The reflection of the era of "roaring twenties" in the F.S. Fitzgerald’s novel "The great Gatsby"

The “The Great Gatsby' is set in the 1920s, a time of increasing prosperity, partying, and alcohol consumption in the U.S. In the novel, drinking alcohol, often to excess, is a part of everyday life (2). Tom and Daisy's Buchanan lifestyle includes plenty of alcohol. Cocktails are served to dinner guests. Characters in “The Great Gatsby” enjoy whiskey, wine, and cocktails. Sauternes and Chartreuse which are a French sweet wine and a French green or yellow liqueur are read as drunk by the companies (Fitzgerald, 1973:78, 93). At the hotel, Daisy is going to use whiskey to make a julep (Fitzgerald, 1973:130), i.e. a sweet flavored drink made from a sugar syrup and alcohol. Gatsby and Wolfsheim are served highballs at the restaurant (Fitzgerald, 1973:72). In America highball is a mixed alcoholic drink composed of an alcoholic base spirit and a large proportion of non-alcoholic mixer, often a carbonated beverage (Random.Dictionary: 613). At legendary Gatsby's parties “... champagne was served in glasses bigger than finger-bowls” (Fitzgerald, 1973:50) and “In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials.” (Fitzgerald, 1973:42-43) Evidently, alcohol in the 1920s was illegal, common, and profitable for some people, Fitzgerald's characters among them. Gatsby rises from poverty and earns his fortune through bootlegging. He illegally imports and sells alcohol. Thus a war hero, and Fitzgerald knew what the army and war was, turns a bootlegger. Tom accuses Gatsby saying:” He and his Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drugstores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts” (Fitzgerald, 1973: 134).

Extravagant living brought changes into social mores, behavior, clothing, women's roles in the 1920s. While the economic boom was accompanied by relaxation of the social codes and conventions, women, especially young and those coming from large urban centers, were among the first to rebel. Their social liberation took different forms during the 1920s. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It allowed women to vote. They began to display a more liberated demeanor. They began visiting clubs, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and doing in public things which traditionally had been done only by men. The changing times were expressed through fashion. Restrictive clothes as well as attitudes had been gone. Both ostentatious designer accessories and careless-style outfits represented the lavishness and scandalous air of the 1920s. Traditional corsets and long dresses were replaced by shapeless shift dresses with which they could freely move and dance. Their colorful dresses went together with silk stockings and silk underwear. They gave preference to hats, shorter skirts, and boots (12). It is due to the boots they wore unbuckled, that the trendy women of that time got a new name “flappers”(Random...Dictionary:493). Their short, sleek haircuts or bobbed hair, bare arms, flat chests, application of makeup and smoking long cigarettes in public, redefined an idea of womanhood and what was ladylike (17; 32; 33).

While the men in “The Great Gatsby” are described in terms of where they live and what they do, women are described by the way they look, what they wear, and their relationships to the men. Sexual attractiveness is the key, which is based on appearance and charm. They are somewhat hedonistic and unconventional people who like to enjoy themselves. Fitzgerald describes Gatsby's female guests:” ...and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors, and hair shorn in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile (Fitzgerald, 1973:43). In the novel ladies' clothes often come in a white color. ”They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and flutteri ng as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight about the house”( Fitzgerald, 1973: 12). “Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans” (Fitzgerald, 1973:115). When Nick meets Daisy at his place “Daisy's face, tipped sideways beneath a three-cornered lavender hat, looked out at me.” ( Fitzgerald, 1973:87). In the 1920s, men also broke old traditions. Though not looking so colorful, they got some additions, like wide lapels, cream suits and pinstripes worn by the upper class. Sweaters became a radical addition to sportswear. The main male heroes of the novel, also look modern. Nick remembers as “Dressed up in white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven, and wandered around rather ill at ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn't know...”( Fitzgerald, 1973:44). But it is Gatsby's clothing that is significant for readers' comprehension of him. He deliberately tries to look opulent in front of Daisy : “. Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in” (Fitzgerald, 1973:86). He is careful and particular about his clothing except the scene when he tosses out his shirts to impress Daisy. ”. he brought more.shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue”( Fitzgerald, 1973:94). Mockingly, Tom does not believe that Gatsby is an Oxford man because “he wears a pink suit” (Fitzgerald, 1973:122). When Klipspringer comes, he also demonstrates the male fashion of the time:” He was now decently clothed in a sport shirt, open at the neck, sneakers, and duck trousers of a nebulous hue” (Fitzgerald, 1973:96).

