Modernism

Modernism has a bold emphasis on bold and new experimentation of form and style. It is like a revolution of the tradition. Looking at the past literary periods, there seem to be a pattern of rejections and revolutions. Romanticism resulted from rejection towards the industrial revolution, and so the focused on nature. Realism that came after the Civil War was he rejection of the ideal. Finally in Modernism, which began in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, there was the rejection of the rigid rules in Realism. It also rebelled against things that have always thought to be correct. To me, modernism is like a burst of creativity. I often find modern art to be very abstract, and very deep at the same time. Mostly I would not understand the meaning of the work unless it was explained. Modern artist like to show what is in their minds, which can be confusing and a little disturbing at times. In the textbook it says that modern artwork and literature work takes an “interest in the inner workings of the human mid, sometimes expressed though new techniques, such as stream of consciousness” I fully agree with this statement because this is also what I perceive from modern art.

The American Dream

The American dream was the ideal goal for Americans since the birth of the country. They see the country as full of possibilities and promises. They see a perfect life in front of them. This ideal was not held by one person or a few Americans, but a dream for the majority. They believed that if they work hard, they could get wherever they want, regardless of their family backgrounds. They also dreamed that America would be a perfect country where everyone is equal and would continuously improve. But how practical is this dream? Its pretty impractical, I’ll have to say. It is impossible that everyone would get into politics or become the richest man in the country. There are only a handful and successful politicians and only one richest man in the country. With so many people dreaming of such a dream, it is evident that this is not plausible. This ideal finally came to an end in the twentieth century. People finally realized that the American dream is too idealistic. In the twentieth century, the modern age emerged. It rebelled against long-held beliefs and created new ones of their own. It not only took a turn in tradition, but also in art and literature.

Better things?

I believe the dilemma of the modern age is broader than that of the quote. Yes, the matter of speed may be a part of it, but I think the bigger question is whether the changes of modern society beneficial to people. This would include everything like the new technology to the growing population. Are all these new and fast ways of communication and documentation good for people? People are living faster and more convenient lives than the people did in the past. Is using chemicals on the environment good? What about eating or using manufactured goods? Chemically made things now play a huge role in peoples’ lives.

There are always two sides to al these questions. To me, I would like to believe that the progress that we are making is one that is going forward rather than backwards. Some of the developments we have may be detrimental to the Earth and for these things. I would like these to be changed. As for Willa Cather’s concern, I believe that yes we are doing better things. Our societies are definitely making progress. In the past, people could only communicate with those living near them. Travel is also something really hard. One of the best improvements we have made is to connect the people of the globe together. 

On Impulse

The impulse I get the most often is to stand up and jump around in the middle of the class when the class gets too boring. Usually, I would control myself, or else my classmates and teachers would think that I am either weird or should be diagnosed with ADHD and get some medications. I am usually pretty successful in controlling this kind of urge, probably because I have lived with it for so long, but sometimes I’ll just follow my impulse. The immediate reaction I get is the class staring at me like I have gone coo coo. I’ll just smile back at them and then sit down like nothing happened, but then I would burst out laughing at what I just did and people would look at me like I’m going crazy again. Those are the reason why I usually do not follow my impulses.

Other than that, I generally can contain myself and control most of my other impulses (Okay, maybe other than eating ice cream because its too addicting and I can’t stop eating it once I start.) I believe I’m the type of person that would think before I speak. My actions may be spontaneous at times, but I am more careful about speaking. I would not want to hurt anymore by my impulsive criticism or thought.

Romantics v Realists

Romanticism and Realism are two drastically different literary forms. Romanticism focuses on the ideal and the natural. It creates what is known as the Romantic hero and makes the hero larger than life. These heroes are like role models of the society. There are real life romantic heroes as well as fictional ones. In the romantic literary and artistic style, one important character is chosen and glorified. Also, in romantic writing emotions and originality are valued and expressed. Aside from the Dark Romanticism, Romantic literature is very bright and creative.

After the Civil War, the Americans were pulled back to reality, and so the name of the new literary style: Realism. It focuses on the hardship of the average American. He subjects of realist literatures are the poor Americans workers living in the cities. It is a much darker style. The attitudes of realist writers are more negative than those of the Romantics. They no longer want to look the ideal and unrealistic. They seek to be more down to earth and often times, pessimistic. Writers also tried to use everyday language when writing their work. This makes their work even closer to the people of the time.

(**Disclaimer: Because of the similarity between this topic and the previous ones, I may have some repetition in my blog posts) 

Think About...

American writer and poets responded to the Civil War by writing novels and poems on the war and its effects after the war ended. This continued for several decades. Even though the war ended in 1865, the most representative novel about the war,The Red Badge of Courage, was written in 1895 by an author that have never lived through the Civil War. However, the new literary style emerged after the war: Realism. The Civil War had brought the once ideal Americans back to the ground. Instead of depicting perfect and bigger than life heros, artists focused on ordinary characters, especially the lower class that were living in the cities. Novels were written in everyday speech pattern to show what “real” people were like. Some writing emphasized ethical struggles and social issues. 

A movement called naturalism came out of realistic style. It differs from realism because it is more of a philosophical position. While a realistic writing would portray a situation, naturalism shows a person’s fate. Naturalism has a pretty pessimistic point of view and shows the belief that humans’ fates are determined not by themselves, but decided early on by nature. A common characteristic of naturalism is detachment, which means the author writes in a way that makes the characters seem distant. These stories focus more on the plot than on the characters. 

