The Jazz Age(爵士时代)

The Understanding of the Jazz Age

Abstract

The jazz age seems to a kind of new dream and pursuit of life, but what it actually expresses people’s g reed for money and enjoyment. After the war it takes some profits for society, yet behind the profits the ugliness of human nature make the dream evaporate to be illusion. For the novel itself, Gatsby has invested Daisy with the meaning of beauty by making her the object of his dream. However, under the cover of beautiful appearance, greed, selfish, desire, venality and so on go up in smoke. The bursting of the hope is a symbol of social destruction. And if people always think that the past become a thing of the past, not linking with the present, such wonderful era is long gone now. So we should identify the relationship between the present and the past.

Key Words: the jazz age; social destruction; identify the relationship

Outline

Part I Introduction of the jazz age

1. Meaning

2. Social phenomenon

3. Connection with novel

Part II Analysis between the novel and the society

Part III Conclusion

Part I Introduction of the jazz age

Meaning

In the First World War people had the usual amount of enthusiasm, inspired by the ideal of making the world safe for democracy. It proved profitable as well. The USA made a great deal of money in the war and became a lot richer, so that there was an economic boom, a deceptive affluence. So the Jazz Age describes the period of the 1920s and 1930s.The twenties began with high hopes and ended with a huge drop in stock market prices that began the great depression.

Social phenomenon

We also call it as the roaring twenties, in which emphasizing the social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. That is a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, a breaking with traditions.

Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology. New technologies, especially automobiles, moving pictures and radio proliferated “modernity” to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality in both daily life and architecture. At the same time, jazz music and dancing rose in popularity, in opposition to the mood of the specter of World War I.

The nation's values had changed in this period. Many Americans were concerned mainly with having a good time and doing what you will. American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity. People broke the law by drinking alcohol and lived in a corrupt society.

Connection with novel

The novel chronicles the anomie at the following First World War. American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers and led to an increase in organized crime. Although Fitzgerald idolized the riches and glamour of the age, he was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and the lack of morality or a kind of decadence.

Part II Analysis between the novel and the society

When it comes to the characters of the novel, we don’t forget the writer’s background. When he was young, Fitzgerald fell in love with a wild beautiful girl, Zelda, who desire for wealth, fun, and leisure. He wrote many novels just for giving his wife a kind of reckless and extravagant life. In fact, he knew that of something bad, but he only expresses emotion in his novel. Gatsby, in the same way, falls in love with Daisy and idolizes wealth an d luxury. What he wants to get is Daisy’s love, so he has not any choices but use a lot of money to get her heart. This seems a sort of fault, however, if we live that era, we could be like those people who want to some rich and p leasure.

In my view, Daisy doesn’t represent the paragon of perfection. Only in Gatsby’s eyes, she has the aura of charm, wealth, sophistication, grace, and aristocracy. I want to give a selection to analyze.

In chapter7, “Driving back to Long Island, Myrtle is been fatally hit by the automobile of Daisy and Gatsby and the real murderer is Daisy. Back at Tom’s house, Gatsby hides in the bushes and his aim is just in order to make sure that Tom doesn’t hurt Daisy and he is willing to take the blame.” We can see that between the two people Gatsby doesn’t want Daisy be hurt, and as long as she is safe and happy, he can do anything. However, she abandons him for the better and richer life. That is the ugliness of human nature. Although she has the beautiful face, her heart is even not as good as a person with the ugly appearance. She is the outcome of the depressed and evil flooding society, the interests of the driven cut off her positive role to the society. Thus we can know the jazz age gives people illusion, they not only rejects, instead, more people enjoy that kind of ideal lifestyles and thinking modes.

Not only in one side about people, but the novel also expresses social crime phenomenon about some organizations.

In chapter4, “Gatsby took Nick to New York to have a lunch and introduced him to Meyer Wolfshiem, who was responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. Wolfshiem is a shady character with underground business connections. He gives Nick the impression that the source of Gatsby’s wealth might be unsavory, and that Gatsb y may even have ties to the sort of organized crime with which Wolfshiem is associated.” In the setting of the novel, we know p eople broke the law by drinking alcohol. In fact, in the mid-1920s of America, the pervasiveness of bootlegging and organized crime, combined with the burgeoning stock market and vast increase in the wealth of the general public during this era, contributed largely to the heedless, excessive pleasure-seeking and sense of abandon that permeate. I think only Gatsby can have a chance to dare to do this, maybe for Daisy, maybe for himself. Anyway, what he reflected is life yearning and vitality. Only in this way is he able to get his wealth in this false of the society. The real life of America is like this, people’s degeneration for wealth and optimism for life are connected. That is a kind of strange combination, but we cannot avoid this phenomenon.

Part III Conclusion

As mentioned in the novel, Nick reflects that just as Gatsby’s dream of Daisy is corrupted by money and dishonesty, the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. And the era of dreaming, either Gatsby’s or the American dream, is over. In that era, the jazz age is just another kind of good understanding in pursuit of the wealth. And greedy desire of society is cannot be ignored. However, as long as keeping it real, we can avoid this state again.