The Jazz Age: Authority Over Literature: The Jazz Age

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Authority Over Literature: The Jazz Age
History has proven that literature is often inclined to the current common attitude and lifestyle of the time period's masses. Within the 1920's, with the Great Depression at the shoreline's edge and America's increase of superficial values, there was quite a likelihood that change would start to take place in all things literature and many different kinds of written works. Specifically, this period was known as the Jazz Age, whereas was the voracious standard of living, freedom from strict gender-roles, and collective morals/values were all pouring control over what was being written by both authors and musical artists alike. Overall, the Jazz Age entailed many shallow and materialistic qualities in which directly influenced the literature of the time period.
Within the 1920's the standard of living an individual and/or their family held greatly affected how they were treated socially, both directly and indirectly. This was highly influential in the Jazz Age literature because it compounded the negative attitudes that brought about conflict among the privileged and the under-privileged, which was evident in written works by Ezra Pound. As stated within the Charleston Gazette, within the post-WWI years "the top 1 percent of Americans grabbed a lion's share of wealth" (1), thus creating a large group of individuals who dominated America's industry's by their socioeconomic status. The emotional and mental state that this put on the more poverty (also known as "urban poverty") stricken individuals were influential towards writers within this era. One can see that Eliot, T.S. demonstrated his emotional stand point towards this issue in his written work published in 1922, "The Waste Land" where o...

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... said time period as well. The 1920s was a time of economic prosperity in which induced the first mass influx of materialistic views and unfortunate ethical collapses our society had yet to see. This time period, the Jazz Age, was known for its incredibly common avaricious attitude toward what a "minimal" lifestyle was, liberation from traditional gender-roles, and collective ideals that brought about a huge influence upon the writings and musical creations that many people expressed. Basically, the very superficial and one-dimensional outlook that society had during the Jazz Age managed to directly affect how the literature during this time period was written and developed. Several other eras have affected literature in a similar way, but side-by-side, many would agree that none have had such a dominant and lasting affect upon society as the Roaring Twenties did.

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