F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Echoes of the Jazz Age” Analysis

Fitzgeralds look back into the Jazz Age is not nostalgic or cynical but rather what?

An insightful analysis into why the Jazz Age was so remarkable and why its end was so inevitable

When did the beginning of the end for the period begin for Fitzgerald?

When the older generations began to take part in the social revolutions that first seemed too risky and radical

Fitzgerald believes the Jazz Age was primarily about what?

Taste. Young people freed from the confines of confines of a stuffy Victorianism and genteel morality

People like Fitzgeralds enjoyment of things was amplified by what?

How much older generations disapproved of them

How does Fitzgerald refer to the cheapened mass produced versions of things?

The commodification of the periods blatant superficialties

What was commodification to Fitzgerald?

The process by which previously unique revolutionary ideas and practices were simplified and tuned into mass market products

To Fitzgerald the actual freedoms of the Jazz Age were transformed into what?

Empty symbols that could be easily bought and sold, they became apart of another set of cheap goods hardly worth caring about

Though the Roaring 20s were defined by the thrill of doing things that hadn’t been done, what is Fitzgerald keen to point out?

The period produced important works of art and created a new set of aesthetic attitudes and interests

The break from traditional customs and mores did what?

Changed peoples behavior and allowed artists to push the boundaries of artistic forms

What did Fitzgerald feel Jazz Age had done?

Developed a “living” literature

How did the new literature of the era inaugurate a radical form of culture?

Through its willingness to more frankly explore human sensuality and social interactions, and capacity to tap deeply into the feelings and longing of alienation defined by postwar American life

True or False, Fitzgerald admits there was always something a bit absurd about the styles and attitudes of the era

True

The periods excess was fueled by what?

Unsustainable amounts of economic growth and speculation

Fitzgerald felt many lived on what?

Borrowed time on top of a flimsy structure

In light of political and economic crises in the 30s how did the Jazz Age seem?

Embarrassing or unbelievable

How does Fitzgerald end his essay?

By attempting to redeem the mythology of the Jazz Age

What does Echoes of the Jazz Age argue?

However ridiculous it might seem , there was something profound going on in the United States in the 1920s

Beneath the parties and dancing and the drinking what does Fitzgerald say existed?

A “ghostly rumble among the drums” that genuinely seemed to be preparing the way for new forms of freedom