modernism + short stories Flashcards
number of people in military in WWI
70 million
number of artillery and mortar rounds fired on western front during WWI
700 million
percent of Frenchmen between ages 20-32 who died during WWI
half
percent of German men between ages 19-22 who died during WWI
35%
percent of English soldiers who were killed during WWI
12%
number of people who died for England and France in WWI
2 million
number of people who died for Germany in WWI
2 million
number of people wounded in WWI
21 million
mindset of modernism
- people lost faith that the world has coherent meaning bc of horrors of war
- “the lost generation” where people lost their purpose/way in the world
- no objective meaning to anything, subjectivity
- representing inner view of characters
Ernest Hemingway
- injured as ambulance volunteer in Italy and had unrequited love with nurse
- wrote A Farewell to Arms based on this
- In Our Time
A Farewell to Arms
- Italian soldier (Frederic Henry) and nurse fall in love, soldier flees army and nurse dies in childbirth
- represents impossibility of normal life after WWI
- at end of story, Frederic watches ants crawl into fire and he throws boiling water on the rest of them, represents fate of everyone
- Hemingway
The Sun also Rises
- American living in luxury European hotels drinking to death
stream of consciousness
author attempts to represent thought in writing, often lacking proper grammar/sentence structure because thoughts are cut off and confusing
ex. Ulysses by James Joyce, most of book is thoughts of one man over one day
Ezra Pound
- The Cantos (book)
- leader of the imagists
William Faulkner
- The Sound and the Fury
- Absalom Absalom!
- Light in August
Jean Toomer
- Cane
Zora Neale Hurston
- Their Eyes Were Watching God
F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Great Gatsby
Winter Dreams
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
town where Dexter is golf caddy in beginning of Winter Dreams
Blackbear, Minnesota (people come from Chicago to golf there)
Dexter
- works at golf place for rich ppl in beginning, his father owns second-best grocery store and his mother is Czech immigrant
- chooses to go to Princeton where he’s considered poor instead of state school, chasing lifestyle
- worries about where he gets his suit bc he’s knowingly playing the part of the lifestyle he wants
- pursues Judy for his entire youth because she represents the lifestyle he wants
- At the end when she’s in a bad marriage and has lost her looks, he realizes she was never perfect; he never cared about her as a person
- he wasted his life on her
Judy
- very desired and has relationships with many men but is not very interesting
- Dexter sees her as perfect and a representation of everything he wants until end
Irene
- “normal” fiance Dexter leaves for Judy, he should’ve been happy with Irene
Hills Like White Elephants
- Hemingway
- represents gender struggles in 1920s Spain
Jig
- wants to have baby but is unable to bc man will leave her if she does and she has no income or way to get around; she’s trapped in Spain as a tourist
man in Hills Like White Elephants
- tries to manipulate Jig into getting abortion, says it isn’t a big deal and claims he doesn’t want it if she doesn’t want it, but he will leave her if she doesn’t get it
- they never have a real conversation and he doesn’t listen to her
white elephant
gift that ruins your life, the pregnancy in Hills
Gilded 6-Bits
- Zora Neale Hurston
- unusual representation of marriage because it’s genuine and Jim forgives Missy May
- positive story, unlike many modernism stories
- fear of outsiders, the outsider ruins the relationship
Jim
- authentic love for Missy May
- he worked for his money and it’s real
- he fixes marriage and forgives Missy May
Slimmins
- nonauthentic, his money is fake
- he’s fat and privileged while Jim can’t gain weight bc of constant manual labor and hard work
Snows of Kilamenjaro
- Hemingway
- horrors of WWI, everything sucks and life is meaningless
- marriage isn’t good bc Helen married Harry for the idea of him and Harry married her for money
Harry
- has PTSD and flashbacks
- gangrene represents him rotting from the inside out
- he wasted his life, all his memories are negative and meaningless and he never got to write like he wanted to
- leopard represents him, it climbed to the top of the mountain for no reason and waits to die
Flowering Judas
- Katherine Anne Porter
- set in Mexico at beginning of revolution
Braggioni
- supposed to be socialist leader but he’s greedy and doesn’t care about the people or make any effort to do anything (physically large to represent this)
- buys cologne from NYC, material goods
Laura
- feels as if students are strangers
- not a good teacher bc her students misspell things
- she smuggles gossip and drugs to arrested members of socialist party and indirectly allows Eugenio to overdose
- she’s Roman Catholic and committed mortal sin by doing this
- Judas represents betrayal, Laura is being untrue to humanity
- her life is meaningless and nothing she did amounted to anything
Eugenio
committed suicide by overdosing on the drugs Laura brought
A Rose for Emily
- Faulkner
- not in favor of traditionalism, represents Emily as extreme and grotesque
Emily
- stuck in past, doesn’t pay taxes bc she doesn’t understand/care that times have changed and Colonel Sartoris is dead
- represents traditional way
- kills Homer bc he won’t marry her
Homer
- represents modernity
- northerner working on infrastructure
- gay, won’t marry Emily
Barn Burning
- Faulkner
- not in favor of Abner’s resentment, portrays him as lowest, most pathetic part of society
Abner
- angry about place in society, full of resentment and takes it out on everyone above him
- thinks he’s in place African Americans should be in
- named son Colonel Sartoris, didn’t even name him properly, he’s an idiot
- rug is worth more than he’ll ever have in his life and he still can’t pay $5 fine
Colonel Sartoris (young one)
- betrays family and is alone at end, he’s alienated
alienation theme
many of the characters in the short stories are lost or alone in the world (Colonel Sartoris, Emily, Laura, Dexter, Harry, Jig), they don’t have a purpose or they’re stuck in situations they can’t get out of (ex. Jig)
city a rose for emily takes place
Jefferson, Mississippi (based on Oxford, Mississipi)
county from Faulkner’s works
Yoknapatawpha county
