Degraded Angels In The Jazz Age

F. Scott Fitzgerald is universally acknowledged as the chronicler of American Jazz Age. He christens the beautiful women of that age"the flappers"in his early works, a name that is now a commonly accepted English term designating young women who are bold in dress and behavior. The Great Gatsby, regarded as the most widely read American literary classic, presents us an exhibition of the Jazz Age women, all playing negative roles with various degrees of moral degradation. This thesis attempts to make a tentative study of the female images in this novel by close textual analysis and to explore the social and personal elements in Fitzgerald's characterization.The thesis begins with an introduction to the previous scholarship on Fitzgerald and the novel The Great Gatsby, in an attempt to prove the value and originality in my study. Chapterâ…¡focuses on a relatively systematic textual analysis of women characters by categorizing them into three groups. Though all represent the moral bankruptcy of the roaring age, they manifest distinctive side of decadence because of different social backgrounds and personalities. Chapterâ…¢offers a critical reflection on the social, political, economic and moral atmosphere, as well as on the author's personal experience that formulates his moral attitude toward women, which exert great impact on the portrayal of female images in his creative writing. Fitzgerald not only records the age he lives in but also allows his own life and feelings to slip into the novel. Chapterâ…£probes into three artistic techniques Fitzgerald employs to help his characterization, the adoption of first person narration, the device of color symbolism and biblical allusion. The last chapter concludes the thesis with a review of the above analysis and study, and points out Fitzgerald's ambivalence in his attitude toward the Jazz Age and the women of that age.