Conflicts During The 1920s

Conflicts During the 1920s


        The contrast between the new and changing attitudes and traditional

values was unmistakably present during the 1920's.  This clash between the old

and the new had many roots and was inevitable.  A new sense of awareness washed

over minorities in our nation, especially blacks who began to realize that they

were entitled to their own subculture, pursuit of success, and share of the

American dream.  This ideal was expressed by Langston Hughes in "The Negro

Artist and the Racial Mountain."  They were supported by the growing number of

young, financially well-to-do liberals who formed the new intelligencia.  Each

group sought the use of logic and rational reasoning in their rethinking of

reevaluation of society's current status.  Still, they constituted a minority

and their reformist views were not well-taken by the greater part of the

population who had become accustomed to a certain way of thinking were not

willing to budge, thus keeping the radicals silent.  Individualism was also

partially suppresse d by the succession of three traditionalist Republican

presidents whose partiality to the strong was displayed by their strong backing

of big business while discouraging the Labor Union movement. Literature was one

medium by which the new intelligencia could express their views on

impracticality and injustice of the social system and government in the 1920's.

     Sinclair Lewis was one such author who used his writing to condemn the

stale and outdated ways of thinking that were so widely popular in our nation

during the 1920's.  In addition to exposing the poor working conditions of most

factory labor, particularly the meat-packing industry, he criticized the common

man who could not think or act individually in his novel, Babbit, which was

published in 1922.  His description from the novel of the common man portrayed a

person who acted in a manner that was socially acceptable who also strived for

success based on society's definition of purchasing material goods.  In e
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