Caleb Canna 8/20/2014 Language Arts
The Spirit of the Jazz Age The 1920’ s were a time of change in America. It was a time of prosperity and a
widespread feeling of discontinuity with life. City life was glorified, and droves of people left their farms and simple lives to live and work in cities such as Chicago and New York City. F. Scott Fitzgerald, often seen as the chronicler of the 1920’s, described the period as when "the parties were bigger, the pace was faster, the buildings were higher, the morals looser." Many things previously unheard of, apart from imagination, were now feasible because of modern technology. New inventions such as moving pictures, radio, and automobiles became a major part of American culture. The young woman shocked the older generation new hair styles and shorter clothes that tended to expose their legs and even knees. They became known as the ‘Flappers’ quickly, and were sometimes arrested for wearing what was considered ‘skimpy beach wear ’ in public. At the same time, jazz rose in popularity, with musicians such as Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong paving the way. This lead to the creation of new dances such as The Charleston, One Step, Step , and Black Bottom which became popular among the younger generation. The combination new music, new dances, and new fashions were seen as outright rebellion by the older generation. As such, the period is also of ten ten referred to as the ‘Jazz Age’, a term F. Scott Fitzgerald coined. The 1920’s also made Hollywood. Before the 1920’s, movie actors were never
named, but afterwards stars were what made a Hollywood movie. A hundred million people went to the movies every week. The 1920’s also gave birth to the first ‘talkie’ called The Jazz Singer starring starring Al Jolson. Because of this, many silent screen stars lost their jobs because their voices sounded too strange and difficult to understand. Many of the Hollywood stars lived lavish lifestyles in Beverley Hills. It represented the lavish lifestyles many wealthy people put on throughout America. Even gang bosses achieved stardom. Al Capone, a gangster boss who controlled almost all of Chicago, achieved fame that rivaled that of Hollywood's superstars. But behind all the glamor, wealth, and change was a sense of disillusionment from the senseless slaughter ‘The Lost Generation’ witnessed during the First World War (1914-17). The war opened their eyes to horrors and challenged previous ideals that doing good will cause good to happen. When it was finished people simply wanted to live again and forget everything they had witnessed. They did this by holding lavish parties, drinking excessively, and having love affairs. This is sense of emptiness and
Caleb Canna 8/20/2014 Language Arts
aimlessness is marked most clearly by the writers of that time. Those included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Erich Maria Remarque, Ernest Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein. They explored themes such as spiritual alienation, self-exile, and cultural criticism that represented the general feeling at the time. In all, the 1920’s changed the course of America and challenged long held ide als.
