DISILLUSION, DEFIANCE, AND DISCONTENT

1914 - 1946

THE AMERICAN DREAM: PURSUIT OF A PROMISE

There are three central ideas in the American dream

First there is admiration for America as a new Eden; a land of beauty, bounty, and unlimited promise

The second element is optimism, justified by the ever-expanding opportunity and abundance that many people have come to expect of our great nation

Modernism …

Americans have always believed in progress – that life keeps getting better and that we are moving toward an era of prosperity, justice, and joy that always seems just around the corner

The third element in the American dream has been the importance and ultimate triumph of the individual – the independent, self-reliant person

Everything is possible for the person who places trust in his or her own powers and potential

AMERICAN DREAM

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Years preceding World War I were

characterized by an overwhelming sense of optimism. Societal attitudes were optimistically influenced by the following:

Numerous technological advances Promise for the future And then World War I broke out in 1914

…

Modernism …

WAR IN EUROPE Allies - Britain, Belgium, France, Italy,

Serbia, Montenegro, Japan, and Russia; later Russia would drop out of the conflict and the United States would join

Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey

The machine gun was introduced, making it impossible for one side to launch a successful attack on its opponents’ trenches

Modernism: Historical Background …

President Woodrow Wilson wanted the US to remain neutral, but that proved impossible

1915 - A German submarine sank the Lusitania

More than 1,200 people lost their lives on board, including 128 Americans

Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare two years later; the US joined the Allied cause

Historical Influences on Literature …

Psychological Effects of the War

A number of famous American writers saw the war firsthand and learned of its horror

E. E. Cummings, Ernest Hemingway, and John Dos Passos served as ambulance drivers for the Red Cross

Hemingway later served in the Italian infantry and was seriously wounded

This experience served as the basis for his short story “In Another Country”

POSTWAR Two new intellectual trends or movements

became popular after World War I Marxism and psychoanalysis combine to

increase the pressure on traditional beliefs and values

In Russia during World War I, a Marxist-inspired Bolshevik Revolution had toppled and even murdered anointed ruler Czar Nicholas II

The socialistic beliefs of Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) that had powered the Russian Revolution in 1917 were in direct opposition to the American system of capitalism and free enterprise

The Musings of Sigmund Freud

In Vienna, there was another unsettling movement

Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939), the founder of psychoanalysis, had opened the workings of the unconscious mind to scrutiny and called for a new understanding of human sexuality, and the role it plays in unconscious thoughts

Throughout America, there was a growing interest in this new field

SIGMUND FREUD

The Subconscious Controls Our Actions This created a resultant anxiety about

the amount of freedom an individual really had

If we as people truly believed our actions were influenced by our subconscious, and we coupled this belief with the theory that there was no control over our subconscious, then there seemed to be little room left for “free will”

Stream of Consciousness One literary result of this interest in the

psyche was the narrative technique called stream of consciousness

This style abandoned chronology and attempted to imitate the moment-by-moment flow of a character’s perceptions and memories

Norman Rockwell Captures the Spirit of America(born Feb. 3, 1894, New York, N.Y., U.S. — died Nov. 8, 1978, Stockbridge, Mass.)

PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION The Great War ended in November

1918 The Constitution was amended to

prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcohol

Prohibition led to bootlegging, speakeasies, widespread law breaking, the creation of the original gangster, and sporadic warfare among competing gangs

Recording the Roaring Twenties, F. Scott Fitzgerald gave it its name the Jazz Age

Gangsterism How did prohibition lead to the

rise in gangsterism? People soon found ways of

getting round the new law. Speakeasies were soon set up in all of the big cities. these were illegal bars, which sold alcohol behind closed doors. It was almost impossible to close these down because they were opened in basements or the back rooms of restaurants and cafes. If bar owners could not get their hands on genuine alcoholic drinks, they could always buy moonshine or hooch, which was illegally made alcohol. Unfortunately this could be very dangerous. Several hundred people a year died from alcohol poisoning during the 1920s, mostly from the effects of moonshine which could be lethal.

