Modernism vs. Realism

Modernism is "inscribed a particular sense of radical rupture with the past and a perception of cultural crisis" (Modernism). This is a period of literature that came around a great time of change for America. The Great Depression hit America and many changes were happening. The Harlem Renisnesse was occurring. That is the black people coming together and celebrate music and their culture. There was also the "Roaring Twenties". It was a great time of economic growth for America. There was more leisure time and people had to find new ways to entertain themselves. They started playing baseball. That became a great American past time. There was also theater. Movies started coming out. That forms a great deal of literature in our culture. Scripts needed to be written and it gave room for a new era of literature. That sparked modernism. "The normative changes associated with modernity include a sense of cultural crisis brought on by World War I and the sense that the new 20th century put the world closer to the apocalypse; Western notions of progress and superiority were breaking down. Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud all offered so-called master narratives that helped to explain history and to produce a new historical self-consciousness. Well-held precepts and norms for religion, sexuality, gender, and the family of the past Victorian world were also collapsing. Conflicts over racial, gender, class, religious, and colonial systems of oppression were moving to the fore." (Modernism). That was a big change in society in America. It led to the development of authors like Ezra Pound and Ernst Hemingway. Hemingway was a great novelist that inspired many other authors to be a part in the modernism period.
"Realism is the attempt to depict life as it actually exists, not as the author wants it to be in the present or the future, or imagines it was in the past. A realist carefully chooses details that illustrate this vision, unlike the naturalist who tries to include all possible details." (Realism). I like realism writings. I like the facts that everything in the writings are real. I like the aspects of real life. I find that in my life, I am not exposed to real life experiences. I am stuck in school all day and I live at home. I do not have to pay bills. Realism talks about all of those items. Realism authors write about their real world experiences. It is similar to modernism because they are talking about the world, but modernist had a least gooder things to talk about. The times were hard. I feel like they are both the same type of writing. Realism and Modernism have the same types of feelings toward items in real life. I wonder what the realism period would have been like if they were during the Great Depression.l There would not be any hope like there was with the modernism period. I like modernism writings. I do not really like the poems because they are not written in normal poems. They do no have rhyme chemes.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "modernism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CASS589&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 6, 2011).

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= Gamshrtsty0575&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 6, 2011).