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Flapper In The Great Gatsby

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During the 1920s Americans were questioning whether to stick with the traditional views on life or go with the new modern views. The 1920s or the Roaring Twenties was a period in American history in which the economy grew massively, new inventions and ideas came about, and values were changing. Americans in the 1920s were divided by two very different viewpoints, traditional views like prohibiting alcoholic beverages in the United States and the belief in fundamentalism, however, the modern views of the new flapper and the theory of evolution were more appealing to Americans and would eventually transform American values because the ideas were new and it was an act of rebellion against their parents. Traditional Americans believed that …show more content…

The flapper was the new modern young women, who wore shorter dresses, cut her hair shorter, drank alcohol and smoked in public, casually dated men, and talked openly about sex with was very different from traditional women’s values. Women were also getting more education which led to more high paying job opportunities for them. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels including This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby show how the life of the young women was changing, by casually dating men, drinking, smoking, and dancing. These were all were examples of how the young women were disregarding traditional values and started living by their own values. Another new modern view was the belief in evolution. The theory of evolution was advanced in the nineteenth century by Charles Darwin. It states that plants and animals have evolved over millions of years and stating that humans evolved from apes, very different from the fundamentalists view that God created the world and everything in it. Now that science was improving, scientists could now prove that evolution actually happened. It was a national controversy in 1925 in the Scopes trial. In this trial a biology teacher named John Scopes was teaching evolution in Tennessee after a law was passed making teaching evolution taught in public schools illegal. Clarence Darrow was hired to defend Scopes and William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor. In the end Darrow proved

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According to Helen Lawrenson, “If a woman is sufficiently ambitious, determined and gifted - there is practically nothing she can't do.” Women in history have been limited and bound in different aspects of their lives in the past. They are confined to meet certain and precise standards for marriage, to raise a family, and also in the work field. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson, all women living during the flapper 1920’s style that embodied the real women of the time which F. Scott Fitzgerald (got?) his characteristics from.

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However, fundamentalists disagreed. They took every word of the bible as true and blamed liberal views of modernists for a “decline in morals”. Both of these ideas were present during the Scopes Trials. In 1925, a Tennessee biology teacher, John Scopes, was arrested for illegally teaching the concept of evolution

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The era of 1920s is known for flapper dresses, extravagant lifestyles, and reformation of women. Before this time, women were treated as property and did not have their own voices in politics and their personal lives. With the start of the 20th century, women yearned for a change. They wore shorter dresses, became more reckless, and took control of their lives. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a renowned author during the 1920s who provided commentary about the changes of women.

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Modernists, however, were liberal Protestants who wanted to make Christianity more relevant to contemporary life and stay current with values. The Scopes trial of 1925 (also referred to as the Tennessee Evolution Case), while demonstrating the religious tension of the era, illustrated the conflict between Protestant fundamentalism and modern science (Document C). The trial involved the arrest of John

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With the right to vote, consumer based culture, leisure time, and modernism, women who followed these new practices and ideals created the flapper image of the roaring twenties we know today. In Fitzgerald’s story he describes the girls almost wanting to be flappers to me it seems as if in almost all of Fitzgerald’s books he has a girl who is the opposite of what her society wants her to be like and is leaning towards the lifestyle of a flapper girl it's like they are all the same person or have many of the same characteristic in “ The Great Gatsby” which is one of my favorite books, Jordan Baker is a golfer who represents what the new woman is which is cynical,boyish, and self centered. She kinda reminds me of how Beatrice and Marjorie are at the end. They had almost every iconic element of a flapper besides the bobbed hair,but they loved to party at the end , they dance to jazz music, was cut-in every few feet on the dance floor, was always wearing the latest fashions, and was all over casual dating. With this new flashy and flirtatious attitude and charm that young women

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The 1920s was a boom time for the American people. This is a well known fact, but behind this time is the politics that made it all possible. Politics is an important staple of the American lifestyle usually boiling down to either loving or hating it. The 1920s, while not only an extremely socially active period, was also a period of political change and Importance. The 1920s was one of the most politically diverse eras in U.S. history, from Prohibition to the prosperity of the Coolidge era.

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This conflict was exemplified by the trial of John Scopes was a high school science teacher who was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in

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The decade of the 1920s is nicknamed the “Roaring Twenties” for various reasons. With the addition and fads of alcohol, fashion, movies, and more, the 1920s was bursting with excitement; with the new technology and “party” lifestyle, society became more outgoing and extroverted. Even though racism and the absence of women’s rights still existed at this time, the newfound way of life persuaded them to reach for their goals, even though they were both minority groups at this time. The Roaring Twenties are notorious for their colossal alcohol trend and their advanced technology and fashion. Drinking became so enormous that prohibition, a nationwide ban of production, importation and sale of alcohol, had to be created; however, this ban did not stop the citizens.

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The 1920s were the first years of the new, modern America, with a growing consumer society and new ideas and rules. America saw many changes throughout this decade, including but not limited to social, economic and political changes. Throughout this time, new values were made with the growth of new forms of entertainment and education. After the Progressive Era, the ideas of political figures changed with a new focus on conservative politics and less labor issues. With the new ability for people to buy other products than basic needs, their money went to new inventions, causing new industries to grow.

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The 1920s carried much change in society. Some of these changes were more rights for women, jazz music, and prohibition. The people of the 1920s were disillusioned by society lacking in idealism and vision, sense of personal alienation, and Americans were obsessed with materialism and outmoded moral values (The Roaring Twenties).Cultural changes were strongly influenced by the destruction of World War I ending 1918. America needed to recover and with it youth rebelled against the norms of the older generations.

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The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published during the 1920s, a time of great social transformation that served a reaction to the horrors faced in World War One. During this time period, women were experiencing many positive, progressive changes such as gaining the right to vote. Women had also been allowed to have jobs outside of their traditional roles during the war, many taking on factory jobs that were seen as masculine and unfit for women. This new independence led to the rise of flappers, portrayed in The Great Gatsby by the character of Jordan Baker. Flappers were characterized during this time period as letting go of stigmas and restrictions previously placed on women.

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The image of the flapper was used in magazines and advertising and lead to the influence of mass consumer culture and media. This new image of the flapper “encouraged both the consumption of new products and new patterns of consumption and provided women with accessible routes to engage with modernity.” Since women started to gain rights such as voting and opportunity to gain jobs, women started to gain a sense of freedom and started to mix in with the new modern world they were entering in. As stated before, technology started to rise, and companies wanted to sell these new products. So, companies started to aim towards women in

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534 Words | 3 Pages

Despite this, women were able to make a huge impact on America through social reforms. Many young women went against the beliefs of their parents. Prior to the Roaring Twenties, America was in a Victorian era. Women wore dresses that were floor-length, their hair was long and premarital sex was almost non-existent. During the 1920’s however, some women became what are known as “flappers”.

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A theory is, “A proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of fact.” The theory of evolution was created in 1859 by a man named Charles Darwin. Darwin wrote a book called The Origin of Species in which he discusses his ideas on the theory of evolution. While his observations and thoughts on things such as natural selection, adaptation and characteristics are limited by knowledge and technology at the time, many of his ideas are still used today. As technology continues to develop researchers are uncovering new evidence supporting

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Evolution is the theory in which species change over time. During the Greek philosophers’ time, people always knew children were passed from parent to offspring. As time progressed, the taxonomic naming system came out and showed people that there was a connection between species in the past and species in the present. As the late 1700’s came around, the first theories about evolution started to come out. Scientists like Comte de Buffon and Charles Darwin’s grandpa stated that species changed over time but couldn’t prove how or why.

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