You've Come a Long Way, Baby

Women during the time of Chopin’s story, A Pair of Silk Stockings and the women in The Handmaid’s Tale were suppressed and taken away of their rights. In the past, after a women got married, they were supposed to stay home and take care of the family. In A Pair of Silk Stockings, Mrs. Sommers felt a feeling of importance after she found fifteen dollars. The first things she thought about after the found the money was what she wanted to get for her children. However, in the end, rebelled and descided to do something for herself for once. When she went shopping, she said she hadn’t have the happing feeling of buying things for a long time. 

I feel like the women in The Handmaid’s Tale have even less rights. They have set rules for each of their roles and are prohibited from reading or writing. Men dominate society and women are seen almost as properties of men. Each commander gets a wife, a handmaid and two Marthas. 

I am very thankful to be living in the 21st century in a country where women an men have equal rights. Females get to have the same education and voting rights as the males. 

A Reprieve

As a student, what makes life boring is all the endless homework and extra work piled onto you waiting be done. Everything seems like rush sometimes and the workload just increases. The pressure we have on is also increasing, especially for the juniors. They say we that we will have ten months. Ten months of hard work and then we will get our rewards. But it will not end there. Life will continue and we will have to continue to work. However, there are still times in life when we couldn’t help but smile. It may be talking to a friend, a sunny day or even just watching a little kid eating a lollipop and craving one yourself. Traveling also takes you out of your normal context and puts you to a new place where you can relax and just have fun for a while. This is probably why I like to travel so much. It is not only about visiting new things, but also about taking a break from my usual life and doing something different. Even when I don’t get to travel, I can sometimes be happy in school, where I can socialize with my friends. I tend to laugh a lot in school. I think it releases my pressure and recharges my energy.

A Change of Heart

The romantic period is marked by idealistic and romantic. It is about the nature-loving brave, and undaunted heroes. It was probably the time when literature and arts is the most colorful and imaginative. However, the American Civil War brought people back to reality. Influenced by the war, literature and arts during that time was gloomy. The color they used in the painting was drastically different. Romantic painting is colorful and imaginative. It usually portrays heroes and makes them great and wonderful. Realist painting, however, has a much darker color tone. There is usually a lot of brown in the paintings. The subject of the artwork is also different. Realistic art focuses on the average people, which are usually pretty poor. It portrays city life and how gloomy and dirty things are in the city. An example of a realist subject would be a group of factory workers coming back from work. They would all seem very tired from long hours of work. The damage of the war on people’s minds and hearts are portrayed in these works. It worked o showing the real world, which people of the time thought was always negative. Compared to romanticism, realism is a lot more negative.

I Exist

One hundred years after the United States became in independent nation, it was growing fast and had become a pretty influential nation. During that period, the people of United States felt confidence in their nation and its development. The artistic era of the time was Romanticism. It was a pretty ideal form of art with adventure stories and romantic heroes. However, after almost one hundred years of war, a conflict between the north and the south broke out. This resulted in the American Civil War that started in 1861. The Civil War was like a shove back to reality. People again experienced the horrific era of war. After the war, a new form of art emerged: surrealism. The ideas of surrealism were evident in Stephan Crane’s poem, War is Kind. It portrayed man as overconfident over their existence. In the poem, the man proudly told he universe that he exists, but the universe just replied that the fact does create any sense of obligation over this existence. The existence of mankind on the tiny planet, Earth, in the solar system is just a small part of the universe. This poem is telling the reader that we have been too confidence in ourselves, but now we have to realize the fact that our existence doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Power

In the Handmaid’s Tale, there is a system of roles in different social and power levels. At first glance, the social status and power seem to be simple: the commander has the most power, then the wife, then comes the Marthas and the male helpers like Nick, and at the lowest lever, the handmaids. However, when looking deeper into the story, the wives always seem to be jealous and hateful towards the handmaids. Why is that? This is probably because the wives are nothing but a shell. They have no actual worth in the society. The whole point of the society is to suppress women, however, still find a way to reproduce. In this sense, the handmaids are actually more important in the society than the wives. Yes, the wives get more freedom to see each other and gossip, but they have nothing to do most of the time. All they can do is tend the garden do pretty useless things around the house. In the birth ceremony, the wife pretends to give birth to the baby, when the handmaid is actually giving birth. After the baby is born, the wife replaces the handmaid on the bed to take the role of the mother of the baby. I think the reason why this society works this way is because it doesn’t want connections to be formed. The handmaid gives birth, but the wife takes over from then on.

Slanted Truth

I think to “tell all the truth but tell is slant” means to tell everything truthfully, but do so in a more subtle way so that it doesn’t hurt anyone. I think this applies to harsh facts. When we know the truth will hurt someone, we should still tell them the whole thing, but do so moderately so that it doesn’t hit the person hard. This is especially crucial when talking to kids. As in the poem “As Lightening to the Children eased/ With explanation kind”. If we tell kids the plain harsh facts, they might not be able to take it. 

I strongly agree with the last two lines of the poem: “The Truth must dazzle gradually/ Or every man be blind”. If the truth is overwhelming, it must be told gradually, or else everyone would be “blinded” by it. I think the choice of the word “dazzle” here is very smart. Dazzle means to blind temporarily by bright lights. The truth can be analogous to light here because, both things are positive, but too much of it at once can hurt somebody. 

My favorite line in the poem is “The Truth’s superb surprise”. This line is really fun to read because of the alliteration of s and p in superb and surprise. The meaning of the line is also quite interesting. I liked how Dickinson described truth as a splendid surprise.