The Great Gatsby Jazz Age Essay

The Jazz Age and Gatsby The Jazz Age is a period categorized as a time of promiscuity, bootlegging, and automobiles. “The 1920’s are remembered as ‘teenage’ years in which an older generation said ‘thou shalt not’ and youth replied: ‘I will.’(Ling 1)” this quote captures how the youth of this time really went through a shift in etiquette that the older generation of the time did not get. F Scott Fitzgerald captures the twenties in a way that nobody has with his novel The Great Gatsby which follows through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a young upstart who wants to make it in the bond business. THESIS STATEMENT New York city quickly became more cosmopolitan as people from West India and African Americans from the south began moving into Harlem, restaurants of many different cultures began to pop up everywhere, and many Asian men flocked to the dance halls while other cultures such as African, Meso-American, and Polynesian influenced modern design

Before the 1920’s nobody very far out of New Orleans had ever heard Jazz, but then it quickly began to spread from chicago to across the country and then soon all over the world (Hawkim 57). Louis armstrong, a trumpet player, was one of the first and most important Jazz soloists (“What is Jazz?). An Important part of Jazz that also reflects a lot of what people were doing in the 1920’s is ‘improvising’ or doing your own thing (Hakim 59). Drinking was also a problem known to the 20’s (Hakim 25). Prohibition officially became a law in 1920, which made it illegal to sell liquor in the US (Hakim 27). Money was the key to the social scenes from theaters to restaurants, art galleries to night clubs (Ling 2). Poverty pushed the lower classes out into the streets, and enabled the wealthy to explore everything the city had to offer (Ling