The Jazz Age

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The Jazz Age

Finding meaning in an era of frivolity
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The Look

• Women
• Short permed hair
• Swingy, flowy skirts dresses
• Flashy, gaudy jewelry
• Men
• Sleek hair
• Smart, stylish tuxedoes

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Fashions of 1920-1930
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Influences
After World War I, people felt free-spirited so
they stopped obeying rules. As a result, fashions
became less formal. King Tuts discovery also
influenced the fashion. It inspired ladies
clothing, jewelry, shoes, perfume and cosmetics.
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Silhouettes
Women disregarded the corsets so they could have
boyish figures.
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Trends
WOMEN Shorter skirts Low waistlines Sleeveless
dresses Mid-calf lengths Scoop, U-neck and square
necklines. Frilly lace Boyish figures Short,
bobbed hair White face powder
MEN Creased and cuffed pants Belts (Instead of
suspenders) Shallow, flat topped, brimmed hats
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Popular Colors
Yellows, golds, tans, pale pinks, sky blue,
powder blue, indigo, stark whites, Chinese reds,
burgundies and green.
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Movies
The Jazz Singer The Street of Forgotten Men The
American Venus A Social Celebrity Its the Old
Army Game The Show-off Just Another Blonde Love
em and Leave em Evening Clothes
Rolled Stockings Now Were in the Air The City
Gone Wild A Girl in Every Port Beggars of
Life The Canary Murder Case Pandora's Box Diary
of a Lost Girl Prix de Beaute
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Historical Moments
Women got the right to vote Alcohol became
illegal WWI ended The Jazz Singer (first movie
with sound) was released.
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Entertainment

• Learning to dance to the beat of a different
  drummer
• Speakeasies and Saloons
• Driving in style

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1919 World Series

• Eddie Ciccote, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Chick
  Gandil, et al
• Sharp shift in betting odds
• White Sox became underdogs against Reds

Throwing the game away
1921 confessions branded these men forever as the
Black Sox
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• Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul,
  Minnesota, and educated at Princeton, although he
  dropped out to join the army before he completed
  his degree. Stationed near Montgomery, Alabama,
  he met and later married Zelda Sayre, a
  high-strung woman from a family more prominent
  than his own. His first novel, This Side of
  Paradise, published in 1920, was a tremendous
  critical and commercial success. Fitzgerald
  followed with The Beautiful and the Damned in
  1922, The Great Gatsby in 1925, Tender is the
  Night (1934), and was working on The Last Tycoon
  (1941) when he died in Hollywood in 1940.

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• Nick Carraway
• Nick Carraway is the narrator of this story. As
  you can see on the first page Nick holds himself
  in higher esteem than the other characters in the
  novel. Even though Nick is the narrator he should
  not be completely trusted. On the first page he
  boasts about how he doesn't judge people yet
  throughout the story he's judging people. The
  only person whom he envies is Gatsby. On page 2
  Nick says about Gatsby, He has an extraordinary
  gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I
  have never found in any other person and which it
  is not likely I shall ever find again.
• Themes of the Novel
• This novel is filled with multiple themes but the
  predominate one focuses on the death of the
  American Dream. This can be explained by how
  Gatsby came to get his fortune. Through his
  dealings with organized crime he didn't adhere to
  the American Dream guidelines. Nick also suggests
  this with the manner in which he talks about all
  the rich characters in the story. The immoral
  people have all the money. Of course looking over
  all this like the eyes of God are those of Dr.
  T.J. Eckleburg on the billboard.
• The second theme that needs to be acknowledged is
  the thought of repeating the past. Gatsby's whole
  being since going off to war is devoted to
  getting back together with Daisy and have things
  be the way they were before he left. That's why
  Gatsby got a house like the one Daisy used to
  live in right across the bay from where she
  lives. He expresses this desire by reaching
  towards the green light on her porch early in the
  book. The last paragraph, So we beat on, boats
  against the current, born back ceaselessly into
  the past reinforces this theme.
• Fitzgerald was in his twenty's when he wrote this
  novel and since he went to Princeton he was
  considered a spokesman for his generation. He
  wrote about the third theme which is the
  immorality that was besieging the 1920's.
  Organized crime ran rampant, people were partying
  all the time, and affairs were common play. The
  last of which Fitzgerald portrays well in this
  novel.
• The eyes of T. J. Eckleburg convey a fourth theme
  in this novel. George Wilson compares them to the
  eyes of God looking over the valley of Ashes. The
  unmoving eyes on the billboard look down on the
  Valley of Ashes and see all the immorality and
  garbage of the times. By the end of the novel you
  will realize that this symbolizes that God is
  dead.
• Links to related Gatsby and Fitzgerald pages

