Art Deco and Cubismduring the Time of Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby takes place during a time that's now known equally the Jazz Age or the Roaring 20s. Wondering what the world was like when Jay Gatsby struck it rich in bootlegging? Curious to come across how much Daisy and Myrtle'southward struggle for more than echoes the lives of real women? Interested in the other ways that The Great Gatsby era matters to the plot of the novel?

This commodity will guide y'all through the historical, economic, and social movements of the 1920'south as they relate to events, themes, and characters in The Great Gatsby.

Why DoesThe Groovy Gatsby Era Matter?

Understanding what the globe was like during the time the novel is set helps you in all sorts of ways:

Figuring out an author'southward assumptions. Writers are products of their time, so knowing what they would accept assumed to be true makes reading their work richer. For instance, inThe Dandy Gatsby, it's taken for granted that the Jewish gangster Meyer Wolfshiem would need the WASP-y face of Jay Gatsby to brand some of his deals, since Wolfshiem wouldn't have been allowed to join or participate important political and concern networks.

Getting a deeper grasp of graphic symbol. To get a really good sense of why characters in the novel exercise what they do, it'south useful to know the specific historical circumstances they are dealing with. For example, it's all well and good to assume that Daisy should go out the boorish Tom, but divorce would have been manner more complicated for a woman in the 1920s than it is today.

Developing a richer interpretation of symbols, motifs, and themes. Knowing the hot-button issues of the novel's day gives you a good second style to support arguments about the importance of a detail theme, or your reading of the pregnant of a symbol. (Of course, the principal support for these arguments should come from the text itself!) Suppose you wanted to analyze the importance of cars in The Cracking Gatsby. It would assist your argument to talk about the sudden skyrocketing prevalence of cars on the road in the 1920s, connecting them to increased danger, condition symbol consumerism, and modern life.

Historical context: the giant arm propping upwards the baby that is your argument.

When DoesThe Great GatsbyAccept Place?

The Neat Gatsby was published in 1925 and is set in 1922, near the beginning of the decade. (See our article on this novel'southward publication and reception history for more.)

As such, theGreat Gatsby era is the period in 20th century U.S. history nicknamed both the "Roaring 20s" and the "Jazz Age." The first nickname points to America's post-WWI economic prosperity and the land's greater influence abroad. The second nickname refers to this period's irresolute social norms and daring creative movements.

Gatsby is now seen as both a product of and a record of the 1920s. What does this mean? Permit's explore.

Before The Great Gatsby: WWI and Modernism

Although many previous events eventually influenced the 1920s, there are two crucial pieces of background history that you have to know.

World War I

World State of war I dramatically affected the United states of america in the 1920s (and, of grade, shaped much of the 20th century all over the world as well). On the i hand, it elevated the U.Due south. into a world super ability and ushered in a decade-long economic nail. On the other manus, its horrific death price and seeming meaninglessness forever dispelled the idea of war as noble and glorious.

A brief recap of what happened. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir of Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914, Austro-Hungary and its ally Germany declared state of war confronting Russian federation. Russian allies France and England were pulled in to defend Russian federation. The smaller European powers were forced into the state of war every bit well, based on whatsoever alliances they had made in the by. For the first three years, the U.South. remained neutral, instead profiteering from the war by selling supplies to both sides of the conflict. But, in 1917, the U.Southward. was pulled into the fighting, fearing an alliance between Germany and Mexico.

WWI was a war of trench warfare, chemical weapons, shrapnel artillery, and other gruesome technologies that had never been seen earlier. When you combine this level of mass devastation with the fact that most of the war was a territorial stalemate (no army advanced, no army withdrew - they were simply locked in a horrible tie), it's easy to see how unaccountable the forty one thousand thousand deaths the war caused were.

The survivors of the war - both the veterans and those who came of age during the fighting - were called the Lost Generation. F. Scott Fitzgerald, though he didn't actually see any fighting during his time in the regular army, was a member of this generation. (Encounter our brief biography of Fitzgerald to learn more than.)

You lot should know about WWI (and its aftermath) because:

• Both Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby have armed forces backgrounds.

• Gatsby'southward early on romance with Daisy is heightened past the initial idealism that he was about to go fight in a noble and glorious endeavor.

• Some of the rumors swirling around Gatsby point to how fresh the war was in everyone's mind (that he was a German spy during the war, or that he is related to Kaiser Wilhelm, who ruled Frg during the state of war).

