Examples Of Disillusionment In The Roaring Twenties

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Name: Sui Xin (Shirley) UID: 3035030511 Final Essay for The American City (AMER 2015) Instructor: Dr. Selina Lai-Henderson Topic one: “My Lost City” Romantic Illusion and Disillusionment in the “Roaring Twenties” The Roaring Twenties was the period of American in 1920s after the World War I with terrific economic and cultural dynamism. Prosperity in economy encouraged the appearance of various unique social phenomena like flappers, jazz music, the worship of consumerism and amusing; and the new lifestyle spread from metropolitan, especially the most fascinating one, New York. F. Scott Fitzgerald was considered as a symbolic celebrity of the Roaring Twenties with the public reputation as Poet Laureate of the Jazz Age. Not only that…show more content…
There are three symbols in the essay: the ferry boat for triumph, the girls for romance and Bunny’s apartment for tranquility. New York City for him used to be a mystery and romantic promise before the climax of the Roaring Twenties. At the very beginning of the essay he reveals his first symbol of New York, the ferry boat. As a role of outside observer, the depiction from the point on the sea is unique. Distance from the metropolis appearing in space creates the mythic allure of the city. The evocation of the impassable stretch of the sea crystallized his initial desire for New York (Cochoy 66). Similarly, in the Great Gatsby, Nick also chooses the point out of the town, “the city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in is first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world” (Gatsby 57), to have a general picture of fabulous city. The illusion of the ferryboat is the origin of the America dream. Centuries ago, migrants from the old continent came to the New World for better living. For Fitzgerald, the city “had all the iridescence of the beginning of the world”(108). And no actuality could live up to his conception of New York’s splendor (107). New york was so promising in the years of “haze of anxiety and unhappiness” for success and romance. More than success and romance the city providing, the apartment is the third symbol representing not only the metropolitan spirit but also tranquility. His friend Bunny is described as confident and energetic constructed by New York. Bunny rented an apartment with others to “release from all undergraduate taboos”(106). Nourished by what Fitzgerald called Metropolitan spirit, Bunny is the idealistic New Yorker that Fitzgerald desires to be. The apartment, which is mellow and safe, represents an individual and secure foothold
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