The Roaring Twenties Essays

The Roaring Twenties Essays The Roaring Twenties Essay The Roaring Twenties Essay The Lost Generation in the Roaring Twenties The process of change can often be difficult and tumultuous. This is particularly true of monumental changes in generational trends. In looking at the young people of the sasss, for example, we see a lost generation, which, despite breaking free from the strict moral codes of previous generations, had yet to find their own course to fulfillment and happiness. Responding to the hypocrisy of their parents, and greatly assisted by the invention of the automobile, the young people of the asss sought good times through the pursuit of physical beauty, sex, and material wealth. Although these pursuits provided an element of freedom that had not existed previously, they ultimately led to disillusionment and, in some cases, destruction. This aspect of the asss experience is expressed very well in the film The Great Gatsby, based on the book of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In this film presentation, a strong critique of American society is offered in the sense that the pursuit of wealth and success is not glorified as it usually is in popular culture. Rather, it is depicted as something dangerous and destructive. As Allen (2000) points out, the asss dinettes a revolution in morals and manners. In particular, young women began to realize a level of freedom that had not existed previously. In terms of dress, skirts were raised and outfits became more revealing. Also, young women began to smoke and drink at a rate not seen previously. In terms of morals, sexual contact became more frequent at younger ages. Petting parties were extremely popular. This entire process was signified in the popularity of the automobile. On more than one level, the automobile typified the prevailing trends of the asss. First of all, the automobile anger ten social Ana sexual landscape Day provoking a location winner young people could spend time together away from home. Secondly, the worship of the automobile represented a new focus on material and wealth and possessions as a post-war ideal. These fundamental developments are represented in The Great Gatsby. The main character and narrator of the story is Nick Caraway. Immediately upon his arrival in New York from Chicago, Nick falls in with a group of people that typify the new outlook of the sasss. In the couple of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, for example, we e the classic upscale young couple of the decade. Daisy exemplifies the moral and aesthetic status of women in the asss. She projects the classic asss look: slight of frame, even boyish, with short hair and a light, airy quality. Like many women of her generation, Daisy likes to drink with her husband and is not afraid to be upfront and frank in conversation. Tom, meanwhile, typifies the young wealthy asss male: self- centered, rude, and boisterous. Together, Tom and Daisy personify many of the themes, which Allen (2000) associates with the sasss. Indeed, as Allen (2000)1 as written, the woman of the Post-war generation said to man, You are tired and disillusioned, you do not want the cares of a family or the companionship of mature wisdom, you want exciting play, you want the thrills of sex without their fruition, and I will give them to you. And to herself she added, But I will be free. This is the type of agreement that seems to lie beneath the marriage of Tom and Daisy. They live a fast, exciting , life, more concerned with thrills than with stability or lasting love. And when Daisy feels compelled to indulge in an affair with Gatsby, she does so freely and with title concern. Tom, for his part, has a mistress of his own. The emphasis of their union is on speed, excitement, and mutual freedom. The consequences, as we soon find out, are disillusionment and destruction. Above all else, the film addresses the issue of materialism that was so powerful in America in the sasss. As Collect (1953) has written, the sasss were a period of mass consumption in America. Whereas previous eras had been dedicated to the process of production, with people saving their money and reinvesting it in new business enterprises, America in the sasss was dedicated to buying things and pending freely. Thus, a shift was made from production to consumption and it had a great impact on various levels of society. This key trend of the asss is a driving force behind the story told in the film. By pursuing and achieving great wealth, Jay Gatsby gains many possessions and throws expensive parties. In this sense, he is reflective of the consumer culture of the asss. Eventually, like the other characters in the novel, however, Gatsby finds that the consumer culture only leaves him feeling empty. For all of his wealth, he is unable to buy the only thing that can really bring him peppiness: the love of Daisy Buchanan. In the character of Gatsby, we see the personification of idealism and pursuit of the American Dream. Gatsby compilation of material wealth, he hoped, would help to find happiness in life. Through it all, however, Gatsby lacked the one thing he needed most: the love of Daisy Buchanan. In this element of his character, we see the disillusionment and emptiness, which comes from the pursuit of material wealth at all costs. 