F. Scott Fitzgerald\u27s The Great Gatsby and Toni Morrison\u27s JAZZ both tell the story of the American 1920s, but from opposite points of view. Fitzgerald and Morrison offer two compelling narratives of the societal shift that took place in post-World War 1-era America, but although the accounts share the same general topic and historical era, it is otherwise difficult to reconcile the two American portraits that have been painted. It is as though the two authors are giving a description of the same coin, but one describes the front and the other describes the back. To the white population this decade was the Jazz Age, a time of disillusioned self-indulgence. But to the black community it was the Harlem Renaissance, a time of discovery and of the rebirth of the African-American identity