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Also, for someone with such high moral values he
doesn't handle commitment very well. That's
probably a main reason why he left the Mid West
and it's part of why he ended up going back. Nick
left the Mid West to be a stock broker in New
York but didn't get rich, yet everywhere he looks
these amoral people are rolling in the wealth.
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• Jay Gatsby
• Gatsby is the rich, majestic, protagonist of the
  novel. While it isn't clear how he made all his
  money it is obvious that it was through illegal
  dealings in organized crime. There was a
  reference to the 1919 World Series (That's the
  one where the players on the Chicago White Sox
  helped out organized crime by not trying their
  hardest when it counted). It is also clear that
  the driving motivation for getting all this cash
  is so that it will appeal to Daisy. Daisy was the
  rich girl that he fell in love with before he
  joined the service.

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Unfortunately, he just didn't have enough money
to keep her while he was overseas. When Gatsby
got back, she was married to someone else but
that didn't dissuade him in the least. Gatsby's
whole efforts in this book are focused on trying
to bring him and Daisy back to the point of time
before he joined the army, except this time he
has enough money for her. Gatsby says it himself
on page 111, Can't repeat the past? Why of
course you can!
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• Daisy Buchanan
• Daisy is the woman Gatsby is trying to win back
  and coincidentally she is also Nick's second
  cousin. Daisy doesn't have a strong will and she
  cracks under pressure as will be shown late in
  the book in the hotel scene. She is the original
  material girl and focuses on the outward instead
  of the inward. Tom bought her love with a three
  hundred thousand dollar necklace, and now Gatsby
  is trying to do it with a huge mansion and a lot
  of nice shirts.(You'll understand the shirts
  reference when you read the part about when Daisy
  first visits Gatsby's house).

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• Tom Buchanan
• Tom is the antagonist in this novel. While Gatsby
  was fighting in World War I Tom was using his
  wealth to sweep Daisy off her feet. Tom is a
  yuppy and clearly in the way of Gatsby's love for
  Daisy. He is having an affair, which he makes no
  attempt to keep secret, with Myrtle Wilson while
  stringing along Myrtle's husband on a business
  deal. He treats Myrtle even worse than Daisy
  because in his eyes Daisy is worth a three
  hundred thousand dollar pearl necklace while
  Myrtle is worth a dog leash. With that fact in
  mind it is reasonable to assume Fitzgerald is
  telling us that Tom considers Myrtle to be his
  pet.

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• Jordan Baker
• Jordan is the woman in this story who connects
  Gatsby to Nick and consequently Gatsby to Daisy.
  Jordan is also a friend of Daisy's while she has
  something going with Nick during the story. She
  has short hair and plays golf, which back in the
  twenty's was uncommon for women. Therefore you
  can assume she acts like a guy. She is very into
  the Roaring Twenty's party scene and is
  carelessly going through life. The carelessness
  comes out when she's driving with Nick. Nick
  You're a rotten driver, either you ought to be
  more careful or you oughtn't to drive at all
  Suppose you met somebody just as careless as
  yourself? Jordan I hope I never will, I hate
  careless people. That's why I like you. This
  also tags her as a hypocrite because she is
  clearly a careless person herself.

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• Myrtle Wilson
• She's the woman Tom is having an affair with. She
  let's Tom push her around and treat her however
  he wants and she likes it. Tom has all the money
  and leads the life she wants to be a part of. She
  always thought she should have done better than
  her current husband and having an affair with Tom
  reinforces this belief of hers. Her current
  husband, George Wilson, is just a poor gas
  station owner in the Valley of Ashes who had to
  borrow a tuxedo for his wedding. Myrtle would
  rather be treated like a dog by someone who has
  money instead of being cared for by someone who
  has no money.

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• George Wilson
• George is married to a woman who resents him and
  is having an affair right under his nose without
  him knowing it. He runs a gas station, which he
  lives above, in the Valley of Ashes which is the
  dirtiest area of New York. George Wilson is just
  the hard luck guy in this novel, and he ends up
  taking it out on someone else in the end.

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• Meyer Wolfsheim
• While he may not be a major part of this novel he
  serves a purpose. He is Gatsby's connection to
  organized crime. He is the link that connects
  Gatsby to how he gained all his money. In this
  novel he is the one that fixed the World Series
  of 1919. He is also a close friend of Gatsby's.

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AIREDALE
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• GREAT NECK, NY, basis for West/East Egg