Cars In The 1920s Essay

The 1920’s, also known as The Roaring 20’s, period was a time of fun, technological advancements, fashion, dancing, and luxury. One big advancement that changed transportation across the United States, was cars. Major car corporations that emerged in this era included Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. These companies started to compete with each other, and they made prices more affordable to supply popular demand of the American people. As companies grew, they started to buy out one another to make up the biggest three American branches of cars. As cars became more popular, people used them as a sign of wealth and luxury. The better model or designed car you had, the more wealth and class it show to other people and the general public. Cars became almost a necessity to societies everyday structure.

The competition for automobile sale decreased the prices, which made cars more available to the public.

One of the cheapest cars, the Chevrolet 1924, was $525.00 (Pearson), or $6,706.44 in 2017 (“Inflation Calculator 1920s”), which is very low compared to average new cars of today. This enhancement and cheaper of transportation led to more accessible jobs, more tourists and travelers, easier transportation of large shipments and belongings, and other uses for the public. Cars became extremely useful as the rise of suburbanization occurred in the late 1920’s. Upper-middle-class suburbs contained few businesses and served only as residential areas, and most residents depended on their automobiles to take them to other locations for shopping and essential services. The number of people in cities did not surpass rural areas population until the 1920s (A.U.C., Active USA

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The use and role of cars in The Great Gatsby, is very important to how the events of this story end. A yellow Duesenberg Model J which was Gatsby’s car shown in the 2013 movie The Great Gatsby (Silver Birch Press)was the car that hit Myrtle Wilson on the night of her death. As Myrtle was hit, everyone suspected that Gatsby was driving, but in reality, Nick asks Gatsby if it was Daisy driving, and Gatsby responds with “Yes” (Fitzgerald 143). Myrtle’s husband, Wilson, thinks Gatsby was the man who was Myrtle’s other lover, and the one driving the car. Out of rage and heartache, Wilson shoots Gatsby, then himself. This yellow Duesenberg Model J played a big role of making some characters, mainly Wilson, falsely assume based on what little information the actually knew.