Modernist Literature
"All truths became relative, conditional, and flux."
Transcendentalist Literature
"spiritual and intellectual hangover left by four years of unimaginably destructive warfare"
Notable figures:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller
Notable figures:
Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf
The Grapes of Wrath
- Nature oriented
- Encouraged skepticism of convention
- Emphasis on individualism + self-reliance
- Dissolve barrier between "self and spirit"
- Rebuffed "machinery of modern society"
- Introspective
- Stream of consciousness
- "Unreliable" narrator
- Characterized by "lost generation"
- Joads are displaced
- In search of work (purpose)
- Reconfigures "virtue" + role of religion
- Rebukes social/economic hierarchy
- Explores human nature
- Darwinian vs. altruistic
Subsitute competition for collaboration
Evolve instincts + overcome social institutions for greater good of humanty
Big picture
Common themes
Shared transcendentalist elements
Works Cited
- Altered moral perspectives
- Characters in search of fulfillment
- Unfamiliar territory (travel)
- Pursuits follow period of disaster/hardship
- Indirect call for social reform
- Strong-willed protagonist
- Emphasis on individualism + self-reliance
- Dissolution of barrier between "self and spirit"
The Sun Also Rises
IP Focus: Application of transcendentalist themes in modern literature
- Displaced characters (expatriates)
- Abandonment of culture, tradition, and institution
- Reconfiguration of masculinity, gender roles, and sexuality
- Search for worldly meaning/purpose
By Alexis Hodge
". . . devotion to higher ideals all died in the trenches, leaving a moral and spiritual vacuum that Hemingway's characters struggle to fill"
- John Peale Bishop
"Trancendentalism." - Literature Periods & Movements. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.
"Modernism." - Literature Periods & Movements. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.
Green, Ellie. "Overview of Literary Periods and Movements: A Historical Crash Course." Study.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.
"Periodical Literature." The Catholic Historical Review 77.4 (1991): 742-53. Web.
Shapiro, Eric, and Padraig Kirwan. "On Hemingway and "The Sun Also Rises ..."" Eric's Soapbox. N.p., 6 May 2011. Web. 16 May 2015.
The Old Man and the Sea
Futility
Selected Novels:
I. The Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway
II. The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
III. The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
- Protagonist isolated at sea
- Disregard for social trends + image
- "La mar" replaces house of worship
- Emphasis on self-reliance
- Pursuit reveals moral compass
"A man can be destroyed but not defeated"
"A man does not boast"
"A man bears pain and hardship without complaint"
"A man does not depend on luck"
Transcendentalism in Modern Literature