The Modern Era1914-1950

Tasneem Bholat, Loreine Callejas,Sarah Good, Tabitha King,

Clifford Ude

Objectives

Students will understand the different styles of the modern era.

Students will be able to identify rhetorical devices in literature and analyze how they affect the modernist style of writing.

Historical Context

World War I Lasted from 1914 to 1918, with the U.S. entering the

war in 1917 Lost Generation questioned humanity and war after WWI Led to a period of isolationism and disillusionment, fear

of the “red menace”/communism, and resentment towards immigration

Poetry using symbolism and imagism The “Roaring Twenties”/Jazz Age

Women’s suffrage in 1920 Temperance movement Booming economy Radio and film gained popularity Novels: fiction based on realism influenced by the Jazz

Age and the “Lost Generation” of WWI

Historical Context (cont’d)

Harlem Renaissance Cultural movement based on African American

writers Influenced by the Jazz Age

Great Depression Stock market crash in 1929 1/3 to 1/4 of Americans were unemployed Journalists, novels, and poets used Freudian

psychology/“stream of consciousness” in their writing World War II

Lasted from 1939 to 1945, with the U.S. entering in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Nonfiction literature based on the war

Values and Beliefs

Values did not revolve around religion, as in previous eras

Values in literature and poetry mainly centered around events and social changes in the time period

Lost Generation War veterans from WWI (or people closely associated with

them) questioned/rejected American beliefs of the 1920’s People lost faith in moral guideposts because they had

gone to war for a good cause but only had only been traumatized by it

Women’s Movements Temperance—18th Amendment prohibiting alcohol passed

in 1919 “Votes for Women”—suffrage for women given in 1920 Flappers—rebelled against society in the 1920’s; cut hair

and wore shorter skirts to assert their independence

Genre and Style

Modernism includes: Influences of realism and naturalism from previous eras

In poetry (around WWI): Symbolism: not typical symbolism used to describe

feelings or ideas; rather it was used to evoke emotions and ideas in the reader

Imagism: used common language and precise images and words to show feelings and ideas;

In novels (around Jazz Age and Great Depression): Fiction with realism: fictional stories that accurately

portray life and are not romanticized Stream of consciousness: originates from Freudian

psychology and psycho-analysis; used to show character’s thought processes

Significant Authors and Works

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) poetry, plays

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” “The Waste Land”

Robert Frost (1874-1963) poetry

“The Road Not Taken” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” “Birches” “The Death of the Hired Man”

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) novels

The Sun Also Rises A Farewell to Arms The Old Man and the Sea For Whom the Bell Tolls

Significant Authors and Works (cont’d)

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) novels, short stories

This Side of Paradise The Great Gatsby Tender is the Night

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) novels, plays, screenplays

The Grapes of Wrath Of Mice and Men Cannery Row

Highlighted Passage 1“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”(page 770)

“The yellow fog that rubs it back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from

chimneys,Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,And seeing that it was a soft October night,Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.”

Highlighted Passage 2

“And indeed there will be timeTo wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I

dare?’…Do I dareDisturb the universe?In a minute there is timeFor decisions and revisions which a

minute will reverse.”

Guided Practicefrom The Grapes of Wrath, page 894

“The cars of the migrant people crawled out of the side roads onto the great cross-country highway, and they took the migrant way to the West. In the daylight they scuttled like bugs to the westward; and as the dark caught them, they clustered like bugs near to shelter and to water. And because they were lonely and perplexed, because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry and defeat, and because they were all going to a mysterious new place, they huddled together; they talked together; they shared their lives, their food, and the things they had hoped for in the new country.”

Independent Practice

Locate two or three examples of literary devices that contribute to the modernist/realist style. Quote and cite at least one example of each literary device. Explain and analyze how the devices portray the modernist/realist style in The Grapes of Wrath.