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Fitzgerald was seduced by the wild and extravagant life of the rich, and he wanted to be at the heart of it, like Gatsby, but he was also aware of the moral emptiness and like hypocrisy beneath the excitement.

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Industrialisation brought prosperity for the nation, turning the US into a great world power. However workers where often exploited as their safety and welfare were neglected in the pursuit of high profits.

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‘Flappers’ represent a symbol of age. Younger women wore shorter dresses, had short, bobbed hair, wore makeup and smoke and drank.

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Fitzgerald was living the American Dream: he was young and good-looking, and he had earned money and early success through his own hard work.

He and Zelda were already partying wildly, drinking excessively and making exhibitions of themselves, just to get into the news

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Young people turned their backs on politics and rebelled against old-fashioned ways of thinking. Women, having entered the workforce whilst the men were at war, refused to give up their social freedom. In 1920, women were given the right to vote. Women cut their hair short, abandoned their corsets and reinvented themselves as ‘flappers’

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Depression in agriculture led to migration to cities from farms. People moved to urban areas to find prosperity.

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In 1920, the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquor was outlawed.

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The American dream was that if you worked hard enough you would be able to make yourself into something special. Whereas in reality that isn’t the case because people like Tom who are born into money will always be of a higher status

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He met Zelda Sayre, a kindred spirit with a similarly uninhibited and reckless love of life, with whom he fell passionately in love.

She was from a socially prominent family, however, and she refused to marry Fitzgerald until he was a financial success

Fitzgerald adored Zelda, but they had a very stormy relationship

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In towns people relied on bootleggers to satisfy their demands. But in rural areas people made their own moonshine.

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America joined the war in April 1917.
By September 1918, more than a million troops were involved in the Battle of Argonne (where Nick and Gatsby were present).

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The west has always been a symbol of opportunity and freedom for Americans because pioneers pushed westward in pursuit of wealth when the first settlers arrived in the USA

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Fitzgerald was impetuous, energetic, a tease who liked to be teased

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The 1920’s were seen as a period of uninterrupted economic progress. High rise buildings with steel frames were built in Chicago at the end of the 19th century but New York soon had the highest building.

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He puts New York at the centre of American business, wealth and entertainment

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Francis Scott Fitzgerald had an early rise to stardom, a reckless celebrity lifestyle, romantic but troubled marriage, decline into alcoholism and premature death in 1940

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1920 -age of expense, wealth and exuberance. Before Wall Street Crash - great class divide.