Katherine Anne Porter, Ernest Hemingway, And Robert Frost

Authors wanted to revolutionize arts and audience worldwide. This was done by the creation of tools that helped excel the “American Dream”. Some of the major authors in this time included T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein (Modernism). There are two different groupings of modernism, which are modernism and post modernism. In the beginning, “early modernists used elements of experimentation, freedom, radicalism, and utopianism” (Modernism). After the war, “post-modernists, however, rebelled against many modernist elements and instead depicted disillusionment and elements of dystopian ideas—dehumanized and fearful lives” (Modernism). Many different historical aspects influenced the upcoming of the modernist movement such as publications of scientific theories, technological inventions that globalized society, Sigmund Freud’s change in the discipline of psychology, new concepts of ethics, morality, and ideals, and artistic movements (Modernism).

Document B perhaps shows an example of this change in idea, with a bridge, supposed to signify the path taken to change motives from past ideals, to new and more important ideals. Older generations often considered younger generations spoiled brats who wasted the technological marvels bestowed upon them. This tension between careful and free consumption gave rise to the "Lost Generation" of authors. Document A portrays one of these writers in particular, Lewis Sinclair. Sinclair criticized this excessive materialism as "at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom.” Such criticisms indicate the belief that such mindless consumption blinded Americans to intangible glories of the past. And yet, the conflict between old and new was not insurmountable. Document F describes one of the few people that could connect to both the old and young generations in Charles Lindberg. The Document goes on to say that his likeability, present in both New and Old America was perhaps the biggest thing that he had done.

The Modernist movement began as America began to divulge from the ideals of the Victorian Period. Modernism was provided as a response to the ongoing WWI. New artists divulged into the new writings about rationalism and individualism. Modern artists Wrote about struggles and the conflict between fragmentation and order. As time progressed the modernist movement changed, one subsection of the modernist movement was the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was influenced by the political, social and economic change of the United States during the early twentieth century and left an everlasting impact on African American culture.

The 1930’s were certainly a marked departure from the 1920s. The nation plummeted into the worst economic depression in its history and the social and cultural consequences were huge. One of the most interesting developments is the changing relationship between intellectuals and the broader public in those years. Many American writers like Zora Nealle Hurston, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway grew skeptical and weary of the general public during the 1920s, but during the Great Depression, were moved by the hardship they witnessed, the nation began to empathize with and work through the struggles of ordinary Americans. If the 1920s was marked by cultural division and by the disillusionment of intellectuals, than the thirties were marked by economic despair and by the discovery of the virtuous “common man” by the nation’s intellectuals. The period of the 1920s and 1930s is arguably the richest period in intellectual life of the nation and for that reason alone people should have some familiarity with it. The parallels between the cultural debates of that era: over immigration, religion, the role of the federal government, and the meaning of the American Dream. An understanding of the time between World War I and World War II years will enhance the understanding of the cultural, political, and economic debates of the present.

Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless, and Henry David Thoreau share the same ideas of transcendentalism. After reading Krakauer’s Into the Wild and Thoreau’s Walden, many readers see how Chris and Thoreau believe in some the same ideas. Both of them embrace self-wisdom, individualism, and nature. McCandless made a lot of the choices Thoreau made.

Henry David Thoreau, Chris McCandless, and Jon Krakauer embrace the ideals of a transcendentalism lifestyle. After reading Krakauer’s, Into the Wild, and Thoreau’s, Walden, it shows that McCandless and Thoreau have similar beliefs. Both men express the beliefs of living simply, rejecting regular lifestyles, and minding your own business. Jon Krakauers, Into the Wild, shows that Chris did not like the normal way of life, he wanted it simplified, simplicity, and he hated regular lifestyles, and wanted people to mind their own business, and all this can also be found in Thoreau’s, Walden.

The Modern era is classified as the period that started as the World War I ended. There where huge changes in technology. International corporations began to rise in power. They began to “westernize” with values, such as the appeal to industrialization, personal political rights, democracy, a background of knowledge in mass and education, private ownership of the means of production, the scientific method, public institutions, a questioning in God, and the independence of woman. Then by the year 1939 the Second World War took place and as it ended a new literary period began to form. A new period that dates from around the year 1945 to the present day is called Postmodernism. Postmodernism is difficult to define since there are not so

Even though it is easy enough to chart aspects of this growth, there are certain conventions of writing that have remained the same even after years and years of societal development and advancement. That being said, there have been some relatively drastic changes made over the years. One no longer needs to possess an uncommonly strong build or be remarkably physically attractive. There is more of an underdog quality in most exceptional individuals we may see in modern day writing. There certainly seem to be less preexisting conditions that someone needs to carry in order to be considered exceptional.

Both authors Frederick Douglass and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels focus on the topic of freedom. Both authors argue that they are being oppressed. However, this is where the similarities end. Engels and Marx believed that capitalism was a social system used by the proletariats to oppress the bourgeoisie, and that the only way to be free was to fight back against the system. On the other hand, Frederick Douglass focuses more on his individual story and his struggle for freedom, while he tries to appeal to his audience from an ethical point of view.

The birth of the modernist movement in American literature was the result of the post-World War I social breakdown. Writers adopted a disjointed fragmented style of writing that rebelled against traditional literature. One such writer is William Faulkner, whose individual style is characterized by his use of “stream of consciousness” and writing from multiple points of view.

Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism are just a few examples of the many styles of writing that exist. Each style of writing deals with a specific time period. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”, Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”, and Mary E Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother” are just a few examples of the literary works that represent these time periods. These literary works are perfect examples of the specific time periods each writing style was popular among certain authors. These stories allow readers to compare the modern times that we live in currently to the period these authors were in. They also allow the reader to branch out and be different.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, changes in the dynamics of society caused intellectuals to question the traditions of everyday life. From religious views to the arts of literature, traditional values and forms were rejected, thus defining a line between the two time periods, which can be considered as the start of the Modern era. Also known as Modernism, the modern era used literature as an outlet for expressing the thoughts and feelings of the time. Modern texts use city life, industrialization and globalization, and ironic and satirical themes to showcase their bleak outlook on life post both world wars. The nature of these events are aspects of society

Human nature is something that never seems to change. While humans all seem to be different from one another through physical and emotional attributes, their psychological behaviors are all mostly very similar. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, many authors successfully could explain the characteristics of human nature and the effects that it has on everyone and everything surrounding human beings. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe all convey the behavior of human nature in separate ways. These three authors show the curiosity, drive for perfection, and fear of human nature throughout their texts in detail. With these characteristics being prominent in human nature itself, it

During the Romantic period, which began in the late 18th Century, and ended in the early 20th century, there were many political changes, such as the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, repression and reform, pre-industrial economic changes. There were also many changes throughout literature and culture during this time. Poetry during this time often had strong themes of nature, internalization, subjectivity, and imagination. Three highly influential poets who were also often characterized as poets of the Imagination are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Blake. Imagination is important to romantic poets because it was used as a healing tool for the writers’ troubles, using reason and emotion to relate to and participate in the world around them.

It can be said that all fiction is autobiographical in that no matter how different from the author’s life experience it may be, marks of their life can be found in any of their works and characters. One such example is Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, which is largely based on Hemingway’s own personal life experiences. Frederick Henry, the main character in the story, experiences many of the same situations that Hemingway lived out in his own life. Some of events and situations are exact, while others are less similar, and some have a completely different outcome all together.