The Moderns:1914-1939Redefining the American

Dream

“Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things.”

-Willa Cather

Overview Life during the early part of the

20th Century was marked by tremendous change. Political Social Psychological Spiritual

Each decade brought the new upheaval,

and each upheaval required a new adjustment in attitude.

During this period of time, look for answers to these questions:

What is the American Dream?

What happened to the American Dream in the

early twentieth century? In what ways did

modernism challenge tradition-especially in what people valued in art and literature?

War Changes Everything World War I (the Great War) was one of the

events that changed the American voice in fiction. The country lost its innocence Many Americans began to question authority (Modernist Movement)

- Disillusionment with traditions that seemed to have become spiritually empty.

The American Dream: Pursuit of a Promise

American as a new Eden A belief in progress Triumph of the individual

America as a New Eden

America is a promised land of beauty, unlimited resources, and endless opportunities.

-The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) 1925

- Great wealth and pursuit of pleasure had become ends in themselves for many people.- Gatsby was a self-made man whose wealth has

mysterious & illegal origins.- His extravagant gestures are

in pursuit of a dream.

A Belief in Progress The American birthright in

one of ever-expanding opportunity.

Progress is a good thing. We can optimistically

expect life to keep getting better & better.

Triumph of the Individual The independent, self-reliant

individual will triumph. Everything is possible for the person

who places trust in his or her own powers and potential.

Idea was championed by Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Trust the universe and trust yourself.”

A Crack in the World: Breakdown of Beliefs and Traditions

The devastation of WWI & the economic crash a decade later severely damaged the three tenets of the American Dream.

Writers became skeptical of the New England Puritan tradition & the gentility that

had been central to the literary ideal. Most writers came from New England, where American started but modernist writers came from the South, the Midwest, and the West.

Two New Intellectual Theories or Movements

Marxism Psychoanalysis

Marxism and the Challenge to Free Enterprise

Russia during WWI – Marxist revolution toppled & murdered the anointed ruler, the czar.

Karl Marx’s socialistic beliefs powered the revolution in 1917.

Karl Marx Believed… The capitalist system could not be fixed and

had to be destroyed to make way for a classless society. All property would be owned by everyone as a

community and people would receive equal benefits and rewards.

Sounds great, right? However, they followed the mantra: “All men are equal, but some men are MORE equal than others.” Hence, Animal Farm

Capitalism is Threatened Some Americans believed that

certain elements of Marxism would provide much-needed rights to workers.

Freud and the Unconscious Mind

Vienna, Austria (1856-1939) Sigmund Freud, the found of

psychoanalysis He said our actions were influenced by

the subconscious New understanding of human sexuality and

the role it plays in our unconscious thoughts. His beliefs left little room for humans to have

free will.

Unconscious Mind Continued…

A literary result of this study of psychoanalysis was a narrative technique called stream of consciousness. Stories weren’t told chronologically Attempted to imitate the moment-by-

moment flow of a character’s perception & memories

James Joyce in Ulysses Katherine Anne Porter William Faulkner

At Home and Abroad: The Jazz Age

Prohibition- In 1919, the Constitution was amended to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcohol.

Prohibition Added the Following Words to Our Vocabulary…

Bootlegger Speak-easy Cocktail Flapper Gangster Jazz

F. Scott Fitzgerald gave the time period a new name: The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age Continued…

1920- Women got the right to vote Gave women an opportunity to move into

artistic, intellectual, and social circles.

Expatriates Abroad

Many American writers & artists left America to enjoy life to the fullest in Europe.

Living was cheap in Paris, the French Riviera, and Italy

Life was more exotic there They could drink alcohol freely American Expatriates were a hint that something had

gone wrong with the American Dream

American Expatriates

F. Scott Fitzgerald (& wife Zelda) Ernest Hemingway Ezra Pound Gertrude Stein

Grace Under Pressure:The New American Hero

Ernest Hemingway was the most influential of the post-WWI writers. He strove for plain style;

reduced literary style to the bare bones-reflects his past as a news reporter

for the Kansas City Star Introduced a new kind of

hero-The Hemingway Hero

Hemingway Hero

Man of action (warrior, tough competitor) Has a code of honor, courage, & endurance He shows “grace under pressure” He has thorough disillusionment-at the mysterious center of the universe lay nothing at all-this is Hemingway’s own philosophy. Belief in self: decency, bravery, competence, and skillfulness.

Modern Voices in Poetry:A Dazzling Period of Experimentation

The last traces of British influence were washed away and the American writers began a period of experimentation.

Many writers went to Europe to soak up artistic influences there. Influenced by modernist artists like Matisse &

Picasso

Period of Experimentation

Poets created works that invited new ways of seeing and thinking (Ezra Pound,

T.S. Eliot, & E.E. Cummings)- Symbolism

- Imagism

Voices of American Character

Many American poets rejected the revolution of modernism and stayed home in America.

Their individual accents revealed the regional diversity and character of American life. Example: Robert Frost’s poems embodied “New England speech” and subjects.

The Harlem Renaissance

In the 1920s, a group of black poets focused on the unique contributions of African-American culture to America. Poetry based its rhythms on spirituals and jazz

and blues based its diction on the street talk of the ghettos.

Why is it called the Harlem Renaissance?

Geographical center of the movement was in Harlem, a New York City neighborhood. People here were too long ignored, patronized, or

otherwise shuffled to the margins of American art.

When this poetry joined with music echoing from New Orleans, Memphis, & Chicago, it became part of the Jazz Age.

The American Dream Revised

Writers of this era experimented boldly with forms and subject matter.

Also tried to find answers to the following questions: Who are we? Where are we going? What values should guide us on the search for our

human identity? This echoes the philosophy of humanism in the

European Renaissance.