Modernism and the Lost Generation

The war and its devastating later-furnishings, specially in Europe, fed into the creation of a new artistic motility: modernism.

Modernism was all well-nigh breaking with the past. In contrast to 19th century writing that tended to reinforce the condition quo, modernism rejected old-fashioned ideas like heroism and moral finality. Similarly, modernism writers experimented with form and fashion rather than sticking with traditional forms of prose and verse.

Inspired by the devastation of WWI, writers in The Lost Generation embraced a cynical view of human nature. Fitzgerald himself was role of a circle of modernists who regularly met in Paris (others included Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Sinclair Lewis, and the painters Picasso and Matisse). Fitzgerald wroteThe Great Gatsby while in Paris, surrounded by this group.

You tin can connect modernism with the novel'south descriptions of Eastward Egg and West Egg extravagance. Similar his boyfriend modernists, Fitzgerald was deeply critical of the wealth and capitalist success ushered in by the post-war boom, considering the new obsession with money and status shallow.

What trench warfare looked like. Imagine spending weeks in this hole in the ground.

The Great Gatsby Era: The Roaring 20s

At the fourth dimension when the novel takes place, the U.S. was in the middle of a tremendous economic boom and a soaring stock market that seemed to exist on a permanent upwardly swing. At the aforementioned time, many of the social restrictions of the early 20th century were being rejected, and progressive movements of all kinds were flourishing.

Prohibition, Bootlegging, and the Speakeasy

Socially progressive activists in both the Democratic and Republican parties united to pressure level the authorities to ban alcohol, which was blamed for all kinds of other social ills like gambling and drug abuse.

In 1920, the U.Due south. passed the 18th Amendment, outlawing the product and sale of alcohol. Of course, this did piddling to really stalk the want for alcoholic beverages, and then a vast underground criminal empire was born to supply this demand.

The production and distribution of alcohol became the province of bootleggers - the original organized offense syndicates. Selling booze was accomplished in many means, including through "speakeasies" - basically, underground social clubs.

Since speakeasies were already side-stepping the law, they also became places where people of unlike races and genders could mix and mingle in a fashion they hadn't previously while enjoying new music like jazz. This marked a shift both in how black culture was understood and appreciated by the residue of the country and in how women's rights were progressing, as nosotros'll discuss in the next sections.

If you understand the history of Prohibition, you'll brand better sense of some plot and grapheme details inThe Keen Gatsby:

• Gatsby makes his fortune through bootlegging and other criminal activities.

• Gatsby's business partner Meyer Wolfshiem is a gangster who is affiliated with organized criminal offence and is based on the real-life criminal offense boss Arnold Rothstein, who was indeed responsible for fixing the World Series in 1919.

• Any time someone is drinking booze in the novel, they are doing something illegal, and are clearly in the know about how to go this banned substance.

• Gatsby'due south parties have a speakeasy feel in that people from different backgrounds and genders freely mix and mingle.

• One of the rumors about Gatsby is that he is involved in a bootlegging pipeline of alcohol from Canada - this is a reference to a existent-life scandal about 1 of the places where illegal alcohol was coming from!

Police emptying out confiscated barrels of beer into the sewer.

Women's Rights

The 19th Subpoena, passed in 1919, officially gave women the right to vote in the Us. Suffrage had been a huge goal of the women's movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so this victory caused women to continue to push boundaries and fight for more rights during the 1920s.

The ramifications of this were political, economic, and social. Politically, the women'southward rights movement next took up the crusade of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would guarantee equal legal rights for women. The subpoena came close to eventually being ratified in the 1970s, only was defeated by conservatives.

Economically, there was an increment in working women. This began during WWI as more women began to work to make upwardly for the men fighting abroad, and equally more professions opened up to them in the men'southward absence.

Societally, divorce became more than common. However, it was still very much frowned on, and existence a housewife and having fewer rights than man was still the norm in the 1920s. Some other social development was the new "flapper" style. This term described women who would wear much less restricting wearable and go out drinking and dancing, which at the fourth dimension was a huge violation of typical social norms.

If yous understand this combination of progress and traditionalism for women'due south roles, you'll discover it on brandish in Th e Great Gatsby:

• Daisy contemplates leaving Tom but ultimately decides to stay.

• Hashemite kingdom of jordan parties and doesn't seem to exist in a hurry to settle down.

