In his book titled American Babylon: Race and Struggle for Postwar Oakland, Historian Robert Self places the actions of two groups together in Post-World War II, Oakland, California: a movement centered on black power that stressed community defense and empowerment in ending Jim Crow laws, which notably included the group known as the Black Panthers, and another movement that was primarily white property owners intent on creating a secure economic environment. Both of these two groups, with their own political agendas, argues Self, were instrumental in the development and growth of the political culture not just in the postwar suburbs of Oakland, but in the entire state of California. Charting the rise of these two groups as well as how their
The overall argument of Robert O. Self’s Introduction, in the book “American Babylon,” are the different aspects of postwar Oakland and the East Bay, socially, economically, and politically. There are three key claims Self makes in the Introduction. First, Self claims there were two controversial political ideologies in postwar Oakland, one being black power, including politics of deference and empowerment, and second a neo-populist, conservative homeowner politics of white residents. Another claim Self makes is the idea that the postwar black struggle and politics of suburban building shaped the political culture in Oakland and the East Bay. The third key claim Self makes is the modernization of space; space as property, as a social imagination, and as a political scale.
Among Fitzgerald’s works, The Beautiful and Damned encapsulates this culture of success and security in the midst of the 1920s. F. Scott Fitzgerald challenges the validity of the traditional American
The author in “By the Waters of Babylon”, tells how he wants to find knowledge and how he will go and find the knowledge. The author would like to find the truth. The authors father is a priest and the author would also like to be a priest himself. He would like to follow in his father's footsteps. He wants to go into the dead place to find out knowledge and find the truth.
“By the Waters of Babylon” Paper In the short story, “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet, the setting is post-apocalyptic and is about what Benet thought the world would be after the events of WWII. In this story, the world was destroyed and people forgot the important knowledge that was known during that time period. The simple knowledge they know now is how to hunt, and that there is a place where the gods live. When the main character, John, went to the Place of the Gods, which was forbidden, he discovered the truth of what happened during the Great Burning.
The “Waters Of Babylon” is an optimistic story. The story revolves around the protagonist John as he makes his way to the forbidden “Place of the Gods”. Once in the Place of the Gods he realizes that this place was not inhabited by Gods but instead by humans (page 8). After this epiphany, John understands that his people could accomplish the achievements from past. On page 8 he says, “Nevertheless we make a beginning . . .
The Moral Decay of the Materialistic Although F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby debuted in 1925– before the Great Depression– it serves as a prophetic exemplification of the the material excess of the 1920s that drowned out signs of the coming Great Depression. The book’s plot follows the bootlegger Jay Gatsby as he pursues his old love Daisy Buchanan through flaunting his new extravagant lifestyle, mainly by throwing ostentatious parties. Yet, in the end, Daisy chooses her unfaithful husband Tom over Gatsby. Through Fitzgerald’s use of wealthy, materialistic characters, he comments on the effect of the material excess of the roaring twenties: moral corruption.
Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values. The reckless triumph that led to pure white parties and wild jazz music— in The Great Gatsby by the glamourous parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted in the corruption of a
The interpretation of the theme – truth in “By the Waters of Babylon” In the short story “By the Waters of Babylon” the author Stephen Vincent Benét conveys the theme, “truth is a hard deer to hunt, if you eat too much of it at once, you may die of the truth” (Benét, 255). Which is a hyperbolic metaphor that means truth is like knowledge, hard to find. So, if too much of it is eaten at once, death is likely; as in truth is dangerous and hard to regulate among people if it is boundless. When the protagonist John was tired after travelling to the forbidden Place of Gods seeking knowledge, he fell asleep in one of the big dead-houses.
Everything else wore out” (Fitzgerald 8). This statement shows Charlie’s desire to go back in time and fix his mistakes in order to redeem himself and prove that he is truly dedicated to becoming a changed man. It also shows that he realizes what he had done was wrong which was a big change for Charlie as well, giving the fact he spent most of his life drinking and living a bad lifestyle, his decision to give it all up and turn himself around is probably the most important
Funk and Wagnalls discuss that there were rapid changes in society during the jazz age. Funk and Wagnalls were able to tell the audience that Americans began to rebelled against the Puritans and Victorian age. Funk and Wagnalls eventually talked about influential fictions during that time had disillusionment and satirize the upper-classmen in the novels. Also that an author named Hemingway gave a summary of disillusionment in his novels as well as Anderson, Fitzgerald, and Wilde during the modern era.
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.
After the devastation of World War I, the American people had a revolution in the social standards from traditional views to more modern. The moral compass of people was no longer based on basic religious rules but instead regarded ethics as a relative concept. This venturing out from traditional ways gave the people a door to start the extreme materialism and partying as a way of life. Along with the “roarin” side of the 20s, there also came a group of writers known as the Lost Generation. One of these writers that arose with the Lost Generation was F. Scott Fitzgerald.
In the time WW1, a wild new popular culture emerged in the United States. In part, it was a hedonistic and extravagant reaction to the hardship and austerity experienced during the war. Some have referred to it as the Roaring Twenties, while others have called it the Jazz Age. When one speaks of the Jazz Age, what comes to mind is a decade of partying, of the Charleston and jazz bands, of female flappers and loose morals, of bathtub gin and speakeasies, all combined and intertwined into a celebration of American technology and ingenuity that, over the course of a decade, provided average U.S. families the materialistic conveniences of automobiles and modern appliances. A truly remarkable chapter of American history, Jazz was the soundtrack to it and came to embody the attitude of the burgeoning counterculture.
6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. My favorite academic subject would be Math.
