Literature+(Alejandra)

The 1920’s are most commonly known as the roaring twenties because of the fact that the new decade brought about a faster life style along with a need to be entertained. This need was especially shown through the flappers, the speakeasy bars, and essentially by literature. Literature in the 1920’s is notorious for describing the fast life, and was usually presented in small pieces such as magazine clips or short novels such as //The Great Gatsby// by Fitzgerald and //The Waste Land// by T.S. Elliot. Major themes in these types of novels were the realization of the loss of personal, spiritual, and moral values. Literature, like in most eras, in the 1920’s also represented what was happeneing in the the political world, like woman suffrage and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. //Strange Interlude//, by Eugene O’Neill was a novel about the life of a modern woman who embraced the popular values of the decade such as empowerment. Another example of literature reflecting politics is T//here Eyes were Watching God// by Zora Neale Hurstun and //The New Negro// by Alain Locke were based on the changes that were happening along the African American community during the decade. These specific novels exemplify how the gaining power of the African American community affected the Ku Klux Klan. Notorious for fame, the children’s novel //The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle// by Hugh Lofting show that in the 1920’s the children were protecting in a fantasy world, but a lot of children’s novels of the time period would also be extremely judgmental and opinionated. Books like //The Little Red Hen// and //Little Black Sambo// by Helen Bannerman were childrens books that would now be considered politically incorrect because they are racist. On a whole, literature of the 1920’s was majorly based on the decay of morals and values while also concentrating on the political aspects of life.

[]