1920s Gender Roles

The 1920s was 10 years of energizing social changes and significant social clashes. For some Americans, the development of urban areas, the rise of a consuming, the increase of mass entertainment, and the alleged "transformation in ethics and behavior" spoke to liberation from the limitations of the nation's Victorian past. Gender roles, hair styles, and dress all changed significantly during the 1920s. Be that as it may for some others, the United States appeared to be changing in undesirable ways. The result was a not so delicate "social common war," in which a culture conflicted severely over issues such as: immigration, the Ku Klux Klan, prohibition, women's roles, and race. It was 10 years of success, and of jazz bands, bootleggers, raccoon …show more content…
Washington, that she thought being "poor" was "fun" (9.28). The Washington family eats dinner on plates "with two layers of diamond" while embraced in a "chair curved insidiously to his back...which [engulfs and overpowers] him" (2.31). Fitzgerald uses hyperbole to condemn the overabundances of the rich, and without this language, his message would lose its point, penetrating knowledge into the twisted minds of the rich. The hospitality and graciousness of the family are exaggerated in order to satirize the overabundances of the rich. By utilizing hyperbole, Fitzgerald denounces the visually impaired quest for riches and the self-serving nature of American culture. Such nonchalant perspectives of homicide and detainment are hyperbolic because they uncover moral corruption of the rich. Without this exaggeration, the insanity and mercilessness of the family would have been compromised. The abuse of the slaves and their great degradation are highlighted by Fitzgerald to demonstrate the cold-bloodedness of the rich. The slaves are portrayed as primitive and submissive. Their slurred …show more content…
Where wealth lurks so does poverty. War and economic depression caused many Americans to "turn to God and others to trun away from God. Major efforts were made to spread Christianity in the heathen nations and communism emerged as a force opposing Christianity. Evolution challenged Creationism." and Fitzgerald uses religious allusions to depict this view of the 1920s by referencing Johns hometown, Hades, as hell and the Washington's home as the Garden of Eden. Fitzgerald continues helping us to remember the religious allusion natural for the sake of John's hometown. To begin is the reference to the engraving over the entryways of Hades, "an old-fashioned Victorian Motto" that is, admittedly, "a little depressing" (1.8). Which is an allusion of the gates of Hell. Braddock, the son of Mr. Washington, tries to bribe God and "would give to God, he continued, getting down to specifications, the greatest diamond in the world. This diamond would be cut with many more thousand facets than there were leaves on a tree...and on this altar there would be slain for the amusement of the Divine Benefactor any victim He should choose, even though it should be the greatest and most powerful man alive." (10.14) The bribery doesn't' t work and Fitzgerald is expressing that wealth and riches cannot buy mercy from God. The Judgment day feel when "a dozen dark-winged bodies