YOUTH & THE LOST GENERATION
Sinclair Lewis
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Young Adults responsible for new Fads (Flagpole Sitting & Marathon Dancing)
New group of writers : Lost Generation
Rejected the desire for material wealth
Group of writers believed American had become overly materialistic and
lacked in spirituality
Sinclair Lewis: (Main Street & Babbitt) ridiculed the narrowness and hypocrisy of
American Life
 Novels were innovative for giving strong characterizations of modern working women.
 First American author to be awarded the Noble Prize for Literature (1930)
F. Scott Fitzgerald: (The Jazz Age & The Great Gatsby)
 Gatsby is the story of an immensely rich, but mysterious and unhappy self-made man. Hints that the search for purely material
success often leads to tragedy
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Jazz
Poets & Writers
Langston Hughes
Countee Cullen
Zora Neale Hurston
1920s often referred to as Jazz Age – reflects great
importance of the newly formed African-American Music
General awakening of African-American culture during this time
period is known as the Harlem Renaissance
Begun with rising middle class African-Americans – more than
just about music
Art : Dance, Visual Arts, Literature, Poetry
Era when African-Americans felt as though they had been
liberated
Unprecedented level of optimism, a pride in all things black,
and a confidence in their own future – one that was beyond
Langston Hughes: Recognized as one of America’s best poets.
Born in Mississippi, he was drawn to Harlem like other AfricanAmerican artists and writers. Drew on his personal experiences in
writing about what it was like to be an African American growing
up in America. One of the most popular writers of the Harlem
Renaissance. Writings also expressed the new mood of rugged
determination to overcome racial prejudice
Alain Locke: Expressed pride in heritage while attacking racism.
Zora Neale Hurston: one of the first successful African-American
women writers
Countee Cullen: Leading Poet who won more major literary
prizes than any other African-American writer of the 1920s
Langston Hughes
A DREAM DEFERRED
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?