Essay on Modernism at Its Finest in Literature

The Harlem Renaissance is an important time in American literature. There were writers at this time like Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes wrote many poems such as the “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “The Weary Blues.”

The Harlem Renaissance was a time where creativity flourished throughout the African American community. At the time many African Americans were treated as second class citizens. The Harlem Renaissance acted as artistic and cultural outlet for the African-American community. The Harlem Renaissance, otherwise known as “The New Negro Movement” was an unexpected outburst of creative activity among African Americans In the poems Harlem by Langston Hughes, America by Claude McKay, and Incident by Countee Cullen all use frustration and hope as reoccurring themes to help empower the African-American population and realize the injustices they face day to day. The Harlem Renaissance was a period marked by great change and forever altered the

During the period of 1920 - 1930, the Harlem Renaissance had reached it’s peak and had several other authors, not just Hughes pouring culture into the mix. Post World War I America was crippled economically, culturally, and politically. Minority races such as African American experienced extreme poverty and cried out through the form of the Harlem Renaissance. At this time, the Harlem Renaissance was providing global influence and had spread across the world no longer through just literature but music, storytelling, and art.

Modernist literature began between 1915-1935, writers mainly wrote fiction this is because they started to question what the future was going to bring since they were living through both World War. Modernists wrote their stories in first person which made their stories seem like a stream of consciousness, irony and satires. This type of literature was mainly written in English and became well known due to the increase of globalization, which was more about how the people felt about the events going on and how the people were affected in other words it spoke from the inner self of the writer. Many famous writers including Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald believed that the increase in new technology was leading to the decrease in civilization which was making individuals lonely.

In the early twentieth century, many blacks who lived in the South moved to the North to find a better way of life. Many families landed in Harlem, New York and the neighborhood eventually became rich in Black culture and traditions. The mixture of cultures, heritage and traditions eventually lead to an explosion of Black creativity in music, literature and the arts which became known as the Harlem Renaissance. As with many transitional time periods in United states History, the Harlem Renaissance had its share of success stories. One of the well-known writers of the 1900’S is Langston Hughes. While many writers focused on one style or category of writing, Langston Hughes is the most versatile of all of the writers from the Harlem

The Harlem Renaissance, occurring from the end of World War I to the Great Depression, was a colorful explosion of artistic, social, and cultural movements. Acting as the center of this explosion, Harlem drew upon the talents of many great African American writers, poets, musicians, and artists. One such great talent was Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes wrote many essays, short stories, and poems with the common theme of celebrating and vocalizing African American culture. Hughes’s representation Harlem changed and varied throughout his life, and is reflected in his numerous poems.

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.

For years people across the world have looked up to America as the land of opportunity. People save their whole lives to come to America to start a new life. These men and women came to begin lives away from their old countries. With the great depression came the end of the american dream. With no hope in sight Americans elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the first step in the wrong direction. FDR’s New Deal failed in its goal of ending the depression and bringing the economy and American People back to where they should be.

Literature was a big part of the in the Harlem Renaissance, African American were finally getting their ideas out about racism and started to talking about the their struggles being black or evan half black in United States. Writers at this time were very versatile from writing poems, novels, short story, and scripts. Some famous writers of the time is Zora Neale Hurston famous for writing “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and many others great novels this one mainly was about women’s rights and racism in America. Then there was Langston Hughes, he was an extremely great artist that has influenced so many people today though his writing, he was a social activist, poet, novelist, and a play writer. On of his poems that really stuck out to me was this short Poem that he wrote call “Cross” which first appeared in the crisis in 1925, it goes “My old man’s a white old man And my old mother's black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell, I'm sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well My old man died in a fine big house. My ma died in a shack. I wonder

In the early part of the 20th century writers became more artistic. A modernist approach could be seen in many artist works. The African American writers during this era could be seen as aggressively self-conscious, divided, and vigor. Yet, many were just trying to figure out who they were as a person, and how they fit in the north. The Harlem Renaissance paved a way for these African American writers to emerge. Urban culture became visible, and many writers begin expressing themselves. Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston are two modernists who exposed the beauty of the African American Culture. Therefore, there artistic abilities and cultural experiences supported them in identifying themselves through short stories and poems.

Harlem was once a middle class white community, but by the year 1925, it was known as the Mecca of the new Negros. Back in the history of America, when many black Americans were literally deprived of their liberty of rights, a social and a political movement evolved, which was known as the Harlem Renaissance. It lasted into the early years of the great depression and not only was it a political and a social movement but also an artistic one to be precise. The movement outbreak motivated the trend of literature, poetry, music, drama, publishing, dance, fashion and so many other art works. With the dawn of the cultural, social, and artistic sudden occurrence that took place in Harlem, many great black voices, writers, artists, musicians, scholars and poets who wrote with African-American rhythms broke out all over. And of this remarkable creative outburst, arose the voice of the poet, Langston Hughes.

Technique of Disclosure: Nike Inc. disclosed this relevant information that have an effect of various contingencies on financial condition by using the methods of valuation assets and liabilities, and the company’s contracts and agreements. They use parenthetical explanations, notes, cross-reference and contra items, and supporting schedules. Nike’s annual report of 2014 contains many supporting schedules in order to illustrate and reinforced what was disclosed in a particular section such as the summary of significant accounting policies. Within this section asset accounts such as cash and cash investments, foreign currency contracts and accounts receivable accounts are discussed in detail. The section speaks on the gains or losses occurring from the accounts as well as what major transactions have occurred to affect the accounts. Along with this information are the methods and assumptions that were utilized to estimate the fair value of each class of financial instruments. Along with all this information for the external user to view is the addition of a supporting schedule. Nike, Inc. needs a separate schedule to present more detailed information about certain assets or liabilities, which is what is done within the section in order to draw the attention to the observer to this specific fact that Nike feels is important for the external reader to know. This is seen within all the annual report from 2012 to 2014. Many parenthetical explanations are utilized within the

Modernism was very diverse but had one common purpose: they sought to capture the essence of modern life in both form and content of their work

American society is known for having the highest standard of living across the globe; this is solely due to the consumerist culture that is brought forth by capitalism. Americans in the U.S. take pride in these standards and in the freedoms that this democratic nation has established. The 20th century will always be remembered in American history as a century of radical changes on the social and political fronts of the nation. Literature, too, evolved quickly from specific, compartmentalized fields which fit into categories, to works which had no set definition—nobody knew what to do with them. These changes also took place in poetry; artistic expression began to change across the arts and so did the mediums. Poets across the nation

Modernism, in literature, can be seen as a shift in focus to the unassociated introspective reflection of characters in such texts as Go Tell It On The Mountain, by James Baldwin, Miss Lonelyhearts, by Nathanael West and The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. This is a revision from the previous focal point of exterior events and places in correlation with the character’s reflections. Emphasis is placed on review upon feelings and thoughts, and even conversations with oneself, as opposed to the more directly event-driven reflections in texts of the pre-modernist era.