Modernism: T.S. Eliot

The modernist movement in literature is one of the most important movements due to its dedication to modern life and reality of the time. The movement happened during the late 19^th and early 20^th century in accordance with the Great Depression. During this time the world was getting smaller and people realized how insignificant they were compared to the world. Literature of the time focuses on this alienated feeling and uncertainty. It also focuses on the breakdown of stability as is what happened in the Great Depression and during the World Wars. Modernist works tend to use a lot of allusions or references to something by implication in their works. One great poet of the time was T.S. Eliot. He was a poet, dramatist, and literary critic.

T.S. Eliot was a Harvard man, an Oxford man, so in general, an educated man. He got his name going in literary circles with his poem called The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. It was considered a masterpiece and T.S. Eliot was officially a significant man of the twentieth century. He proceeded to write other great modernist pieces such as the Hollow Men which people still analyze and study today. Eliot was destined to be great. As a young child he showed off his first poem and it was immediately published in a local newspaper. This trend continued throughout his career. In 1948 he obtained a Nobel Prize in literature and that toped his literary career. They say that T.S. Eliot found his inspiration in the book called The Symbolist Movement in Literature by Arthur Symon. Eliot found this book in the Harvard library and it changed the way he looked at his literature. The poetry of Jules Laforge was in this book and the voice that the poems had took Eliot by the heart. Later when Eliot did a post-graduate program in England, he met his wife and settled in Europe. He furthered his modernization during the war and his poetry was becoming better and better. However, he did not publish many poems compared to other remarkable poets. But his poems were so incredible that the few that came out, came out as great pieces of literature. In the Hollow Men, one can see where T.S. Eliot allowed his faith to come into his literature. The Hollow Men is one of his great pieces ever. T.S. Eliot had many great works and overtime his life modernized his work and his poetry modernized literature.

URL used:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/life.htm

The Jazz Age and Flapper Era

The wonders of the Jazz Era filled America in the 1920’s to the start of the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Jazz was started originally by African Americans but middle class white Americans made it an actual societal movement. During the 1920’s radio boomed and large scale radio stations would play jazz for hours at a time. Over time, the younger groups of people became aware of jazz and jazz officially became a pop-culture movement. Thus the Jazz Era was born. Most people are aware of Louis Armstrong, one of the main jazz artists around at the time. Dances became popular as well. The Charleston took off in tandem with its acceptance to white culture.

More stylized dance became an important part of society as well. The Jazz Era is also known for its flappers. The woman’s suffrage movement opened largely in the 1920’s after the women found the perks of a working environment during World War I. As women began to feel the need to be more equal, the flapper culture really started to show itself. This was through more and more women flaunting themselves in a manner of shorter skirts, bobbed hair, smoking in public, heavier makeup, and all around a freer atmosphere. In the 1920’s prohibition was also instilled and the flapper women tended not to follow in accordance with these laws. The flappers were responsible for pushing the boundaries of women’s “norms” new dances such as the Charleston as mentioned earlier and the shimmy came about and at the time these moves were considered scandalous. Women got jobs and held them for reasons other than family need for money, they advocated women’s voting rights, and in general caused a political havoc. The flappers also had their own ways of defining marriage, whereas before a woman could not wait to be married as soon as possible, the flappers often referred to a wedding or engagement ring as a handcuff or manacle. This shows their distaste for being tied down or under restrictions of marriage. While the flappers’ style was considered scandalous, a more toned down version became popular among non flapper women. The corset was removed from everyday wear in exchange for straight waistlines, short hair became popular and skirt length was raised above the knee. The style became more boyish other than the skirts. Overall, the flapper women had a major impact on both politics for women and culture for women. The Jazz age was a time of political and cultural change all across America.

Citations

“Flapper." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper>.

"Jazz Age." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Dec. 2010.                                <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Age>.