2 The point here seems to be that the pursuit of possessions in life will always leave you wanting more, one way or another, and therefore it does not provide road to happiness. Gatsby death at the end of the novel only adds the element of escutcheon as a consequence AT Nils worldly pursuits. In ten Declining, never, Gatsby character seems to represent the great promise of the American Dream. In the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it was written that Gatsby came out onto his lawn and looked up at the sky to determine what share was his of the local heavens. This demonstrates Gatsby capacity to dream, his glorious expectations, and his optimistic belief that he can achieve his dreams. This basically represents the reface appearance of the American Dream, the part that drove many Americans in the sasss and has continued to do so ever since. In the course of his courtship of Daisy Buchanan, however, Gatsby gradually comes to see the other side of the American Dream. At one point, Fitzgerald writes of how Gatsby was so in love with Daisy that his possessions only seemed to have any meaning based on her response to them. At times, his focus on Daisy actually gives Nick the impression that the possessions no longer felt real to Gatsby. This shows how the theme of consumerism shapes and defines the life of Gatsby both in the kook and the movie. For all the possessions he has gained, these possessions have no meaning if they do not enable him to win the approval and love of Daisy. Alike many in the sasss, Gatsby has been misled by consumerism. He has pursued material things as if these things will provide happiness. In the presence of Daisy, however, all the things he owns no longer seem real at all. This demonstrates the false promise of consumerism. As events unfold in the film, we see an ongoing criticism of the materialism of this time period. Towards the end the story, Toms sisters is run over by Daisy as she drives Gatsby yellow roadster. As Allen(2000) indicates, the automobile was a key factor of the asss, a major symbol of the prosperity and emerging modernism of the era. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Gatsby car should play a role in the plotting of the story. When the womans husband comes looking for revenge, he originally encounters Tom. Fearing for his life, Tom tells the man that Gatsby is the guilty party. Thus, the man kills Gatsby. The symbolic role of the yellow roadster in this ending is significant. The car symbolizes tribalism and the woman who is run over, Myrtle, is a superficial woman who was only attracted to Tom in the first place for his wealthy status. In having her get run over by the car, the film advances the theme that the pursuit of materialism destroys. The same theme applies in the case of Gatsby. Tom and Daisy, meanwhile, continue with their empty and superficial marriage. All together, the film shows a group of characters who are lonely, empty, and mutually destructive largely because of their dedication to the false ideals of consumerism and the American Dream. As Callahan (1996) has written, F. Scott Fitzgerald was no stranger to the dissipation of values and the pursuit of sensation in the Jazz Age of the sasss (374). At the start of the sasss, Fitzgerald himself stated that, America was going on the greatest, gaudiest spree in history and there was going to be plenty to tell about it. Indeed, virtually every character in the film, with the exception of Nick Caraway, is touched in some negative way by the American ideals of commercialism and greed. Thus, the story offers an implicit criticism of American life. The main characters are people who have been blinded by the American Dream. In some cases, such as Tom and Daisy, this blindness leads to loneliness and emptiness. In other cases, such as Myrtle and Gatsby, materialist pursuits lead not only to disillusionment and suffering out to sell-escutcheon as well. From tens perspective, ten Tall version AT Autographs great novel seems to make the statement that the modern consumerism that emerged in the sasss should not be viewed as a road to happiness. Indeed, building from F. Scott Fitzgerald great book, the film version of The Great Gatsby presents a moral about the effects of materialism in the sasss. As Allen (2000) put it, the people of the sasss could not endure a life without values, and the only values they had been trained to understand were being undermined. Everything seemed meaningless and unimportant. This is exactly the fate of characters like Tom, Daisy, Myrtle, and Gatsby. With the values of past generations no longer relevant, and a new set of values not yet in place, the young people of the asss found themselves sleepwalking through a decade of sex and materialism which ultimately left them empty and disillusioned. This is the overriding theme expressed in the film erosion of The Great Gatsby.