Zu: F. Scott Fitzgerald´s "The Ice Palace" - A Story of Initiation

F. Scott Fitzgerald′s "Ice Palace" -
A Story of Initiation

Termpaper for the Hauptseminar
"The War of the Sexes"

American Studies

Presented by : Didem Oktay

SS 1994

by

Didem Oktay

Contents :

I. Introduction : The "Roaring Twenties"- A Mythical Time of Transition in Literature and Society
1. Social Developments
2. Literary Developments

II. The Twenties and the Short Story

III. Fitzgerald′s "Ice Palace" or The Quest for Identity
1. At Home in Paradise
2. In the Land of the Snow Queen
3. The Ice Palace - Climax and Symbol of Death
4. Back to Paradise

IV. Conclusion

V. Bibliography

I. Introduction :

The "Roaring Twenties"- A Mythical Time of Transition in Literature and Society

1. Social Developments
If the average person is asked how he spontaneously pictures the most typical scene in the Twenties of our century, he would say : "Pretty girls with bobbed hair and long pearl necklaces dancing to wild Ragtime rhythms with elegant gentlemen, who look all like Robert Redford, in dinner jackets."

Although it is obvious that this description reduces the attributes to a well known cliché it carries nevertheless some truth in it : With the Twenties we encounter a new type of woman, the flapper. Her hairstyle is indeed one of her significances. Also that the newest fashion for women in those days required somewhat shorter skirts, even trousers and ties, like a dandy. However it would be a little pathetic if this were that is significant for this famous era.

One of the alleged forerunners, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald, with whom this paper is concerned, defined the Twenties in his essay History′s Most Expensive Orgy as the time when "a whole race [was] going hedonistic, deciding on pleasure." He said further that "it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire."¹ Is this a realistic definition, or is this again as one sided and mythical as the former more trivial one ?
The question is what happened in society that it produced such side effects as fashion for women and the appearance of a new kind of music called Jazz?
To discuss this problem and to get a more objective and general view of a time which seems quite close and is yet so far away one has to look at the cultural, political and social changes that took place :

The political motto in the Twenties was declared as ′Back to Normalcy !′ After the war people were anxious to re-establish their former life routine of peace times. This was mainly applied to the economic area. Successful management in these matters resulted in the consequence that most people were provided with a job and therefore prosperity flourished.

1Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "History′s Most Expensive Orgy". in : Baritz, Loren (ed.). The Cul-ture of the Twenties. Indianapolis : 1970. (p.413 - 423).
This was the foundation of the consumerist society in all kinds of fields, supported by many new inventions like the radio and the automobile. Due to a general positive attitude deriving from these developments, people, mostly urbanities, started to change their moral behaviour and their manners.

Especially women claimed their rights for freedom, deriving sustenance from the political egaliterian situation to the men, coming from their new right to vote, in May 1919. The need to demonstrate this new positition manifested itself mainly in fashion. Women started dressing like men to a great part denying their female appearance. There was a general feeling of self confidence altogether which is particularly visible in the sexual area. Fitzgerald comments on this subject in History′s Most Expensive Orgy on page 418:

The married woman can now discover whether she
is being cheated, or whether sex is just something
to be endured, and her compensation should be to
establish a tyranny of the spirit, as her mother may
have hinted. Perhaps many women found that love
was meant to be fun.²

Many authors who agree with Fitzgerald′s views write and talk about loose morals, petting parties and other similar activities when they deal with the Twenties. This myth of greater freedom increases to that extend that one talks about a sweeping social revolution. Something which is new and exciting always finds its way to the media. Therefore new directions in literature and music was explored. Not only in these two cultural areas were people inventive, the discovery of a visual medium caused also a sensation : the cinema.

These possibilities gave an excellent opportunity to dramatise, exaggerate and pervert the seemingly overall easygoing mood of the people. Those were the hay days of the yellow press, which pretended the impression that whole America was engaged in a jolly party.

[...]

1 Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "History′s Most Expensive Orgy". in : Baritz, Loren (ed.). The Cul-ture of the Twenties. Indianapolis : 1970. (p.413 - 423).

2 ibid Fitzgerald