Jazz was born around 1895 in New Orleans. Originally it was a mixture of
Blues and marching band music and was played by African-Americans and Creoles
on old U.S Army instruments like the cornet or marching drums. It is also
marked through the use of improvisation, because most of the former virtuoso
jazz musicians weren’t able to read music at all. Soon the white man noticed
the popularity of jazz and started to play it too. Therefore the European and
African music culture melted together and a new style of jazz was born.
The twenties, also known by some as the "Jazz Age", were the
time for experiments and discovering new jazz-styles. In that period of
growing industrialization black people and new-Orleans-musicians moved from
the country site south to Chicago. There they helped creating the (white)
Chicago-Style. Lots of Chicago musicians finally moved to New York, which was
an important centre of jazz, too.
Jazz bands started the musical revolution using for the first time the
saxophone. It has been known to provoke close intimate dancing and many
people were shocked by the loud and extraordinary sound of the sax (which
happens to sound like sex).That’s why older people blamed jazz to be a bad
influence on the younger generation. They began to rebel and refuse to follow
the moral traditions.
With the help of national radio, the barely known new jazz sound spread
quickly over America, and found many supporters. Lots of important clubs, or
speakeasies (illegal pubs), helped jazz bands to get famous and featured
their songs. Jazz often got connected with alcohol, intimate dancing and
“other socially questionable activities”.
The Jazz Age in The Great Gatsby:
Gatsby’s parties are typical for this time period. On his extravagant
festivities “charm, notoriety [and] mere good manners weighted more than
money as a social asset” .
Proofs for this statement can be
in all the gossip about Gatsby that is talked by his guests. Interesting at
this point is that most of his guests do not even know him and spread rumours
about him all the same. That’s how he got his notoriety: “I‘ll bet he killed
a man.”. The good manners are reflected by gentlemen who always offer a
helpful hand to charming ladies.
At Gatsby’s parties “people were not invited – they went there […] came
for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of
admission.” For this spontaneous society Gatsby’s huge “party lawn” is an
amusement park, a place animated with chatter and laughter where “casual
innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot” are on the agenda. Since
these parties are very large, there is time for privacy when anybody wants it
and time for intimate moments without anybody realizing.
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While reading Nick
Carraway’s descriptions of Gatsby’s garden and all the decorations that are
put up for the party, it seems a little exaggerated: “Several hundred feet of
canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree out of Gatsby’s
enormous garden” are hung up so that “the halls and salons and verandas are
gaudy with primary colors”. Also, Gatsby does not save any money with the
food. Each evening a great buffet table with glistening hors-d’oeuvre,
turkey, ham, salads and pastry pigs waits for his guests. Once a week five
crates of oranges and lemons are delivered to impress his visitors with fresh
fruits. Despite Prohibition alcohol is poured out.
The way the people dress during this jazz age period is also very
interesting. Their hair is “shorn in strange new ways” and around the women’s
necks are “shawls beyond the dreams of Castile”.They wear “golden and silver
slippers” and the best example is Gatsby “in a white flannel suit, silver
shirt, and gold-colored tie” himself.
Moreover, Gatsby’s guests are, of course, entertained by cocktail music
played by a typical jazz orchestra consisting of oboes, trombones,
saxophones, viols, cornets and piccolos, low and high drums . They know how
to play popular jazz songs, for example the “neat, sad little waltz of that
year” , “Three O’Clock in the Morning” or W.C.Handy’s “Beale Street Blues”, a famous jazz blues
melody. Another song that is played is Vladimir Tostoff’s “Jazz History of
the World”.
On the base of http://www.redhotjazz.com/
http://home.earthlink.net/~timsamuel/music.htm
The American Dream originated in the early days of the American
settlement, with the mostly poor immigrants searching for opportunities. It
was first manifested in the Declaration of Independence, which
describes an attitude of hope. The Declaration of Independence states that
“all man are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable
rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”.
In The Great Gatsby the American Dream plays a big role. In it you can
see what happened to it during the 1920s. The values have totally changed,
instead of striving for equality, they just want to get as rich as they could
get.
Fitzgerald managed to reflect the absurdity of the idea describing the
failure to rich it and the conditions in which every hope is likely to disappear.
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So it is not surprising that the new kind of "American Dream"
fails several times, which F. Scott Fitzgerald describes in his book. He
shows that people are not yet treated equally and that social discrimination
still exists, which is described in the scene where Tom and Wilson talk to
each other in Chapter II. For the reader it is immediately clear that Tom
sees himself as superior to Wilson. We can see that when Wilson wants to
resell Tom’s old car. Tom simply goes on with his game with Wilson since he wants
to continue his affair with Wilson’s wife, as a result of that he does not
give the car to Wilson.
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More or less it is appropriate to add this picture
cause it
reflects Fitzgerald's idea |
Most of the people appearing in The Great Gatsby are full of hope.
Especially Gatsby who is hoping to win Daisy back. He has an “extraordinary
gift of hope“ and he sacrifices
himself to fulfill his dream. He struggles to get into the upper class. In
the end his dream fails completely, and his life finds an abrupt end.
Nick Carraway is a pragmatic man, who comes from the Middle-West, and
does not share the American dream . But still he is striving for something,
he wants to be himself, as he sees himself, tolerant, objective and reliable.
The money of the upper class is just a tiny bit of his dream together with
his admiration for the rich East Eggers. Mainly, his dream consists of mental
values, of a pursuit of honesty. He says of himself “ I am one of the few
honest people that I have ever known” .