By 1920s, around 200,000 African Americans made New York their home city. Many of them had migrated from the South. During the 1920s, jazz entered the cultural mainstream. It appeared to be the main form of musical expression. As a result, Harlem became a cultural hub for dynamic jazz and blues as well as a platform for rising jazz artists like Ethel Waters,

Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Coleman Hawkins and “King” Oliver

(Random...Dictionary:703). The musical genre became one of the most basic and potent indicators of New York's cultural life promoted through recordings, broadcasts, and live performances (23). Simultaneously, many popular musicians played soulful tunes in nightclubs called “speakeasies” during the era of Prohibition.

Music played in the Fitzgerald's novel illustrates the new, often experimental attitudes as well as actions of the characters in the society that used to stick to conservative ideas (15). Contrast between old, conventional and new, not generally accepted yet, is displayed in the description of the party: ”A celebrated tenor had sung in Italian, and a notorious contralto had sung in jazz.” (Fitzgerald, 1973:50). It is interesting to distinguish between real and fictitious information related to music in the novel. Both Mr.Vladimir Tolstoff and his creation “Jazz History of the World” performed by the orchestra at the party (Fitzgerald, 1973:53) are fictitious. But two songs played by Klipspringer “Aren't We Got Fun”(1921) and “The Love Nest”(1920) (Fitzgerald, 1973:97) were really popular and can be still heard on Youtube by anyone who wants to get a flavor of that time (3; 22). “Three O'Clock in the Morning” also mentioned in the novel as “a neat, sad waltz drifting out of the open door” (Fitzgerald, 1973: 110), was composed by Julian Robledo and was really extremely popular in the 1920s. It is still available to modern listeners (30).

Though cars were new to America of the 1920s, it did not take them long to become a status symbol of one's wealth and success, a part of American Dream. Fitzgerald was aware of how cars could define a social status of a person. In his novel the cars speak a lot about those who own and drive them to add them significance. The writer purposely choses specific automobiles for his heroes (6;7). Among numerous Gatsby's luxurious possessions (a hydroplane, two motorboats), quite predictably, two cars are also numbered. As Nick witnesses, Gatsby's “gorgeous”, “splendid” Rolls-Royce makes a shocking effect on him as well as on others (Fitzgerald, 1973:66,71). Their admiration evidently pleases him: “I'd seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns” (Fitzgerald, 1973:66-67). “On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains”( Fitzgerald, 1973:42). Tom Buchanan is an owner of a blue coupe (Fitzgerald, 1973:136). In the 1920s, it was a luxury vehicle similar to Cadillac (Random...Dictionary:303). Before her marriage Daisy used to have a car to match her clothing. “She dressed in white and had a little white roadster...”( Fitzgerald, 1973:77). Being purely an American term, a “roadstar” of that time was an open car seating two or three. Interestingly, Fitzgerald plays on Jordan Baker's name who is very far from being a good driver. Actually, in her name he ironically combines two major car manufacturers of the time, namely, the Jordan Motor Car Company and Baker Motor Vehicles. The former is known to market and to promote its cars specifically for women with the focus on their appearance. As their philosophy went, smart-dressed people were expected to drive smartlooking cars (6; 7).

The wild era of the “Roaring Twenties” was over with the Stock Crash in 1929. But many symbols typically adherent to the “Roaring Twenties” have not gone with time. We still witness their echo every time we discuss rebellious behavior in public, bizarre fashion, illegal drugs, sex and violence in the movies.

American Dream has been living for about one hundred years and still makes a part of people's mentality even though in “The Great Gatsby” this dream is tragically colored. Material wealth and prosperity do not mean happiness automatically. The story told by Fitzgerald has been filmed five times with the best known actors starring. Probably, “The Great Gatsby” is still in fashion. F.S. Fitzgerald as a writer and as a person embodies national myths, dreams, and aspirations. He conveys something about human nature, human relations, human expectations and hopes that will always attract attention and interest. His real masterpiece “The Great Gatsby” will be popular as long as people hope and strive for success and wealth. Gifted with lyrical style and heartfelt language he managed to capture the essence of the American experience.

This article has briefly outlined the temporal symbols and icons of the “Roaring Twenties”, both material and immaterial: American Dream, flourishing New York, fashionable and wealthy Long Island, excessive alcohol consumption, bootlegging, jazz playing and dancing, driving luxury cars. It has also notified the ways they are linguistically presented in Fitzgerald's novel. The article can be of special concern for those whose interests lay both in American history and fiction.

fitzgerald gatsby cultural novel

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