American Literature Context (TGG) Flashcards
Lost Generation
Those that lost faith in traditional values and ideals due to the great war and the social issues of the time.
Prohibition
Banning of sale of alcohol in 1920’s, lead to crime and black markets. Caused more issues than it solved, as organised crime seeking to capitalise on excess demand.
Roaring twenties (1920’s)
Time of economic booms and growth, heavy developments in consumption and production (industrialisation and progress). Idea of people of ‘New Money’ appearing.
Gilded Age
-Period of time with Wealth inequality, corruption and urbanisation/migration.
Henry George On the Gilded age
“progress and poverty”
Poverty Stat
60% below the poverty line
Old money
Snob Hierarchy and inherited Wealth
Fronteir
(Manifest Destiny) claim land in movement from
East->West, in Gatsby the opposite.
American Dream -Declaration of independence
“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”
Reconstruction era
How the free slaves could be fit into society (socioeconomic and political life of America.
Migration
Irish, Italians, Jews and Black Americans in search of a new beginning. Also brought gangs with them.
Nick’s name
Initially named ‘Dud’ , now Carraway linked to flower that symbolises faithfulness.
Gender Roles
Women in 1920’s not viewed as individuals , merely another object of material wealth e.g. gatsby and Tom fight for their assets rather than for love.
Flapper
Flappers flouted the rules of respectable womanhood - they drank, smoked and ‘petted’ with multiple men. Their bob, short skirts and sheer stockings signalled their emancipation.
-opposite of traditional chastity and purity.
Class divide (love)
“poor boys shouldn’t marry rich girls”- Fitzgerald was told (difficulty with class integration) Ginevra King upper class.
Gender roles
Fitzgerald’s views towards female and male relationship were typical of his era- believing that men should support their wives and women to be obedient
19th amendment women
19th amendment passed in 1920, giving (some) women the right to vote, but equality for men and women was still a long way off - illusion of equality.
New woman
The New Woman: coined by Sarah Grand in 1894, The New Woman was intelligent, educated, emancipated, independent and self-supporting.
‘The Beautiful and Damned’ (1922) Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald describes Jewish shop stores as evidence of ‘the slow upward creep of this people’ - seen as a threat to white dominance
Conspicuous consumption
excessive consuming, done for the purpose of being able to e.g. Myrtle attempts to consume for the sake of it, while others can.
Linda Pelzer ‘beautiful fools and hulking brutes’
Daisy is challenging the role of women in a cynically passive manner. Potentially due to the restrictions of the upper class elite women, pressures for the perfect women.
Ginevra King and Edith cummings
Single influential girls of old class Ginevra King (‘The Golden Girl’ and Edith Cummings ‘Flapper fairway’.
Edith Golf and partys
while Ginevra married a Tom esque figure.
Jordans Name
combination of two car manufacturers to emphasise she is new fast and upland coming. A women of the new era.
