The Modern Era (1914-1950)
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
• 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
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
• 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 time
To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare?’
…
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”
Guided Practice
from 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.”
See also: Pgs 746-751 of Lit. Book for more historical info; Pgs 757-758 for more info on poetry; Pgs 825-826 for “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost; Pg 841 for more info on realism; Pgs 844-849 for “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway