Materialism_And_Consumerism_In_The_1920s

Materialism And Consumerism In The 1920s A crucial transformation to the structure of American culture during the 1920s was the rise of consumerism and materialism. As the country experienced an extraordinary economic boom, the outlook of America shifted. People began receiving higher wages, and there was a sudden increase of spending on discretionary goods which advertisements claimed people could not live without. The progress of the automobile industry, radio and motion picture production, and advanced technologies made it possible for this great escalation of the economy. There were many notable critics of the decade that made their opinions known in various ways. One such critic was F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote the novel The Great Gatsby. In this novel, he is critical of the 1920s as the obsession of consumerism and materialism flourish throughout the United States. Fitzgerald feels that it is this mindset that ultimately leads to the tragedies and miseries at the end of the novel, as well as at the foreseen end of the 1920s. The Great Gatsby portrays an image of abundant leisure and excess, which parallels similar ideas with those of the 1920s. To illustrate this, Nick Carraway, the story’s narrator, compares his “eye-sore” gatsby, novel, fitzgerald, american, 1920s, money, great, society, one, nick, materialism, end, automobile, time, people, life, gatsby’s, daisy, consumerism, being, world, wilson, way, wasn’t, tom, story, shows, realize, much, idea, house, happiness, dream, characters, character