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U55 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Soldiers’ Pay (1926)
        
        The Sound and the Fury (1929)
        
        As I Lay Dying (1930)
        
        Sanctuary (1931)
        
        Light in August (1932)
        
        Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
        
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- - - - Short-story collections:
        
        Flappers and Philosophers (1920)
        
        Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
        
        All the Sad Young Men (1926)
      - Novels:
        
        This Side of Paradise (1920)
        
        The Great Gatsby (1925)
        
        Tender is the Night (1934)
        
        The Last Tycoon
        
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- - - - Tortilla Flat (1935)
        
        Of Mice and Men (1937)
        
        The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
        
        The Pearl (1947)
        
        East of Eden (1952)
        
        The Winter of our Discontent (1961)
        
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- - - - The Sun Also Rises (1926)
        
        A Farewell to Arms (1929)
        
        For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
        
        The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
        
        Main themes
        
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- - - - Post-WWI unbalanced prosperity: improved urban Standards of living, but worsened in rural areas
        
        Jazz Age: dancing to jazz at nightclubs > the spirit of youth & rebellion / a unique American art form
        
        American women > modern/liberated: gained independence, voting rights, higher education/workforce
        
        "Flappers": New fashions (short skirts, bobbed hair, make-up) & behaviours (smoking, drinking & dancing)
        
        At the end of WWI, the US enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity since technological advancements led to increased production, new industries (movies, automobiles, radio, the telephone...) flourished, and standards of living improved in urban & suburban areas, but worsened in rural, agricultural areas.
        
        The 20s is also known as the Jazz Age (term coined by Fitzgerald), as jazz music & dancing at nightclubs gained widespread popularity in cultural & social life, being recognized as a unique American art form. It also embodied the spirit of youth, rebellion & innovation of the time.
        
        American women felt liberated since many had left farms for American cities during WWI, and had become resolutely modern. They gained independence as a result of the right to vote (after decades of activism by suffragists), pursued higher education or/and entered the workforce, and challenged societal expectations.
        
        "Flappers" rebelled against conservative Victorian values & traditional gender roles by adopting new fashions, including short skirts, bobbed hair, and makeup. They also engaged in behaviors such as smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol & dancing to Jazz.
      - 1920s/the Jazz Age
    - - Gertrude: American poet, playwright, feminist & art collector
        
        Her Circle of intellectuals, writers, artists & poets: Eliot, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso & Matisse
        
        Turned against US' materialism for Paris' Bohemian lifestyle, youthful idealism, meaning of life
        
        The expression "Lost Generation" was coined by the American writer Gertrude Stein who, speaking to Hemingway, said, “you are all a lost generation”. She was also an American writer, poet, feminist, playwright & art collector who spent most of her life in France. By the 1920s she had a large circle of friends (such as the American writers T.S. Eliot, E. Hemingway & F.S. Fitzgerald, and the french artists Picasso & Matisse) because of her highly influential judgements in literature & art.
        
        Many artists & writers left the US in their youth to seek recognition abroad. Some drifted away completely from their roots, and some even turned against their own country and its democratic system. Seeking the bohemian lifestyle and rejecting the values of American materialism, this group of intellectuals, poets, artists & writers fled to France in the post-WWI years. By then, Paris was the capital city of the Lost Generation, as it was full of youthful idealism, and it was there that these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date.
      - & her circle of intellectuals in Paris
    - - Post-WWI generation: Disillusioned, Disconnected from traditional values & Spiritually lost
        
        Victorian morality in 20th c. America: empty hypocrisy
        
        WWI trauma: experienced massive slaughter & destruction in first-hand: Purposelessness, PTSD & anti-social
        
        The term "lost generation" refers to the citizens who reached maturity after WWI, and whose adolescences were thus defined by a consciousness of mass slaughter and destruction, which made them feel disillusioned, disconnected from the values and traditions of the past, and spiritually lost. It made the Victorian social morality of early 20th c. America seem like empty hypocrisy.
        
        Many of them had experienced the horrors of war first-hand, where over 10 million soldiers were killed and many more, whose psychic scars would never heal, were deeply affected by the trauma they had witnessed (later known as post-traumatic stress syndrome/disorder, PTSD), which led to a sense of purposelessness. In fact, troubled by nightmarish flashbacks to the scenes of horror they had witnessed, many veterans in all the combatant nations could not participate normally in social life.
        
        WWI and its tragedies represented the end of many of the values and ideals of 19th c. Western civilization, but also the beginning of the creative rebels/intellectuals of the 1920s, who set the tone of modernity for the rest of the 20th c.
      - all youngsters coming of age during WWI
    - - 20th c. Modernism: Innovation, Experimentation & Questioning of established conventions
        
        Sense of Cultural modernity: Disregard for past, traditional values/Western civilization
        
        Far from "lost": Criticized the hardships of the Poor & the moral emptiness of the Rich
        
        Modernism, which gradually emerged in Europe & the US in late 19th & early 20th c. is typically associated with the period after WWI. Post-war modernism was characterized by a deliberate departure from traditional forms, styles & norms (from the past of Western civilization), as well as a focus on innovation, experimentation & a questioning of established conventions.
        