More on Gansterism … The most common way of getting hold of illicit drink

was by bootlegging, which was smuggling alcohol into the USA from Canada, Mexico or the West Indies. An enormous amount of alcohol was smuggled into the USA from Canada. Some of it by people who simply rowed across to fetch it. none of these countries had prohibition so it was a relatively easy matter to bring alcohol across the long borders that the USA had with Canada and Mexico and the thousands of miles of coastline. William McCoy is said to have made $70,000,000 in four years smuggling whisky from Canada and the West Indies.

But the most important result of prohibition was that it made ordinary people into criminals. Most people liked a drink from time to time and this made the police very reluctant to enforce the law. They also became more open to bribes from otherwise law-abiding citizens. So began the system of bribery and corruption that spread all over the USA and reached the highest levels of society. Worse still, the supply of illegal alcohol fell into the hands of gangsters, who then bribed the police and justice system to allow them to carry on their business.

Gansgerism Cont’d … In Chicago the mayor, Big Bill Thompson, was

known to be an associate of the gangsters, who stepped in to supply the demand. The gangsters were able to make a fortune.

"It is estimated that by 1929, Capone's income from the various aspects of his business was $60,000,000 (illegal alcohol), $25,000,000 (gambling establishments), $10,000,000 (vice) and $10,000,000 from various other rackets. It is claimed that Capone was employing over 600 gangsters to protect this business from rival gangs."

Economic and Societal Factors … After a brief recession in 1920 and 1921, the

economy boomed New buildings rose, creating new downtowns

sections in many cities Radio and jazz arrived Movies became big business, and spectacular

movie places sprang up across the country Fads such as raccoon coats, flagpole sitting,

and the dance the Charleston began

New York gets its Cool on with Greenwich Village Writers flocked to Greenwich Village, in

New York City. Older buildings, barns, stables, and houses were converted to studios, nightclubs, theaters, and shops

Eugene O’Neill founded the Greenwich Village theatre where experimental dramas were performed

Thomas Wolfe taught English at New York University in the Village while writing his novel Look Homeward Angel

The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay became a symbol of the liberated woman of the era

Her bold, carefree public identity as a romantic, extravagant female Casanova made her a national celebrity while she was still in her twenties

Millay’s poems, as well as her public persona, assigned women social, intellectual, and romantic roles that society had previously reserved for men

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Vroom Vroom Vroom … The auto industry was the engine of the

American economy in the 1920s Car sales grew rapidly during the decade The auto boom spurred growth in related

fields, such as steel and rubber One reason for the auto boom was a drop

in prices By 1924, the cost of a Model T had

decreased from $850 to $290

An average American, not just the wealthy, could afford to buy a car

Car prices fell because factories became more efficient

Henry Ford had introduced the assembly line in his factory in 1913

Before the assemble line, it took 14 hours to put together a Model T

In Ford’s new factory, workers could assemble a Model T in 93 minutes

The assembly line was a key idea in the expansion of manufacturing

It could apply to many industries, ensuring rapid manufacture of less expensive goods

Other companies copied Ford’s methods In 1927, General Motors passed Ford as

the top auto maker General Motors sold cars in a variety of

models and colors

In late October 1929, the stock market crashed, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.

By mid-1932, about 12 million people – one quarter of the work force – were out of work

In 1932 New York’s governor Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent president Herbert Hoover

GREAT DEPRESSION

Roosevelt initiated the New Deal, a package of major economic reforms, to strengthen the economy

Roosevelt’s New Deal Program helped some Americans find work, but it was World War II that really pushed the United States economically out of the Great Depression

This, with his leadership in World War II, earned him reelection in 1936, 1940, and again in 1944

The Marines Saving our Flag at Iwo Jima

WORLD WAR II Germans invaded Poland to touch off WWII America wanted to stay neutral; yet, when

the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, it was no longer possible

The U.S. declared war on the Axis powers – Japan, Germany, and Italy

After years of fighting on two fronts, the Allies – the U.S., Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France – defeated Nazi Germany

Japan surrendered three months later, after the U.S. had dropped the atomic bomb

Time’s Square – The Troops Return

WOMEN GET THE VOTE Carrie Chapman Catt, a former school

principal and reporter, spoke out forcefully for women’s suffrage.