• Myrtle flouts traditional rules by cheating on her husband but is killed past the end of the book, suggesting women are safest when they toe the line.

Women'due south suffrage parade in New York Urban center.

Racial and Religious Minority History

The post-war blast also had a positive outcome on minorities in the U.S.

One of the effects was thatJewish Americans were at the forefront of promoting such problems as workers rights, civil rights, woman'south rights, and other progressive causes. Jews also served in the American military during World War I in very high numbers. At the same time, their prominence gave rise to an anti-Semitic backfire, and the revival of the KKK began with the lynching of a Jewish homo in 1915.

Another post-WWI development was the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural, social, and creative flowering among African Americans that took identify in Harlem, NY, during the 1920s. Artists from that time include W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Vacation.

You tin see the effects of these historical development several places in the novel:

• jazz music is a fixture of Gatsby's parties, and well-nigh every song that Fitzgerald describes is a real life slice of music.

• Nick's love of Manhattan every bit a diverse melting pot is illustrated by the appearance in Affiliate iv of a automobile with wealthy blackness passengers and a white driver.

• Tom Buchanan's racist rant in Chapter 1 and his fears that the white race will be "overrun" past minorities is based on the backlash that African American advocacy occasioned.

• The novel includes Nick's anti-Semitic description of a Jewish character - Meyer Wolfshiem.

• There are modern theories that Jay Gatsby is may be one-half black and that Daisy may actually be Jewish.

Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes

Automobiles

The 1920s saw huge increases in the production and use of automobiles. Almost 1 in iv people now had a car! This happened because of advances in mass production due to the associates line, and because of rising incomes due to the economic boom.

Auto ownership increased mobility between cities and outer suburban areas, which enabled the wealthy to work in one place but live in another. Cars also now created a totally new danger, particularly in combination with alcohol consumption.

If you lot're aware of the newness and allure of cars, you'll notice that inThe Great Gatsby:

• The wealthiest characters own cars and utilise them to commute between Manhattan and Long Island.

• Cars are clearly used to brandish wealth and status - even Tom, normally secure in his superiority, wants to brag to George Wilson about the super-fancy Rolls Royce he borrows from Gatsby.

• Cars are tools of recklessness, danger, and violence - at that place are several car accidents in the novel, the most notable of which is when Daisy runs Myrtle over and kills her in Chapter 7.

Death machine, or no, y'all have to admit that's a pretty cool-looking auto.

The Bottom Line

• Understanding historical context helps you in all sorts of ways:
  • Figuring out an author'due south assumptions.
  • Getting a deeper grasp of character.
  • Having a richer interpretation of symbols, motifs, and themes.

• The Great Gatsby was published in 1925 and is set in 1922, a time nicknamed both the "Roaring 20s" and the "Jazz Historic period."

• There are two crucial pieces of background history that you have to know to understand the novel:
  • World War I. Its horrific death toll and seeming meaninglessness forever dispelled the idea of war as noble and glorious. The survivors of the war - both the veterans and those who came of age during the fighting - were called the Lost Generation.
  • Modernism and the Lost Generation. Modernism was all about breaking with the past, experimenting with form and fashion, and embracing a cynical view of human nature.

• The Peachy Gatsbyera was distinguised by an economic boom, the rejection of erstwhile social restrictions, and progressive movements of all kinds:
  • Prohibition, Bootlegging, and the Speakeasy. The U.S. banned booze, ushering in a vast underground criminal empire, including speakeasies - clandestine social clubs.
  • Women'south Rights. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. Politically, the women's rights motility next took up the cause of the Equal Rights Amendment. Economically, there was an increase in working women. Societally, divorce became more mutual, and the "flapper" style was born.
  • Racial and Religious Minority History. Jewish Americans were at the forefront of promoting progressive causes. Another post-WWI development was the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural, social, and artistic flowering among African Americans.
  • Automobiles. Car ownership increased mobility betwixt cities and outer suburban areas, and created a totally new danger, peculiarly in combination with alcohol consumption.

What's Next?

Learn more most how The Great Gatsby was received when it first came out, and likewise read nearly the life of its author, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Excited to dive in? Check out our manufactures onGatsby's title, its opening pages and epigraph, and its first chapter.

Or, zoom out to a summary of The Bang-up Gatsby, forth with links to all our keen manufactures analyzing this novel!

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About the Writer

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in loftier school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher educational activity.

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Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/great-gatsby-era-backdrop-1920s

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