The Roaring 20s - Essay Example

Topic The Roaring 20's The 1920s represented America's 'coming of age' period in history. The country had participated in the First World War and was prosperous by the export of war goods and consumables. Americans had never seen the accumulations of such wealth. While the smoking pipes of industries spewed off smoke in the same war-time vigour, the working classes had ever more money to spend. Spending on leisure became an important factor in American life. American dreams had grown to include the world. The soldiers who came back had brought many different points of view with them. These were trickling down to the families, the gossips of unemployed women and children who played on the streets. America had begun to think. The press had recently got some serious readers. The war had gifted them to the news papers. Although American casualties in the war were quite low when compared to their European allies and foes; the soldiers came back with a shaken mind: they had recently lost their innocence and could not return to their roots. They yearned for a life in the cities, in fun and frolicking city-life, they had seen in Europe. The industries in Europe and America were facing a slight problem. The war had ended long back and they needed new avenues to apply their engineering skills. They mechanised farms and invented gadgets that gave more free time to American housewives. Consumerism was coming of age. Farm machines such as harvesters and planters had reduced employment opportunities in agriculture. The crop prices like urban wages depended on market forces without any protection from the state. But in the postwar boom, businesses flourished and the rich were richer beyond their wildest dreams. The only business that Americans were now doing was business. For the first time in history, the new wealth had helped youths enroll in universities. The number of enrollments almost doubled during the 1920s. Americans were now enjoying the world's highest per capita income. Many Americans now invested in the ultimate luxury of the era - an automobile. The typical middle class home now glowed under the electric lamps, the radio sets sang away to glory - the new American tunes and the people were connected with the world outside. The telephone, camera and typewriter, all American inventions - were consumed by Americans in tonnes. People fell in love with entertainments. They went to a movie once a week, and had more disposable income with them. The movies were also changing. They provided very little to think. They were entertainers. By the end of the 1920's 100 million movie tickets were sold in the country every week. Actors Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Rudolf Valentino had become 'stars'. Although prohibition was in place, the underground 'speakeasies' were doing brisk business. The night clubs were bulging with young men and women who flaunted new dressing styles, fashion, glamour and all the spoils of wealth. They also took to more daring modes of dress and dance. Dancing, movies, automobile touring, radio and concerts were becoming part of American lives. Many American women had left the farms to join the nation's home-front war duties and turned themselves in to resolutely modern dolls rather than a hard working farm-pig. They also received the right to vote in 1920 and had recently involved themselves in politics. They cut thir hair short and wore flappers, boldly spoke their minds and flaunted their newly attained status. Western youths had started to rebel. They were disillusioned by the savagery of war and blamed the older generation for it. The university guys became the new intelligentsia. European works of philosophy and Psychology were sweeping in to American living rooms. Freud and Marx were favourite topics of discussion. The Godless world had come in to being in the American minds. Religion, they believed should be a burden to be relieved. Their creative energy spilled in the form of new music and architecture and art and everything that had not been invented till date. They worked hard to widen their mindscape and develop new areas of the mind which had recently been conquered. The new writers were all describing the transformation as vividly as possible. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Earnest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound all created new directions in American imagination. Eliot was sitting by the river of time when the 20s passed beside him and he wrote the 'Waste Land'. What an irony He was talking about the deserts that the American minds had become in the midst of all this prosperity! The common man scoffed. But despite this outward gaiety, modernity and never-before material prosperity, young Americans of the 20's were a lost generation. The security of family living, the bonding of love and caring, compassion for fellow beings, had all drifted away with the winds of change. They were not interested in farming, did not love nature, were devoid of patriotic feelings and free from the moral codes set by religion. Hemingway's 'Sun also Rises' and Fitzgerald's 'This side of Paradise' and many other literary works of the time point fingers at this extravagance and disillusionment that marked the 1920s. Literature of the era had the most impact on the people of the 20's. Especially Eliot, whose thoughts had made the world to sit back and think for a while. The Economic crisis of the 1930s was unpredicted. The good spirits of the 20's led people to believe that this prosperity is here to stay. Even after the stock market crashed in the autumn of 1929, people believed that it would soon spring back. Nobody anticipated the job losses, the poverty and the disappointment. But factories began to close doors, banks had little or no money and were crashing down. The stock market was plummeting down and the optimism had faded away like a thin veil of smoke. This prompted President Roosevelt to formulate the new deal reforms. Situations were still becoming unmanageable and the unemployment and anarchy reined. Most of his tight control measures had contradictory effects when implemented. His attempts to revitalise banks had failed utterly. By this time, the American society had embraced individualism and materialism. It was difficult to change society by enacting laws; the Roosevelt administration learned it the hard way. The losses that the US treasury had to suffer were huge. The final U-turn came when the federal government replaced gold with government bonds as an exchange to currency. Government gold stocks began to pile up and the economy slowly turned back. The 30s slowly rolled by and the crisis was fading away. The new American social life inspired by the 20s had remained. People left their homes early for a livelihood. The American family was slowly being reduced to a group of individuals living under one roof - simply because they could not afford to find space on their own. The 40's brought new wars and another bout of prosperity from the war economy. The fifties were again spend in glory. Scientific revolutions were rocking the world. Rock band crisscrossed the country and the independent youth thronged the crowds at these concerts. By the beginning of the fifties, a new band of young men made their presence felt in Snafrancisco, California. They called themselves the hippies and their community rejected the idea of individualism out right. They believed in community! They talked about spirituality with a bend on Eastern religious Philosophy. They practiced meditation and spoke loud against the society and social norms. New music catered to their tastes. The hippies were a growing community. They spread to Europe as well. But the problem was that they blended marijuana in to their lifestyle. A new breed of singers emerged from the community and re-defined American music. One of the most popular musician of this time was Bob Dylan and his band - The Rolling Stones. In fact, they were what the hippies were, rolling stones. Beatles also was a product of the Hippie generation. Most of the hippies were genuine party animals and fun seekers. In fact the hippie generation had divided the entire nation in to two. While the elderly generation was hardworking and thought about things such as money and savings, most hippies didn't work until they were on the verge of poverty. Though they were loved and hated at the same time, the hippies were a funny lot. They also created political opinion. They made their voice heard in creative communication, peaceful and silent protests and sometimes through music and art. They virtually ended the Vietnam war and taught the peaceful way to the American government. The black community was drawing inspiration from this hippie culture. The hippies lend imagination to the black leaders. The Vietnam war proved a big bargain and the blacks had had enough. They decided to make their voice heard. Ultimately this resulted in new legislations and such things that gave equal rights to blacks. But legislation is one thing and the implementation is another when it comes to social transformation. Social transformation requires individual change and individuals do not change until they are convinced that the change can bring about goodies. Individually we are more rebellious than in society. The well being of the majority and any effort there to have to cultural and not political. The political reforms are merely the beginning. Our history stands to prove it time and again. References DROWNE, Kathleen and Patrick Huber, The 1920's Miller, Thimothy - The hippies and American Values, University of Tennesse Press 1991. Read More