Compare The 1920s And The Great Gatsby

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Between World War I and the Great Depression, the 1920’s were unique and special years in American history. The best way to represent that time would be by historian Frederick Lewis Allen providing the historical account of America in the 20’s in Only Yesterday and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famed novel, The Great Gatsby. Both of them reflect America in the Twenties by showing lifestyles and behaviors of people who lived in that time. We can follow their beliefs, actions, and morality through the works. While Allen was seeking to capture a decade, F. Scott Fitzgerald did a good job by pointing to the main issues during that time. We can put them into 3 groups: disillusionment, rise of “new money” and their behavior, and business replaces God and …show more content…

The society was divided in 2 groups: old and new money. People had got rich quick and they were trying to show how rich they are every possible time. “As year followed year of prosperity, the new diffusion of wealth brought marked results… There was an epidemic of outlines of knowledge and books of etiquette for those who had got rich quick and wanted to get cultured quick and become socially at ease” (Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday, 1931). There was a leap from 75 to 283 in the number of Americans who paid taxes on incomes of more than a million dollars a year. Money got the same meaning as “culture”. Men and women were disillusioned about politics, love, or family, but they believed that the most important is negotiable legal tender. “ On a chance we tried an important-looking door, and walked into a high Gothic library, paneled with carved English oak, and probably transported complete from some ruin overseas...He waved his hand toward the book-shelves. “About that...They’re real.” “The books?” He nodded. “Absolutely real--have pages and everything.”” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925). People could spent millions and millions of dollars on useless things, just to show how rich they are. Education was playing an important role, so it was really prestigious to have own library in the house, full of books. But it was very expensive to have real ones, so people used “fake” books just to create an illusion how rich they are. Nouveau riche were pointing on everything and were not shy to talk about their money. Good word to describe that time period --

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