprived.

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