Move beyond Baz Luhrmann’s excellent interpretation of Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby’ with all the fabulously designed costumes and extravagant lifestyles of Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Read the actual book and realize that the story deals with realistic events that dominated the decade.
Romance in the book only wraps up the story. Taking a deeper plunge in the reading of "The Great Gatsby’; it deals with the hollowness of the upper-class of society. West Egg represents the newly rich and East Egg represents the old aristocracy. Clearly visible in the 2013 interpretation of the film behind all the glitter and extravagance lies the troubled soul of the American citizen. The decline of the American dream is also very evident. Social and moral values were crumbling. Citizens rejected marriage and religion. The new woman could choose between getting married or build a career – staying at home as a housewife was a mere option.
Consumerism reached its peak. Anybody with focus and determination could become rich — literally. Jazz music broke the previously set canons and genres.
Everyone let loose. Women rejected the tight corsets that ruined their abdomen and long up-styled hair. Women were given the right to vote at the start of the decade and felt the need for independence. They took up smoking with the same confidence as having short, chin-length haircuts and raised hemlines. Women exposed more skin. New dresses finally allowed women to dance and move comfortably. Jewelry, handbags and bathing suits were all dazzling new accessories of the decade. They became party-goers in their flapper dresses and danced all night long. Cosmetics, which until had been associated with prostitutes, became mainstream
Writers, among other artistic figures, moved to Europe, mainly to Paris. "The Lost Generation,’ a term coined by Gertrude Stein, came to being during The First World War. People wanted to live voluntarily in exile and called themselves “expatriates.” They literally felt lost after having witnessed so many deaths in a short period of time. Values they had abided with seemed invalid for the destruction brought about by the Great War. Authors showed antipathy towards individualism — survival of the fittest and materialism. People felt that life had no meaning. In fact, Ernest Hemingway, known writer of the decade, attempted suicide more than once.
Writers such as Fitzgerald and Hemingway wrote stories which were favoured by many Americans. They incorporated fiction and elements from their own lives. Hemingway’s writings are greatly influenced by the "war to end all wars.’ He himself enlisted to fight and writes some extraordinary works of literature based on his own experiences in the war.
Your search on Google will award you with a lot of fiction titles for books based during The Roaring 20s. What I have presented is merely an appetizer. But one film or story is not enough for your knowledge about the troubled decade that gave birth to America as we know it today.