She was a brilliant organizer, and her campaign succeeded as year by year more states in the West and Midwest gave women the vote

Gradually, more women called for an amendment to the Constitution

The suffragist leader Alice Paul and others met with President Wilson after he took office in 1913

He did not oppose women’s suffrage, but he did not support a constitutional amendment

Suffragists became disillusioned after numerous meetings with Wilson and began to picket the White House in January of 1917

By early 1918, President Wilson agreed to support the suffrage amendment

In 1919, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote

By August 1920, three fourths of the states had ratified it

The amendment doubled the number of eligible voters in the U.S.

LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD The devastation of World War I brought about

an end to the sense of optimism that had characterized the years immediately preceding the war

No longer trusting the ideas and values of the world out of which the war had developed, people sought to find new ideas that better suited twentieth-century life

The quest for new ideas occurred in the world of literature as well, and a major literary movement known as Modernism was born

Disillusionment was a major theme in the fiction of the time

Sinclair Lewis lashed out satirically at the narrow-mindedness of small town life in his immensely popular novel Main Street

In 1925, Theodore Dreiser produced a literary landmark with his prototype of the realistic novel An American Tragedy, the story of an ambitious but luckless man who takes a path that lead him not to the success he seeks, but to the execution chamber

SINCLAIR LEWIS

Ernest Hemingway

The most influential of all the post-WWI writers was Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway reduced the flamboyance of literary language to a minimum – to express the bare bones of the truth

Hemingway introduced a new kind of hero to American fiction, a character type that many readers embraced as a protagonist and a role model

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

MODERNISM Modernist experimented with a wide

variety of new approaches and techniques, producing a remarkably diverse body of literature

To reflect the fragmentation of the modern world, the Modernist constructed their works out of fragments, omitting the expositions, transitions, resolutions, and explanation used in traditional literature

Modernism and Imagism … In poetry, Modernist writers abandoned

traditional forms and meters in favor of free verse whose rhythms they improvised to suit individual poems

The themes of their works were usually implied rather than directly stated; this created a sense of uncertainty

Modernist writers and poets helped to earn American literature a place in the world’s esteem

Modernism emphasized bold experimentation in style and form, reflecting the fragmentation of society

It rejected traditional themes and subjects

It also rejected the ideal of a hero as infallible in favor of a hero who is flawed and disillusioned but shows “grace under pressure”

Poets began to explore the artistic life of Europe

With other writers, artists, and composers from all over the world, they absorbed the lessons of modernist painters like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, who were exploring new ways to see and represent reality

Poets sought to create poems that invited new ways of seeing and thinking

HENRI MATISSE

PABLO PICASSO

PABLO PICASSO

Symbolism and Imagism Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot used the

suggestive techniques of symbolism to fashion a new modernist poetry

Pound also spearheaded a related poetic movement called Imagism

William Carolos Williams, Marianne Moore, E. E. Cummings, and Wallace Stevens all wrote in this Imagist style

EZRA POUND E. E. CUMMINGS

IMAGISM The Modernist movement was ushered in

by a poetic movement known as Imagism This movement lasted from 1909 to 1917 The Imagists rebelled against the

sentimentality of nineteenth-century poetry Their models came from Greek and Roman

classics, Chinese and Japanese poetry, and the free verse of the French poets

Some of the Imagism were H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Ezra Pound, E. E. Cummings and William Carlos Williams

EXPATRIATES Postwar disenchantment led a number of

American writers to become expatriates, or exiles

Many went to Paris, including Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway

Ezra Pound spent time in England, France, and Italy

T. S. Eliot went to England

GERTRUDE STEIN F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

NEW APPROACHES During the years between the two

world wars, writers explored new literary territories

Writers began using the stream-of-consciousness technique

In 1922, James Joyce published Ulysses using these technique

William Faulkner, Katherine Anne Porter, and John Dos Passos also used this technique

