F. Scott Fitzgerald is in many ways one of the most prominent American writers of the twentieth century. His fictional writing pieces were based on the reality of living in the Jazz Age, incorporating themes such as coming of age, disillusionment, and corruption of the American Dream. The Jazz Age, also known as the Roaring Twenties, was a time of extravagance, prosperity, and Prohibition. During this decade, people were lived up to the wild and exuberant lifestyle that society portrayed. Fitzgerald’s novels always revealed more than what appeared on the surface, exposing the flaws of the time which showed the tragic side of the twenties. The novels “The Great Gatsby” and “The Beautiful and Damned” are influenced by the Jazz Age and reveal some of Fitzgerald’s struggles through the characters. Fitzgerald’s use of many literary devices such as irony, symbolism, and imagery are all components which create his descriptive and complex writing style.
The 1920’s were an age of dramatic social, political, and economic change. After World War I, the nation’s total wealth doubled which made people begin to spend and consume. The birth of mass culture contributed to the development of the automobile, radios, clothes, home appliances such as the refrigerator, and many other consumer products. The birth of mass culture was a result of the Great Migration of many people, especially African Americans, who moved from the rural South to the cities of the North because of the harsh segregation laws and unsatisfactory economic opportunity. During the Great Migration, African Americans began to build a new place for themselves in cities such as Chicago and New York, confronting widespread racism, prejudice, and other social challenges while creating a new black urban culture that would greatly influence movements such as the Harlem Renaissance (“Great Migration.” 2013. The History Channel website. Jun 6, 2013, 4:51).
The Harlem Ren...