The Jazz Age: A Time of Prosperity and Excess

The Jazz Age, occurring in the 1920's and ending with the Great Depression, saw the rise of popular jazz music and dance. While originally credited to African Americans, jazz music eventually became socially acceptable to middle-class white Americans as well. It truly defined music for many people and played a significant role in their lives.

"The Great Gatsby" by F.Scott Fitzgerald explores themes of the Jazz Age, a time of prosperity and excess. While not all individuals in this era were wealthy, most of Fitzgerald's characters belonged to the privileged class.

The Jazz Age represented a period of economic growth and opulence, embodying the American Dream. Characters like Tom, Daisy, Nick, and Gatsby were extravagant figures who defied prohibition laws by purchasing alcohol and owned luxurious possessions such as Gatsby's Rolls-Royce, Nick's books, and Tom and Daisy's car.

During this period, societies turned their attention to glamour, advertising, consumer products, fresh jazz music, cars, and magazines. This resulted in the rise of bootleggers - lawbreakers who trafficked illicit alcohol, particularly during the American Prohibition and other periods when alcohol was prohibited.

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Gangsters - individuals belonging to criminal organizations - also came into prominence at this time. Furthermore, Flappers emerged as a novel group of young women in the 1920s from the Western world who sported short skirts, bobbed haircuts, enjoyed jazz music, and openly defied traditional conventions with their rebellious and self-reliant attitudes.

Radios were instrumental in disseminating jazz music nationwide, contributing to its rise in popularity. This led to the Jazz Age becoming more socially acceptable, known as the “Anything goes” era, where people loosened their purse strings and engaged in drinking and dancing as popular pastimes.

This time period marked a defiance against societal conventions and a desire to redefine traditional norms. With many Americans experiencing newfound wealth due to the booming economy, women began openly smoking and drinking in public, which was previously unheard of. However, these daring cultural shifts also sparked a change in the moral compass of the American populace.

In The Great Gatsby, materialism is prominently displayed through the pursuit of money. The novel illustrates that money holds more significance for the opportunities it offers characters, such as owning lavish homes in East Egg or enjoying day trips to New York apartments, rather than just its purchasing power. Fitzgerald effectively connects the Jazz Age to The Great Gatsby by highlighting the theme of acquiring and spending money recklessly, resulting in extravagant parties hosted by Gatsby with numerous guests, plentiful food and drinks, and engaging activities.

Gatsby threw lavish parties to attract Daisy's attention, flaunting his riches to impress others in a society where wealth equated status. Despite the grandeur of his events, many guests didn't know Gatsby and invented stories to explain his mysterious aura. Most attendees enjoyed the extravagance, seeing it as a symbol of the American Dream.

Gatsby’s parties in the 1920s were characterized by their charm, notoriety, and emphasis on good manners over money as a social asset (p.3,3.paragraph). The gossip amongst Gatsby’s guests serves as evidence to support this idea, with many spreading rumors about him despite not truly knowing him. This is how he gained his notoriety, with some speculating that “I‘ll bet he killed a man” (p.39,9). Gentlemen at his parties also exemplified good manners by offering assistance to charming ladies.

At Gatsby’s parties, guests were not officially invited but they simply showed up, coming for the party with a pure heart that served as their ticket of admission. The spacious "party lawn" at Gatsby's mansion was like an amusement park, bustling with chatter and laughter where casual innuendos and forgotten introductions were common. Despite the large gatherings, there was plenty of privacy for those seeking it and opportunities for intimate moments unnoticed by others.

Before the jazz age, many Americans desired a figure of royalty to admire and emulate, which led to the emergence of Hollywood. Individuals began to be elevated as "stars" through their appearances in movies and on radio. These individuals enjoyed opulent lifestyles and were seen as America's royalty, a perception that continues to this day.

During the jazz age, America's culture was seen as morally bankrupt despite its glamour. Many Americans related to the emotional downfall depicted in Fitzgerald's novels, which was somewhat overshadowed by the era's energy. This emotional void could be seen in "The Great Gatsby" and within American society at that time. F. Scott Fitzgerald's statement that "booming prosperity hides the underlying distress that cultures experience" emphasizes how the jazz age's false values, materialism, and disillusionment were masked by its economic success. Through his novels, Fitzgerald successfully captured both the riches and sadness of the jazz age.

The Great Gatsby is heavily influenced by the Jazz Age, a result of F. Scott Fitzgerald's experiences in the early twentieth century. His personal life shaped the themes and writing style of his works, providing readers with an immersive experience into both characters' emotions and historical context of the 1920s. Despite its glamorous surface, the Jazz Age also delves into themes of despair, moral corruption, materialism, and disillusionment that are captured in The Great Gatsby.