2.1.2

1920s America

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Roaring Twenties

The Great Gatsby is clearly set in the 1920s: an era sometimes labelled the ‘roaring Twenties’ and also the ‘Jazz Age’.

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Reaction against World War One

  • Some people regard the decade as a reaction against the gloom of World War One, when people became more secularised (i.e. they eschewed traditional Christianity and its moral codes), when they became more materialistic and when issues such as modern media, music and fashion started to influence society.
  • Love and the way it was dealt with and explored by society also changed.
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Age of Excess

  • The result was that the 1920s was often regarded as something of an Age of Excess. This resulted in various clamp-downs in the next decade.
  • In the United States of America, the 1930s witnessed the Great Depression and Prohibition.

Settings in The Great Gatsby

The novel is set in 1922 in the United States of America. The action takes places on the East Coast of America, close to New York City.

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Macro (wider) settings

  • Wider settings include:
    • Long Island.
    • East Egg.
    • West Egg.
    • The ‘Valley of the Ashes’.
    • New York City.
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Micro (smaller) settings

  • Smaller settings include:
    • Gatsby’s mansion.
    • Wilson’s garage.
    • Tom’s apartment.
    • The Plaza Hotel.
    • Central Park.

Jump to other topics

1Specification Overview

1.1Specification Overview

2Context

3Plot Summary

4Character Profiles

5Key Ideas

6Writing Techniques

7Love Through the Ages - Thematic Analysis

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