THE MODERNIST PERIOD (1910-1945)
INTRO
During the nineteen twenties, America experienced a great deal of wealth and prosperity. The United States had emerged from World War I as the most powerful and influential nation in the world. In the years following the war, Americans became part of a consumer society. People lived extravagant lives and used money to cover unhappiness. Disillusioned with ideologies from World War I, many people were searching for new ideas and values. A new generation of authors, known as the Lost Generation, arose. Authors such as Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, T.S. Eliot, and Ernest Hemingway were among members of this group. The 1920s brought about many changes both socially and politically. Many people moved to cities, until more lived there than on farms. Prosperity and change became evident in the culture of America and shifted civilization towards a consumer society.
Women during the Roaring Twenties gained a new identity as flappers. Flappers, females who typically had bobbed hair, smoke, and drank, became a prominent symbol of this era. Women, in general, had a loose, free, and promiscuous attitude compared to those of previous generations. Females received the right to vote with the passing of the 19th amendment in 1920, and many had white-collar jobs. Housewives did not have to work as strenuously with new innovations such as washing and drying machines and vacuum cleaners. These were not the only popular consumer products at the time. Americans developed necessities they had not required before the twenties. They bought clothes, electric refrigerators, radios, automobiles, and also frequented movie theaters and dance halls. Automobiles allowed people to do what they wanted, when they wanted, providing a greater sense of freedom.
Although Americans had gained more freedom, they also gained more restrictions. With the passing of the 18th amendment and the Volstead Act, it became illegal to produce and sell alcoholic beverages, thus restricting their freedom. This, however, did not stop people from drinking during the Jazz Age. They simply went to “speakeasies,” or bars run by bootleggers, to get their fix.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote brilliant social commentaries featuring themes of disillusionment, while William Faulkner wrote of isolation and fragmentation. Throughout the Jazz Age, authors wrote gripping stories and poems that characterized the culture of America after World War I. The Modernist Period was a social commentary in itself, that captured the essence of the disillusioned minds of Americans.
Women during the Roaring Twenties gained a new identity as flappers. Flappers, females who typically had bobbed hair, smoke, and drank, became a prominent symbol of this era. Women, in general, had a loose, free, and promiscuous attitude compared to those of previous generations. Females received the right to vote with the passing of the 19th amendment in 1920, and many had white-collar jobs. Housewives did not have to work as strenuously with new innovations such as washing and drying machines and vacuum cleaners. These were not the only popular consumer products at the time. Americans developed necessities they had not required before the twenties. They bought clothes, electric refrigerators, radios, automobiles, and also frequented movie theaters and dance halls. Automobiles allowed people to do what they wanted, when they wanted, providing a greater sense of freedom.
Although Americans had gained more freedom, they also gained more restrictions. With the passing of the 18th amendment and the Volstead Act, it became illegal to produce and sell alcoholic beverages, thus restricting their freedom. This, however, did not stop people from drinking during the Jazz Age. They simply went to “speakeasies,” or bars run by bootleggers, to get their fix.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote brilliant social commentaries featuring themes of disillusionment, while William Faulkner wrote of isolation and fragmentation. Throughout the Jazz Age, authors wrote gripping stories and poems that characterized the culture of America after World War I. The Modernist Period was a social commentary in itself, that captured the essence of the disillusioned minds of Americans.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 to middle-class parents. Fitzgerald was actually named in honor of his distant cousin Francis Scott Key, who penned the “Star-Spangled Banner.” He grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and was sent to private schools for the duration of his education. His father secured a job and moved his family to Buffalo and Syracuse, New York. Yet, a little while later the family moved back to St. Paul. It was around the age of fifteen that his first story was printed in the school paper. This detective story would be the first of the many works of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Some time after this, Francis entered Princeton in 1913. During his college career, he worked hard to improve his writing skills and develop by writing for the Princeton Tiger and the Nassau Literary Magazine. Following academic probation, Fitzgerald enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917. Francis was worried that he would not return from the war and wrote a novel that he submitted to Charles Scribner’s Sons to be published. The publisher noted his originality, but would not publish his novel. They did, however, ask him to submit future works.
During the time that he was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama, Fitzgerald fell head over heels in love with Zelda Sayre. Sayre, the Southern Belle daughter of a popular judge, would not marry Fitzgerald without him first gaining fame and success. After being discharged in 1919, he completed his novel, This Side of Paradise, which was well received and propelled his career.
Not a week later than the novel was published, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre married. Sadly, Zelda suffered from schizophrenia and was later admitted into a metal institution. In 1922, Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, solidified his fame. Looking for inspiration, Fitzgerald and his wife moved to France. There, in 1925, he wrote his most successful novel, The Great Gatsby.
The years to follow The Great Gatsby were not so prosperous. The stock market crashed in 1929, rendering great problems in the world of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda was subject to frequent nervous breakdowns and Fitzgerald had to find work as a screenwriter. Amongst all the chaos, he wrote another novel, Tender Is The Night (1934). His last work was The Last Tycoon (1939). Yet, his tragic death on December 21, 1940, brought the novel to a halt. Other authors were approached about finishing the novel in his honor, but all turn the offer down because they knew no one could match the expertise and skill of Fitzgerald.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most talented American authors in history. He captured the luxurious lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties in all his works. The pages of his books reflect the reckless, wild, glittering aspects of American culture during the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald’s most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, is a brilliant social commentary that captures the paradoxes of the materialistic lifestyle of the 1920s and is one of the greatest novels ever written. Fitzgerald’s influence and legacy on American literature is monumental and history will remember him for eternity.
