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The Twenties was a time when people did not care about anything besides having fun. The average person had a job, the economy was flourishing, foreign trade was on the rise and the stock market was booming ("The Crash … and Beyond."). President Hoover said, during his inaugural address, "I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope" but by the end of 1929 he would regret those inspiring words (Hoover). During a time when people were living the American Dream, few were prepared for or expected the stock market crash and the American nightmare that continued through the 1930s. “The cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, 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 40). During the 1920s, people enjoyed the carelessness of life, attended parties, participated in new fashion and were generally prosperous. In the book, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby, the main characters rich neighbor, has huge parties every weekend in his mansion outside New York in hopes of meeting his long-lost-true love. Gatsby made his money through illegal activities and bootlegging alcohol for his parties. Beside the protagonist, Nick, the characters are rich and present traits common during that time: carelessness, selfishness, greediness and a low self-esteem. “Four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken women in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn in at a house-the wrong house. But no one knows the women’s name, and no one cares” (Fitzgerald 176). Usin... ... middle of paper ... ..., debt statistics.” CreditCards.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. . Fearon, Peter. “Stock Market Crash (1929).” Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. Robert S. McElvaine ed. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 935-941. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. . Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004. Print. Hoover, Herbert. “Herbert Hoover: Inaugural Address.” District of Columbia, Washington. 4 Mar. 1929. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. Huggins. “USA in the 1920s.” SchoolsHistory.org.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
“The Stock Market Crash was the most devastating in history. After World War I it was a period of peace and the crash interrupted it.” (“The Wall Street”). The public demanded deposits from the banks and as they were handing the cash over little did they know it was leading to less money in circulation. Companies closed down because of deflation and low demand while others laid off over half of their workers. As the unemployment levels increased, properties were repossessed and citizens started mortgaging their houses and selling everything just to get through the depression with their own home. Post war time the United States was booming, with the trade from Germany and Europe. The 1920’s turned out to be a decade, which lead America into the depression. As more and more people invested their money, the stock prices raised. “A multitude of large bank loans that could not be liquidated, and an economic recession that had begun earlier in the summer.” (“American
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1995.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996.
“Stock Market Crash of 1929.” Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Ed. Thomas Carson and Mary Bonk. Detroit: Gale, 1999. U.S. History in Context. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print
The twenties were a time of economic boom, but this boom would end in a crash. It was a good time to be an American, but it only lasted so long. The stock market crash was a blow to the American economy that would not easily be healed.
The stock market crash of 1929 is the primary event that led to the collapse of stability in the nation and ultimately paved the road to the Great Depression. The crash was a wide range of causes that varied throughout the prosperous times of the 1920’s. There were consumers buying on margin, too much faith in businesses and government, and most felt there were large expansions in the stock market. Because of all these...
... The environment surrounding the people that used to go to weekend parties and celebrations would be changed forever, affecting the lifestyle of everyone and eliminating the ability to hold these festivities. Real citizens lived a life much like the characters of the novel, and they were forced to completely reconsider their lives, financial decisions, and priorities. The issues faced by the novel’s characters were real-life tragedies so many Americans went through at the end of the Roaring Twenties. The Great Gatsby captured these aspects of what the people, places, and events of the 1920s were really like before the Great Depression – the beginning of the end – took hold over the entire country.
F. Scott Fitzgerald delineated the Roaring Twenties in The Great Gatsby as “the parties were bigger. The pace was faster, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser, and the liquor was cheaper.” It was the era marked by social changes and splendous parties and self-made millionaires. However, unprecedented to Fitzgerald and many of his contemporaries was that said glamourous lifestyle was built on a precarious foundation. When the stock market crashed in 1929, it put a period to the beguiling era and opened Americans to a horrid epoch. Yet, in actuality, the Stock market crash is an inexorable consequence of a time so reckless such as the Roaring Twenties. Some identified causes of the eventual crash are margin buying, overproduction of goods, and banks investing in stocks with depositors’ funds.
Fitzgerald, F.Scott. The Great Gatsby (London: Alma Classics, 2012) The Great Gatsby first published in 1925
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925
The 1920s, also known as the golden age, was a time of crime, art, music, literature, and unimaginable parties. The stock market was booming, the country was thriving, buildings were being shot up from the ground, cities drowning with people coming in to seize all the economic opportunities they have dreamed of. Yet, of all that we know about the 1920s no other book has ever been able to portray the golden age as well as the famous Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Of all the activities and events that were common throughout the time period, Fitzgerald makes it a point to depict the wild parties that took place in that time. He uses stylistic elements to show how Nick feels towards the parties and what their intentions are.