aissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that helped shape the Roaring Twenties. The movement was influenced by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, and many other African-Americans. The Harlem Renaissance also introduces big cities to jazz which gives the 1920’s another name, ‘The Jazz Age” created by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Jazz Age attracted Americans into the world of Jazz and African American entertainers such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, and many others ("Harlem Renaissance" The Biography Channel website. 2013. 01 June 2013).
The influence of the Jazz Age in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing is prominent in all of his stories. Both the novels “The Great Gatsby” and “The Beautiful and Damned” take place during the 1920’s in New York. To all the characters in Fitzgerald’s novels and Americans during the Jazz Age, big cities like New York was the destination to live up to the exuberant lifestyle portrayed by society. Nick Carraway, the protagonist in “The Great Gatsby,” moves from the Midwest to Long Island, NY to get his career started. While living on the poor island of West Egg, opposite to the rich island of East Egg, he becomes friends with Tom, Daisy, Myrtle, and Wilson. They are all living the crazy lifestyle of the 1920’s and are fascinated by Jay Gatsby, who triumphs and stands out because of his legendary parties. Although they are intrigued by his aura, they are very suspicious about Gatsby, and it is later revealed that he makes his fortune by bootlegging (Fitzgerald, F. Scott, “...