Some time after this, Francis entered Princeton in 1913. During his college career, he worked hard to improve his writing skills and develop by writing for the Princeton Tiger and the Nassau Literary Magazine. Following academic probation, Fitzgerald enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917. Francis was worried that he would not return from the war and wrote a novel that he submitted to Charles Scribner’s Sons to be published. The publisher noted his originality, but would not publish his novel. They did, however, ask him to submit future works.
During the time that he was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama, Fitzgerald fell head over heels in love with Zelda Sayre. Sayre, the Southern Belle daughter of a popular judge, would not marry Fitzgerald without him first gaining fame and success. After being discharged in 1919, he completed his novel, This Side of Paradise, which was well received and propelled his career.
Not a week later than the novel was published, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre married. Sadly, Zelda suffered from schizophrenia and was later admitted into a metal institution. In 1922, Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, solidified his fame. Looking for inspiration, Fitzgerald and his wife moved to France. There, in 1925, he wrote his most successful novel, The Great Gatsby.
The years to follow The Great Gatsby were not so prosperous. The stock market crashed in 1929, rendering great problems in the world of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda was subject to frequent nervous breakdowns and Fitzgerald had to find work as a screenwriter. Amongst all the chaos, he wrote another novel, Tender Is The Night (1934). His last work was The Last Tycoon (1939). Yet, his tragic death on December 21, 1940, brought the novel to a halt. Other authors were approached about finishing the novel in his honor, but all turn the offer down because they knew no one could match the expertise and skill of Fitzgerald.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most talented American authors in history. He captured the luxurious lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties in all his works. The pages of his books reflect the reckless, wild, glittering aspects of American culture during the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald’s most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, is a brilliant social commentary that captures the paradoxes of the materialistic lifestyle of the 1920s and is one of the greatest novels ever written. Fitzgerald’s influence and legacy on American literature is monumental and history will remember him for eternity.
KEY AUTHORS
T. S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Ezra Pound - "A Few Don'ts" and "In a Station of the Metro"
William Carlos Williams - "The Red Wheelbarrow," "This Is Just to Say," and "The Great Figure"
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) - "Pear Tree"
F. Scott Fitzgerald - "Winter Dreams"
John Steinbeck - "The Turtle" from The Grapes of Wrath
Dorothea Lange - "Migrant Mother"
Woody Guthrie - "Dust Bowl Blues"
Wystan Hugh Auden - "The Unknown Citizen"
E. E. Cummings - "old age sticks" and "anyone lived in a pretty how town"
Wallace Stevens - "Of Modern Poetry"
Archibald MacLeish - "Ars Poetica"
Marianne Moore - "Poetry"
Ernest Hemingway - "In Another Country"
Tim O'Brien - "Ambush"
William Faulkner - "A Rose for Emily" and Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Katherine Anne Porter - "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"
Eudora Welty - "A Worn Path"
James Thurber - "The Night the Ghost Got In"
Carl Sandburg - "Chicago" and "Grass"
Robert Frost - "Birches," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," "Mending Wall," "Out, Out--," "Acquainted with the Night," and "The Gift Outright"
Langston Hughes - "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "I, Too," "Dream Variations,"and "Refugee in America"
Lucille Clifton - "Study the Masters"
Colleen McElroy - "For My Children"
Claude McKay - "The Tropics in New York"
Arna Bontemps - "A Black Man Talks of Reaping"
Countee Cullen - "From the Dark Tower"
Zora Neale Hurston - Dust Tracks on a Road
Ezra Pound - "A Few Don'ts" and "In a Station of the Metro"
William Carlos Williams - "The Red Wheelbarrow," "This Is Just to Say," and "The Great Figure"
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) - "Pear Tree"
F. Scott Fitzgerald - "Winter Dreams"
John Steinbeck - "The Turtle" from The Grapes of Wrath
Dorothea Lange - "Migrant Mother"
Woody Guthrie - "Dust Bowl Blues"
Wystan Hugh Auden - "The Unknown Citizen"
E. E. Cummings - "old age sticks" and "anyone lived in a pretty how town"
Wallace Stevens - "Of Modern Poetry"
Archibald MacLeish - "Ars Poetica"
Marianne Moore - "Poetry"
Ernest Hemingway - "In Another Country"
Tim O'Brien - "Ambush"
William Faulkner - "A Rose for Emily" and Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Katherine Anne Porter - "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"
Eudora Welty - "A Worn Path"
James Thurber - "The Night the Ghost Got In"
Carl Sandburg - "Chicago" and "Grass"
Robert Frost - "Birches," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," "Mending Wall," "Out, Out--," "Acquainted with the Night," and "The Gift Outright"
Langston Hughes - "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "I, Too," "Dream Variations,"and "Refugee in America"
Lucille Clifton - "Study the Masters"
Colleen McElroy - "For My Children"
Claude McKay - "The Tropics in New York"
Arna Bontemps - "A Black Man Talks of Reaping"
Countee Cullen - "From the Dark Tower"
Zora Neale Hurston - Dust Tracks on a Road
TIMELINE
LITERARY THEMES
As a result of World War I, most Americans were left disillusioned and confused. They felt as though they were isolated. One can see examples of this isolationism in Ernest Hemingway’s story, “In Another Country.” Katherine Anne Porter’s story, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” is an example of disillusionment. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” is also an example of disillusionment, as well as an example of time, the American Dream, and aspiration. In short, the Modernist Period encompassed works about the confusion of a post-war America.
CRASH COURSE: THE GREAT GATSBY PT.1 - VIDEO
CRASH COURSE: THE GREAT GATSBY PT.2 - VIDEO
Information gathered from: Wiggins, Grant P. Prentice Hall Literature. Common Core ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2012. eBook.