When one talks about the 1920’s, which is known to be the Jazz Age, excess, corruption, and the American Dream are just a few topics which are relevant to this time period. Two examples would be Anzia Yezierska’s short story The Lost ‘Beautifulness’, and Raoul Walsh’s movie The Roaring Twenties, in which both works demonstrate how the American Dream leads to disillusionment. The short story is about a poor Russian family that immigrates to America. The son is gone to war in France, and both parents have to work hard to earn their money. Hanneh’s job is to wash linens for a rich woman named Mrs. Preston. In comparison, Walsh’s movie is about a soldier named Eddie Bartlett, who, after losing his job having come back from war, gets involved in the bootlegging business in order to achieve the American Dream.
First off, the short story and the movie both reveal the disillusionment of achieving the American Dream through material possessions. For instance, Hanneh’s dream is to have a white kitchen that looks like her rich employer’s, Mrs. Preston. Therefore, the poor lady spends all her money (which she spent a long time saving), to buy the necessary paint to redo her kitchen. Hanneh says that "[w]hen I see myself around the house how I fixed it up with my own hands, I forget I’m only a nobody. It makes me feel I’m also a person like Mrs. Preston. It lifts me with high thoughts" (“The Lost ‘Beautifulness’”113). She makes her landlord’s apartment look like it’s a rich house,
but in reality, she still belongs to the lower class people and she is still struggling, living in poverty. Moreover, in The Roaring Twenties, Eddie Bartlett becomes a bootlegger, and his main concern is to make as much money as possible by manufacturing illegal bottles of alcohol. He believes that by doing so, he will be able to achieve the American Dream. Eddie also believes that he can win over his sweet heart Jean by buying her all sorts of material things. He spoils her with presents, and tells her: “[y]ou want the Brooklyn Bridge, all you got to do is ask for it.” (The Roaring Twenties) However, in the end, it is true love that wins over material possessions, since Lloyd is the man who wins over Jean’s heart. Hanneh and Eddie are both disillusioned that material possessions is a key to happiness and the American Dream.
The 1920s was a time of conservatism and it was a time of great social change. From the world of fashion to the world of politics, forces clashed to produce the most explosive decade of the century. It was the age of prohibition, it was the age of prosperity, and it was the age of downfall.
Since its publication in 1925, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has indisputably been one of the most influential and insightful pieces on the corruption and idealism of the American Dream. The American Dream, defined as ‘The belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone,’ was a dominant ideal in American society, stemming from an opportunist pioneer mentality. In his book ‘The American Tradition in Literature’, Bradley Sculley praised The Great Gatsby for being ‘perhaps the most striking fictional analysis of the age of gang barons and the social conditions that produced them.’ Over the years, greed and selfishness changed the basic essence of the American Dream, forming firmly integrated social classes and the uncontainable thirst for money and status. The ‘Roaring Twenties’ was a time of ‘sustained increase in national wealth’ , which consequently led to an increase in materialism and a decrease in morality. Moreover, the
It is the early 1920s and America’s economy is booming and there seems to be enough prosperity to go around. Cars cram the streets as Americans all around the country purchase this newest method of transportation. The cities are packed even more than ever as city populations soar higher from the lack of Americans wanting to live in rural areas. The cities are filled with noise from mass production methods in the factories that feed consumerism along with the sound of jazz music and radios. This time period was exciting for many Americans and the world seemed to be as bright as ever.
The decade of the 1920’s was a period of American prosperity, and a new role for women. As the First World War came to an end society began to change in major ways. This was a time when people began to have more fun and loosen up. Celebrities were looked up to as hero’s, writers helped people escape from real life, and women dressed as flappers and started voting. The Harlem Renaissance, the model T, prohibition, and the role of women, all helped influence many changes during the “Roaring Twenties.”
Americans in the 1920s were fresh off of World War I and freshly into the Prohibition Era. The American Dream was well defined- a life of wealth, comfort, and exuberance. After a World War I victory, the Dream was thought to be in the near future for every American. The country was seen as a world superpower, wealthy after the devastation of a war fought entirely overseas and brimming with hope and possibility- at least on the surface. Despite the highs experienced by much of the country, it wasn't without its problems. Crime violence was benevolently running the streets and the Speakeasies beyond the reach of full Prohibition, the world was being set-up for The Great Depression, and America was brimming with members of the "Lost Generation." This generation and the hypocrisies and idiosyncracies of the "American Dream" inspired a rising and influential set of artists, poets and writers, and a list of best-selling books that both reflected and inspired the generation that devoured them. Authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton, Anita Loos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sinclair Lewis were some of the popular fiction authors of the 1920s who both entertained and delighted their readers, while also offering an intelligent reality check about the limits and realities of the American Dream.
The American Dream seems almost non-existent to those who haven’t already achieved it. Every character in the novel has moments of feeling happy and endures a moment where they believe that they are about to achieve their dreams. Naturally everyone dreams of being a better person, having better things and in 1920’s America, the scheme of getting rich is quick. However, each character had their dreams crushed in the novel mainly because of social and economic situations and their dream of happiness becomes a ‘dead dream’ leading them back to their ‘shallow lives’ or no life at all.
The 1920s, a time full of corruption,crime,manipulation,deception and society being dominated by one gender. There were people who were able to do anything because of their economic status granted them power above all. On the other hand there were people who couldn’t achieve this status so they used other to gain what they desired. Women in the 1920's are objectified by men and always being represented as weaker or powerless, women are showed to be manipulative and deceiving towards men with the exception of the non-wealthy because they depended on men to acquire wealth.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of production, it was the age of destruction, it was the epoch of nativism, it was the epoch of racism, it was the season of skepticism, it was the season of anti-communism, it was the spring of gain, it was the winter of loss – in short, it was the 1920's. Indeed, the decade of the 1920s was a truly “roaring” and prosperous time, but at the same time, it was a period of chaos and conflict. The events that happened during this decade influenced the world as we know it today. More importantly, the thought that the 1920’s was an era of major change in the United States, both positive and negative, is indeed fascinating and it deserves thorough examination.
The 1920’s were a prosperous time for America’s economy and society. After America had won the war, the country had major debt so taxes were reduced to stimulate the economy. This helped the economy and America pay back their debts. The more the country and it’s economy were changing, the more society changed. Young women were cutting their hair short, wearing excessive amounts of jewelry and shorter, more revealing clothing. It was a time of rebellion and a major change in the expectations of women and of the American people. Also, alcohol was prohibited during this time so many people were selling it and consuming it illegally. Literature was also affected, as people began documenting and writing about this new era. A notable writer
Following the shell shocked feelings that permeated many European cultures after World War I, the 1920s were a time of rejuvenation for much of the world. While America had their Roaring Twenties, the name for this era in Paris was known as the Crazy Years. With the prospect of war behind them, the citizens of Paris took on new and exciting ventures that were thought too extreme just a few years prior. Great strides were made in many sectors including music, fashion, behavior, and much more, all driven by this human instinct to feel alive after surviving the brutal horrors of war. What Mary McAuliffe is able to bring to life in When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends, is the vibrant life of the 1920s told by a multitude of characters. From writers to entertainers, engineers to politicians, McAuliffe inspects many facets of Paris’ culture to show the reader the new course Parisians were pursuing to shake the terrors of World War I.
In conclusion The American Dream for Hanneh and Joe were both plagued by the one thing they didn’t have, money. Money stands in the way of many things for many people. You have to have money to make money, and you need to be someone to know someone. Hanneh and Joe had many more similarities than differences “in my opinion”. They both wanted to be rich and have things that only the upper class can have. The American dream for both of them was to be something that they were not; I used these two characters from these two stories because I believe that they got cheated in the same way. They both wanted so bad for people to respect them and to maybe get a piece of that dream pie. In the end the American dream is not a dream, it is a classification of the wealthy the higher class. This dream will always be sought after by the little man, and will always be true for the rich man. Hanneh and Joe are prime examples of the outcome of dreaming. I guess if you want money you have to dream.
In the 1920's the spirit and ambition of the American people soared. Unlike their European counterparts who were trapped in the social class to which they were born, the American people knew that if they worked hard then they could rise to a higher social class. The flappers and the women's liberation movement were just two examples of how Americans expressed their newly discovered social freedom. It seemed that nothing was impossible to achieve. James Gatz, shared the spirit and ambition on the American people and fought long and hard to earn his place in the world. He had dreamed of transforming himself from the poor, young man that he was into the wealthy celebrity that he would soon become.
The American dream has an inspiring connotation, often associated with the pursuit of happiness, to compel the average citizen to prosper. In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s infatuation for Daisy drives him towards wealth in order to respark his love. Due to Daisy’s rich background, the traditional idea of love becomes skewed because of the materialistic mindsets of people in the 1920s. In the novel the wealthy are further stratified into two social classes creating a barrier between the elite and the “dreamers”. Throughout the novel, the idea of the American dream as a fresh start fails. As Nick, the narrator, spends time in New York, he realizes the corruption pursuing goals. Characters such as Gatsby and Myrtle constantly strive toward an the American dream, which Nick realizes to be fruitless in the end.
The Roaring Twenties made a major change in the United States. Roaring Twenties was an period of social, artistic, cultural, and economic dynamism that characterizes the cultural tone of the 1920’s in American cities also in Berlin and Paris (Boundless). During the 1920’s expatriates was a major literary movement “until the Wall Street crash of 1929 that this remarkable era ended and the Great Depression spread worldwide” (Boundless). Expatriates were people who live outside their native country. Expatriates from the United States settled in Paris, wrote novels, and short stories expressing their feelings.
Following World War I and the strife it brought to American culture, seemingly good times were felt by all in the roaring twenties; however, the reality is expressed through the negative happenings of the “Lost Generation.” Published in 1926, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises acts as an allegory of the time, explaining the situations of American and foreign young adults of the “Lost Generation." The journey of Robert Cohn, Lady Bret Ashley and Jake Barnes and their experience abroad in France is one of false relationships, the disparaging actions of women and the insecurity of men; moreover, the major issues of the time compile to form what people living in the 1920’s and historians postulate as the “Lost Generation.” As an enlightening tale, The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway’s portrayal of a morally ailing generation. In conclusion, Hemingway utilizes character description and symbolism in order to present the aimless destruction of the “Lost Generation.”