Poets also stretch the old boundaries E. E. Cummings's poems attracted special

attention because of their wordplay, unique, typography, and special punctuation

William Carlos Williams sought meaning in American sights and sounds and used informal, conversational speech

Wallace Stevens wrote a more intellectual and self-consciously elegant poetry

WRITERS OF INTERNATIONAL RENOWN The Nobel Prize for Literature was

established in 1901 with funds bequeathed by Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite

In 1930, Sinclair Lewis was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature won the award for his novel, Main Street

This award was the first of many for American writers

NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

Other Nobel Prize Winners In 1936, the prize went to Eugene

O’Neil; O’Neil was ranked by the critics as America’s greatest playwright

He wrote plays such as Desire Under the Elms, The Iceman Cometh, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night

In 1938, Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel Prize

The Good Earth is considered her finest work

Nobel Prize Cont’d T. S. Eliot won the prize in 1948 William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize

the following year in 1949 Later Ernest Hemingway and John

Steinbeck also won the Nobel Prize for Literature

Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms influenced a generation of young writers

Much of his work focuses on WWI and its aftermath

Many of Steinbeck’s works depict the Depression, especially as it affected migrant workers and dust-bowl farmers

Steinbeck’s most memorable novels are Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath

JOHN STEINBECK

POETRY IN NEW ENGLAND AND THE MIDWEST

Poet Edwin Arlington Robinson from Maine represented Americans whose fates were manifestations of their characters in his poetry

Robert Frost was perhaps the greatest voice in New England

Frost’s independence was grounded in his ability to handle ordinary New England speech and in his surprising skill at taking the most conventional poetic forms and giving them a twist all his own

ROBERT FROST

At the same time, poets of the Midwest brought the American heartland to life in slightly more adventuresome verse forms

They used rougher stanzas and looser lines Best known of these poets is Edgar Lee Masters

who assembled a sort of town biography in his Spoon River Anthology

Masters took the lid off sentimentalized small-town life and allowed the dead to speak their own shocking litanies of greed, frustrations, and spiritual poverty in this work

HARLEM RENAISSANCE A group of black poets focused directly

on the unique contributions of African Americans

Foremost among these poets was James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen

These poets brought literary distinction to the broad movement of artists known as the Harlem Renaissance

The geographical center of the movement was Harlem, in northern Manhattan

Its spiritual center was a place in the consciousness of African Americans

African American poetry and music from New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago became part of the Jazz Age

In March 1924, The Harlem Renaissance was publicly recognized

The Harlem phenomenon continued through the 1920s and into the 1930s

The writers of this renaissance belonged to no single school of literature, but they did form a coherent group

They saw themselves as part of a new and exciting movement

They opened the door for African American writers who would follow them

POETIC VOICES OF THE WEST AND SOUTH The most distinctive poetic voice from

the West was that of Robinson Jeffers who carved out an isolated and almost hermitlike existence in a California town by the Pacific shore

Jeffers steered a wavering course between convention and experiment

He worked in meter and rhyme, but more often he wrote in long lines of free verse

He became widely known less for his craftsmanship than for his unorthodox attitudes toward progress, religion, and the nature of humanity

Jeffers took a dim view of democracy and the rise of the common man

After his death, his poems became an inspiration to the Beats and other West Coast literary groups in the 1960s

Robinson Jeffers

The South offered their voice in John Crowe Ransom

Ransom stood for wit, gentility, subtle, intellect, and the manners of an earlier century

Readers found him to have a gentle nature and a passionate concern for the beauty and elegance of the English language

JOHN CROWE RANSOM

THE AMERICAN DREAM REVISITED Belief in self-reliance persisted as the old idea

of America as Eden American modernist writers both echoed and

challenged the American dream They constituted a broader, more resonant

voice than ever before resulting in a second American renaissance

With all the changes, however, writers continued to ask fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of human existence

A typical depiction of the 1920s…