Daisy lives her American Dream with Tom as her husband, who has a lot of
money. She does not have any long term aims in her life. Having that kind
luxury around her, she lives for the moment, and does not think about the
next one.
Tom was born into his American Dream. He never had to work in his life,
and got all his money from his parents. Since everything is perfect for his
narrow-minded eyes, he does not want any changes. Losing Daisy would be a
major change in his dream because he sees her as one of his possessions.
Wilson’s dream is to earn enough money to move away with his wife and to
start a new life some place beautiful. But his dream can just become true
with the help of Tom. Although, Wilson does not realize that Tom does not
want to help him at all. His dream fails, when his wife is killed, his life
becomes senseless to him.
His wife, Myrtle, has also a dream, she wants to become a girl of the
upper class. Having an affair with Tom, she acts as if she already belonged
among those rich people. Tom is her key to the upper class and she would do
everything for him. She hates Daisy, because Daisy is standing in her way,
for her marriage with Tom.
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- Women in the 20’s - “Flappers”
It seems rather strange to us today that women led the life so different
from the life we are living now, but ..
At the end of the first World War the role of women as housewives changed
dramatically.
 They were forced to work and to earn their own money which was the first
step towards their independence. Especially after the war women came to the
conclusion that there had to be more in life than just looking after the
children and the house.
By earning the right to vote in 1920 women made their biggest step in
being accepted as equal members of society. This freedom changed women’s
attitude totally.
They started drinking alcohol, smoking and dancing a new type of dance
called “Swing”.
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 This new type of women have
no plans in their lifes and they can afford to wait that life happens to
them.
One perfect example is Jordan Baker in the novel The Great
Gatsby. She represents the new woman who calls herself “Flapper”. Her desire
for success and a very arrogant attitude are Jordan’s main characteristics.
Nick notices this arrogance as soon as he meets her: “She was [...]
completely motionless, [...] her chin raised a little.”
Another example is Daisy. In contrast to Jordan she is
more emotional. She is looking for the perfect gentleman with a lot of money
and the right family background.
But all in all, one could say that they both represent the women's new
way of life even if they are of a different direction.
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Modern image of a
car roots back to the beginning of 20th century, when in 1923 Ford
started the mass production of the Model T, which was a very cheap car
everybody was able to afford. They built more than 15 millions without changing
their design or anything else. So the era of the automobile had begun. Millions
were spent in mass production and all over Europe and USA, car manufacturing factories
were built very fast.
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| Ford T , 1927 |
It was and still is
a kind of status symbol to own the newest and fastest car which has got the
best trimmings. In this book the car has a special function, it represents the
reckless convictions of the flapper society.
Technology made it possible to improve the standard of
a normal car a lot. During the 1920s the importance of the automobile grew a
lot. In this decade there was some kind of a “revolution“, cars were built to
emphasize the actual fashion instead of functions. A lot of knick-knack was
installed for example a “three noted horn“ , as well as “hat-boxes, supper-boxes,
and tool-boxes“.
Cars like the typical Cadillac with extraordinary outline emerged. Cars were
also often painted in, for this time, very strange colors to make it even more
individual. For example,Tom had a very blue car and Gatsby – a yellow one.
As a consequence of improving cars to high-tech machines, the cities
also improved their streets. A lot of gas stations were installed during that
time and also many railroads were built. Moreover a garage - building spree
began. In the 20s everybody who had a house also had a garage for his car.
People did not care about how they drove, they just did it: “I know very little
about driving - next to nothing“. That is why cars were also an agent of
catastrophe for example, Myrtle just dies because of an irrelevant car accident. Also,
the car accident after the first party Nick went to, gives a hint for the bad
things coming .
The Midwestern states and the Eastern states of America are very
different and marked by specific values and attitudes.
While in the Mid West you find more traditional values (American values),
for example living on one’s own, not needing anyone else and being
self-supporting, the East has a closer connection to Europe and orientates
itself by European values and qualities.
The West is described as the country of wide lawns and friendly trees and
prairies. There, agriculture is the major economic factor and the landscape
is marked by long wheat and corn fields. The people living in the West tend
to have a very strict and conservative attitude and not to be open for most
changes. It was there, where prohibition started.
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On the other side of the Ohio, the major eastern side stream of the
Mississippi, the Eastern states begin. They represent the modern America
where the immigrants first arrived in order to start a better life (American Dream). Also, the East is much
more densely populated and you find more big cities like New York. The
Easterners are said to be open-minded and sophisticated.
In the book The Great
Gatsby, East Egg and West Egg are
used as metaphors for the East and the Middle West. While the
"aristocrats" Tom and Daisy live in East Egg, the newly rich Gatsby
lives in West Egg. Even though Gatsby shows off with his wealth and tries to
fit in the "aristocratic" society, the fact that he is living in
West Egg, shows that the distance between East and West does not become
smaller, because West Egg stays the “less fashionable of the two”.
Most of the settlers, who explored the western country, were Finnish. For
that, the “Finnish woman” who works
for Nick, is another example of the connection between West Egg and the
Middle West.
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Unfortunately the police was not able to reduce the illegal consume of alcohol. Many bootleggers bribed the police, even leading officials - as Wolfsheim - but not all authorities were corruptible. And these incorruptible officers sometimes burst into houses which they assumed to be“speak-easies”.
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