The Great Gastby In 1920s
The 1920s was one of the most significant time periods in America’s history. After World War One was over America began to reinvent itself. It was a time when prohibition came about, social reform was taking place, and the economy endured many modifications. It was a time for reinventing ones self in many different ways. Americans were changing. They were readjusting to a new life style. They were making transitions that would change America forever. The greatest changes in America were its values. These changes reflected not only America’s values, but American’s values as well. These changes were captured by many artists. In order to adapt, these artists had to develop new styles, new values, and new points of view. Lots of the artists did not write in America, they escaped to Europe to get a better picture of what America was truly like. Artists such as Lewis Sinclair, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald captured America and Americans in the prime of these postwar changes. These authors provided us with a depiction of what was happening in America. They not only provided us with what was happening in the twenties, but they showed Americans what others thought of them as well. They confirmed American’s worst suspicions about themselves and America. The authors portrayed a vivid image of Americans being torn into two directions. How do you adapt to a new world while trying to preserve the values of the old world?
The values of Americans were the key themes in each of the author’s most successful novels. As mentioned above, the authors developed new styles and points of views as a result of the changing values. Some of the novels that illustrate how the changing of ones values did not come easy are Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. All changes, however, came at a price.
The novel that illuminated the 1920s the best, in its search for a new set of values, would have to be The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald was a genius. His novel touches upon numerous instances in which the old values are being replaced with new values. The novel takes place in a time of growth and prosperity, the age of prohibition, as well as a time of...