ABSTRACT
This book sets out to examine how the home-house conceit unveils foreignness and materialism as the main threats to American identity in period 1900–1930. Immigration has always been an issue for inflaming debates in the United States. It presents a lucid portrayal of authors’ side of the story reinforced by the presentation of a thematic, ideological reading of the novels and an understanding of the aesthetics. The book and aesthetic integrity or autonomy – of the novels in question. Two differences between the Roaring Twenties and Lily’s epoch should be underlined. First, in 1920s immigrants of varied countries, including Jews, are intensively impugned for their actions, accents, morals, greed, material acquisitiveness, and drinking habits. Second, when The House of Mirth was published in 1905, Prohibition had not yet been introduced in the United States – this would happen only in 1919. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