        In fact, one of the reasons for the success of the “Lost Generation” was that they were far from “lost” in their message. They harshly criticized the undeserved hardships of the poor and the excesses & empty lives of the rich, as well as the carefree life and heavy drinking of expatriates. Another striking theme of some of these disenchanted Americans was a sense of cultural modernity & a rejection/disregard of the traditional beliefs/values of their childhood (all civilized conventions and customs).
  - - - the Prohibition Era, the Great Depression & the New Deal
        
        Rise of Mass law-breaking & Organized crime
        
        Volstead Act: manufacture, sale or transport
        
        1929 Stock Market Crash: Speculation & Colapse
        
        Great Depression: failed banks, businesses & factories, 25% Unemployment, Dust Bowl, Gov. intervention, Global crisis, WWII ended it
        
        New Deal: Relief the unemployed, Recover business/agriculture & Reform the economy
        
        The 1920s saw the rise of mass law-breaking & organized crime. Thus, several acts were passed, such as the Volstead Act (the Prohibition Amendment, 1920), which prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcoholic liquors/beverages (the Prohibition era). Yet, prohibition ended due to the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the turn of the decade saw the Great Depression which was an unparalleled/unmatched economic disaster in the history of the US.
        
        When F. D. Roosevelt was elected president, he undertook immediate action through a series of programs, policies & reforms known as the New Deal, to immediately (1) relieve the unemployed, (2) recover business & agriculture, and (3) reform the economy's long-term infrastructure
        
        (1920s, 1929-1939)
      - the First World War
        
        (1914-1918)
        
        1914: Diplomatic conflict btw England & Germany
        
        1917: Entered the war: Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare on Atlantic shipping
        
        Military superiority: American Expeditionary Force
        
        Key role in post-war Negocitations: Paris Peace Conference & Wilson's Fourteen points
        
        League of Nations: to prevent future conflicts through diplomacy & cooperation > the UN
        
        Treaty of Versailles: the seed of WWII
        
        which brought a period of diplomatic conflict between the US and Great Britain and between the US and Germany since it was an outgrowth of European territorial problems and nationalism. The great majority of Americans were firmly neutral and determined to avoid intervention unless American rights and interests were violated.
        
        Yet, in April 6, 1917 the United States was finally drawn into the war against Germany and its allies due to the unrestricted German submarine warfare on Atlantic shipping. The United States contribution was decisive in the outcome because of its military superiority.
      - the Second World War
        
        1939: Hitler's invasion of Poland > Europe
        
        Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
        
        Roosevelt: Re-elections, United Nations (w/ Churchill & Stalin) & Commander of the Armed Forces
        
        1944: Invasion of Normandy on D-Day
        
        Truman's atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki
        
        The US got involved in WWII when their neutrality was broken by the Japanese attack on Pearl Habour in 1941. Roosevelt became Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and played a crucial role in the liberation of Europe along with Winston Churchill & Stalin.
        
        Vice-president Truman took over after Roosevelt's death and he was the one to drop the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 200,000 civilians were killed in a day and a week later the Japanese government surrendered. The war left 38 million deaths and the image of the USA as the protector/saviour of the world.
        
        (1939-1945)
    - - the Progressive Era
        
        Porgressists: Gov. should take action to improve the living conditions & Addressed Political & Social issues
        
        During the early 1900s, as a result of the Industrial Revolution, many Americans became reformers as they wanted to improve the living conditions by addressing social and political issues. By the 1920s they had achieved most of their aims, so they were called "progressives" and this period came to be known as the Progressive Era.
        
        Social reforms:
        
        Poverty
        
        Child labour
        
        Unsafe working conditions
        
        Worker's rights
        
        Regulating big business
        
        Political reforms:
        
        A more transparent gov.
        
        More citizen participation in politics
        
        Putting an end to corruption
        
        The women's suffrage
        
        (1890s-1920s)
      - the Melting Pot
        
        Millions from Ireland, Italy, Germany, Poland, Russia & Eastern Europe
        
        Cultural assimilation & immigration > Ethnic diversity
        
        Yet, immigration reached its highest point btw late 19th & early 20th c., when millions of immigrants came from Italy, Poland, Russia, Ireland, Germany & Eastern Europe attracted by the prospect of economic prosperity and political & religious freedom. This movement is known as the Melting Pot of America due to the ethnic diversity that resulted from their cultural assimilation & integration.
        
        Immigration
      - Industrialization
        
        (Industrial Revolution) as a consequence of the Civil War
        
        Hand labor > Machines
        
        System of railways > Big business
        
        Urbanization: from farms to cities
        
        Division of labor in the Factory system
        
        New division of the social classes
        
        the 1st Industrial war: US the richest country
        
        After the Civil War, American industry grew quickly/dramatically:
        
        Machines replaced hand labour as the main means of manufacturing, thus increasing the production capacity of industry.
        
        A new nationwide network of railroads enabled businessmen to distribute goods far and wide, promoting
        (1) the rise of big business, (2) the expansion to the west, and (3) the industrialization of both South & West.
        
        A significant urbanization, as thousands of people moved from farms to cities in search of job opportunities in factories, where they were assigned specific tasks in a production process.
        
        A new distribution of the social classes:
        
        A small percentage of high social class, namely the industrial capitalists, who accumulated significant wealth & power;
        
        A larger percentage of middle class, namely the skilled workers in technical or professional occupations, who lived comfortably;
        
        A huge number of people from the working class/low social class, who lived in extreme poverty (marked by significant disparities in income, working conditions & living standards).
        
        In fact the American Civil War has been called the first industrial war, and the period between 1861-1914 is regarded as the great era of national prosperity in America ("the Gilded Age") and by the turn of the century (1900), the US was the richest and most productive industrial country in the world.
      - /American Expansion