American Literature Context (TGG)

Question 1

Lost Generation

Answer 1

Those that lost faith in traditional values and ideals due to the great war and the social issues of the time.

Question 2

Prohibition

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Roaring twenties (1920’s)

Answer 3

Time of economic booms and growth, heavy developments in consumption and production (industrialisation and progress). Idea of people of ‘New Money’ appearing.

Question 4

Gilded Age

Answer 4

-Period of time with Wealth inequality, corruption and urbanisation/migration.

Question 5

Henry George On the Gilded age

Answer 5

“progress and poverty”

Question 6

Poverty Stat

Answer 6

60% below the poverty line

Question 7

Old money

Answer 7

Snob Hierarchy and inherited Wealth

Question 8

Fronteir

Answer 8

(Manifest Destiny) claim land in movement from
East->West, in Gatsby the opposite.

Question 9

American Dream -Declaration of independence

Answer 9

“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

Question 10

Reconstruction era

Answer 10

How the free slaves could be fit into society (socioeconomic and political life of America.

Question 11

Migration

Answer 11

Irish, Italians, Jews and Black Americans in search of a new beginning. Also brought gangs with them.

Question 12

Nick’s name

Answer 12

Initially named ‘Dud’ , now Carraway linked to flower that symbolises faithfulness.

Question 13

Gender Roles

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Flapper

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Class divide (love)

Answer 15

“poor boys shouldn’t marry rich girls”- Fitzgerald was told (difficulty with class integration) Ginevra King upper class.

Question 16

Gender roles

Answer 16

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

Question 17

19th amendment women

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

New woman

Answer 18

The New Woman: coined by Sarah Grand in 1894, The New Woman was intelligent, educated, emancipated, independent and self-supporting.

Question 19

‘The Beautiful and Damned’ (1922) Fitzgerald

Answer 19

Fitzgerald describes Jewish shop stores as evidence of ‘the slow upward creep of this people’ - seen as a threat to white dominance

Question 20

Conspicuous consumption

Answer 20

excessive consuming, done for the purpose of being able to e.g. Myrtle attempts to consume for the sake of it, while others can.

Question 21

Linda Pelzer ‘beautiful fools and hulking brutes’

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

Ginevra King and Edith cummings

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

Jordans Name

Answer 23

combination of two car manufacturers to emphasise she is new fast and upland coming. A women of the new era.