10/31/17

Today in class, we began to discuss modernism, and compare it to rationalism. We used the novels The adventures of Tom Sawyer and The adventures of Huckleberry Finn as examples. We showed how society and wealth are manipulated by the upper class, and how there is a rift between the social classes. We also discussed the writings and thoughts of Malcolm Gladwell, and how he portrayed modernist ideologies. Tom Sawyer romantic qualities: Clever little kid, play games, big imagination, play in the woods, happy ending, specific good and evil.

Changes from romanticism in Huck Finn: drunken and abusive father, surrendering power, escaping, morals, more serious tone, showing of status, addresses world issues, evil of slavery, lacking freedom, race ties to all aspects. Ernest Hemingway credits Mark Twain and Huck Finn as the beginning of modernist literature, modernism says the world is more complex than it appears, destroys absolutes and promotes complications and “grey areas”. His writing shows was of dealing with perception and meanings because of it. He also states form is just as important as content. We also got our copies of The Great Gatsby.

To apply this to the real world, you could look at society from a more modernist perspective, showing a more realistic aspect of life, as opposed to the romantic view of absolutes. By applying a thinking point that applies both rationalist and romantic views, you can make a setting that is more modernist. The book we are about to read gives a historically fictional account that is very comparable to the lifestyle lived by those in the 1920s.