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How jazz changed america
Jazz influence on america
Jazz influence on america
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The period of the nineteen twenties was characterized by dynamic social and economic trends. F. Scott Fitzgerald is a celebrated writer for not only his ability to write popular stories, but also his embodiment of the spirit of what was called the roaring twenties. Fitzgerald led a fiscally irresponsible life which was typical, even romanticized for that time. Additionally, he was known to write notable novels which enraptured the reader with adept uses of rhetorical tools and vivid descriptions instead of direct statements. This is common in two of his short stories, The Camel’s Back and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
The Harlem Renaissance was a vast artistic, academic, public movement, and musical advancement that changed the way art was viewed in a modernization. Artists like Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage, Lois Mailou Jones, Aaron Douglas were just some of the many who influenced the art world. The writing was also a large piece of the Harlem Renaissance, people like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, and many others were agitators who used their writing to influence. These people and many others utilized the skill they have and used their varying art forms to mold and manipulate the current world they lived in. Claude McKay is an example of a writer who endeavored to change the way the world regarded him.
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.
Therefore, Twain and Fitzgerald claim that American society
The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history, which occurred in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The cultural movement was an opportunity for African Americans to celebrate their heritage through intellectual and artistic works. Langston Hughes, a famous poet, was a product of the Harlem Renaissance. One notable piece of literature by Hughes is “Dream Deferred”. However, the discussion of African American culture isn’t limited to the 1920s.
Jazz music was and continues to be a form of entertainment, a lifestyle, and a distraction from the everyday hardships that are forced upon them. Works Cited Collier, James Lincoln. Jazz: An American Saga. New York: Henry Holt, 1997.
During the Roaring Twenties, “shifting male hierarchies... privileged a few men” (Kann XI) the power to devastate society with a few careless decisions. F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates, in the novel The Great Gatsby, that hypermasculinity - aggressive demonstrations of physical strength and sexuality - leads to diminished autonomy of men who are not traditionally masculine. As a pivotal figure in the novel, Tom Buchanan dominates weak men, such as George Wilson and Jay Gatsby, who contradict his masculine ideals - Tom ruins their lives to prove his superiority. Fitzgerald illustrates, through Tom’s unoriginal beliefs and actions, the demolition of human lives caused by an inflated ego.
The Jazz Age was influential era of music, dance, flappers, and wild partying that forever changed America’s culture and normalcy for women.
Society is constantly under the criticism of authors. Many writers seek to expose certain aspects of American society and their scorn of it. Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald are renowned for their work on this subject. In The Great Gatsby and The Age of Innocence, Fitzgerald and Wharton reveal their cynicism of the societal elite; they find the elite as a severe detriment to American society. Through symbolism and the characterization of their main characters, Wharton and Fitzgerald similarly depict the societal elite as depriving American society from a promising future by refusing to let go of the past.
Although the environment she grows in is extremely terrible and disgusting, Maggie remains her innocence and desires to escape from the bleak world of Bowery. In comparison, The Great Gatsby describes the Jazz Age, a period in the 1920s when the unprecedented prosperity in Long Island led to moral decline and criminal activities. People are trapped in their unsatisfied desire for money and higher social status. That time period is also referred as “The Roaring Twenties” due to social, cultural and economical
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.
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.
1. Scansion and Analysis The Harlem Renaissance was a period of revolutionary styles of music, dance, and literature that presented the hardships and culture of African Americans. The “Trumpet Player,” by Langston Hughes portrays the theme of the therapeutic effects of music through the development of an African American trumpeter’s music. The free verse poem “Trumpet Player” epitomizes the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz through the unique use of inconsistent rhymed and unrhymed lines mixed with the use of colloquialisms.
Payton Lehnerz English B CP Final Essay American Literature: How it Changed Over Time Literature has been a constant expression of artistic emotion throughout history. Over the course of the years, Literature has developed and changed due to America’s evolution. These changing time periods can be classified into 9 eras: Colonial, Revolutionary, Romantic, Transcendental, Realism, Modern, Harlem Renaissance, Beat Generation, and Postmodern. Throughout the changing history, new literary eras have begun in response to previous eras and events. American Literature has changed over time by adapting previous values, beliefs, and literary characteristics when a new era presents itself; this progression is due to changing societal views in
Modern Era The Modern Era is the time period in musical development that began around the turn of the 20th century in which great changes in compositional techniques and styles took place. This era challenged and reinterpreted old styles of music, making it a time of great innovation. Although homophonic textures were used, they were used with less importance and the most dominant texture of the Modern era was contrapuntal texture.