THE MODERN PERIOD
1900-1950
IMPACT OF GREAT WAR
• WWI 1914-1918
• America entered
1917
• America came out
as “victor,” but the
country was
changing
• Evolution (and
disillusionment) of
American Dream
HISTORY OF AMERICAN DREAM
• Coined in 1931 by historian James Truslow Adams in
The Epic of America
• Adams wrote: “that American dream of a better, richer,
and happier life for all our citizens of every rank which is the
greatest contribution we have as yet made to the thought
and welfare of the world. . . . That dream or hope has been
present from the start."
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,288
04,2117662_2117682_2117680,00.html #ixzz2PEFcBYcN
TENETS OF AMERICAN DREAM
• America is the “promised land”
• An Eden of unlimited resources and endless opportunities
• America progresses inevitably
• We expect life to get better and better
• America thrives because of strong individuals
• Everything is possible for the self-reliant person who places
trust in his or her own power.
CHANGING AMERICAN DREAM
• http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/03/anamerican-dream-timeline
POST WWI TRENDS
• Marxism
• Karl Marx: Economic structure of society dictates every
aspect of life; capitalism  communism (classless society in
which everything is owned communally and everyone
receives benefits and rewards
• Psychoanalysis
• Sigmund Freud and study of unconscious mind
• Exploration how individual actions are influenced by
unconscious (we have less control than we think)
• Movements reflected growing skepticism
• Influence on Literature: Stream of Consciousness
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
• Lacks chronology
• Attempts to imitate moment-by-moment thought process
• American Authors: Gertrude Stein, Katherine Anne Porter, and William
Faulkner
• EX: Gertrude Stein
CAKE.
Cake cast in went to be and needles wine needles are such.
This is today. A can experiment is that which makes a town, makes a town dirty, it is
little please. We came back. Two bore, bore what, a mussed ash, ash when there is
tin. This meant cake. It was a sign.
Another time there was extra a hat pin sought long and this dark made a display. The
result was yellow. A caution, not a caution to be.
It is no use to cause a foolish number. A blanket stretch a cloud, a shame, all that
bakery can tease, all that is beginning and yesterday yesterday we had it met. It
means some change. No some day.
A little leaf upon a scene an ocean any where there, a bland and likely in the stream
a recollection green land. Why white.
JAZZ AGE
• Prohibition 1919-1933
• Bootlegger, speakeasy, flapper, jazz, gangsters
• Women vote 1920
• “Roaring 20s” or Jazz Age known for being racy and
unconventional
• Many authors and artists fled to Europe, particularly
France
• Expatriates were dissatisfied with life in America. They no
longer believed in the American dream and didn’t see
America as a land of heroes.
“A WAGNER MATINEE”
WILLA CATHER
Homework (in your journal):
1. How would you characterize Clark? Why do you
think Cather didn’t use a woman’s voice to tell the
story?
2. What images of the Nebraska frontier does Cather
use? How do they create a feeling toward the
Nebraska setting?
3. What does Clark “understand” at the end of the
story?
ELEMENTS OF MODERNISM
• Emphasis on bold experimentation
• Style and form reflect fragmented world
• Rejection of traditional themes
• Sense of disillusionment
• Rejection of ideal hero
• Modern hero is flawed but shows “grace under pressure”
• Interest in how human mind works
DISILLUSIONMENT IN LITERATURE
• Theme of major
modern American
writers
• Sinclair Lewis
• Theodore Dreiser
• Ernest Hemingway
THE NEW AMERICAN HERO
Traditional American Hero
Physically tough
Self-reliant
Innocent (Romantic)
A bit of a loner (that
goes along with the
self-reliance)
• Embodies American
Dream
•
•
•
•
Hemingway Hero
Man of action
Courageous
Tough competitor
Follows code of honor
(morals, strict right vs.
wrong)
• Completely
disillusioned
•
•
•
•
HEMINGWAY’S STYLE
• Omitted extraneous
details
• Created sparse
language to evoke
the futility of
modern life
• Simple, declarative
sentences  soothe
readers in chaotic
world
STYLE ANALYSIS
Compare the first 3 sentences from these modern stories.
“A Wagner Matinee”
by Willa Cather
“Soldier’s Home”
by Ernest Hemingway
I received one morning a letter,
written in pale ink, on glassy, bluelined note-paper, and bearing the
postmark of a little Nebraska
village. This communication, worn
and rubbed, looking as though it
had been carried for some days in
a coat-pocket that was none too
clean, was from my Uncle Howard.
It informed me that his wife had
been left a small legacy by a
bachelor relative who had recently
died, and that it had become
necessary for her to come to
Boston to attend to the settling of
the estate.
Krebs went to the war from
a Methodist college in
Kansas. There is a picture
which shows him among his
fraternity brothers, all of
them wearing exactly the
same height and style
collar. He enlisted in the
Marines in 1917 and did not
return to the United States
until the second division
returned from the Rhine in
the summer of 1919.
STYLE ANALYSIS
Classify each sentence as to length: short, medium, or long.
Cather
1. _________________
2. _________________
3. _________________
Hemingway
1. _________________
2. _________________
3. _________________
STYLE ANALYSIS
Identify the sentence types (S, CD, CX, CD-CX).
Cather
1. _________________
2. _________________
3. _________________
Hemingway
1. _________________
2. _________________
3. _________________
STYLE ANALYSIS
Adjectives modify nouns. Count all the adjectives in each
sentence and record.
Cather
Hemingway
Total # Adjectives: ______
Total # Adjectives: ______
STYLE ANALYSIS
• How does Hemingway use language to reflect his
own disillusionment as well as the futility of modern
life? Consider diction as well as syntax and answer
in a well-reasoned paragraph using support from
the text.