Bizarre Take #5 - The Hidden Flaws of the Jazzy Era

Bizarre Take #5 - Hidden Flaws of the Jazzy Era 




The 1920s! An era filled with Jazz, flappers, raccoon coats, and my personal favorite, hairstyles! People rocked really cute styles in this era, and everything seemed to be very classy and fashionable! The idea of owning cars, television sets, and radios was becoming popularized, and people paid loads of money to get their hands on these.  It was absolute madness, yet it was one of the main things that made this decade so iconic!



 In class, we’re deep diving into the 1920s with a famous book title you may know: The Great Gatsby! I’m sure Leonardo Dicaprio is the first thing that comes to your mind : D This book explores the famous Gatsby, and starts off with a narration by one of the supporting characters, Nick Carraway. At first, he seems to be very tolerable and moral, but his hidden motives seem to come out. Nick claims he’s very nonjudgmental and looks after the feelings of others, although that didn’t seem to be the case when he referenced Gatsby. Nick explains how he arrived to New York to invest in bonds, and shifted to live in the West Egg. The West Egg is home to those who had just recently become rich, but somewhat middle class. On the Contrary, the East Egg is the epitome of upper class, home to aristocratic, filthy-rich people that lived under the white people privelege. Nick goes to visit his friends Tom, his wife Daisy. Tom is exposed for his racist and white-supremacy mindset, which unravels the power dynamic between the poor and the rich. The rich, mainly from the East Egg, are able to display their mindsets with no fear. Later on, Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose, showing the power he is able to exert due to his wealth. 


Although the 20s was an iconic era with some of the best fashion you could ask for, there were hidden flaws such racial dynamics and power gaps that caused large-scale disparities :(

  • - Historical genius,

Prisha <3

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 8, 2023 at 6:23 PM

    Your connections of The Great Gatsby to the culture in the 1920's was super insightful :) The diction that you developed throughout your post, like "absolute madness" made your post so fun to read!

    ReplyDelete

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