Modernism

Disillusionment

I chose disillusionment because I’ve always been interested in what people really think and not what they try to display on the outside. I think it makes a great character in a book when you know what he’s feeling on the inside. When the main characters narrating the story and you can hear his thoughts it makes it a great piece of literature. What’s going in someone’s head is something only they know, so it’s a great way to get something modern and real when you read what a character is thinking.

Soldiers Home

I enjoyed this story. It was simple and true. If disillusionment tells the truth and shows what people truly feel about things then this was a good example. It’s about a soldier who comes home finds out he really isn’t all that happy. He starts to lie just to have something to talk about, and to have someone to talk to. I think one reason this story works well is because you get inside the character’s head. You know what he is really feeling and not what he wants everyone to think he’s feeling.

It’s really kind of a sad story. This guy just seems so depressed and miserable. "Your father is worried, too," his mother went on. "He thinks you have lost your ambition, that you haven't got a definite aim in life. Charley Simmons, who is just your age, has a good job and is going to be married. The boys are all settling down; they're all determined to get somewhere; you can see that boys like Charley Simmons are on their way to being really a credit to the community." His mom tells him everything everyone else has done and he’s just not even interested in trying to have that.

He doesn’t want try or work hard at anything really. He doesn’t want to talk about the war, he doesn’t want to find a girl. Well he wants a girl he just doesn’t want to have to woo her or put any effort into it. This guy is still just a kid pretty much and the war has left him with no ambitions or goals. Going to war changed this guy forever.


He even tells his mom he doesn’t love her anymore. "Is that all?" Krebs said.

"Yes. Don't you love your mother dear boy?"

"No," Krebs said.

His mother looked at him across the table. Her eyes were shiny. She started crying.

"I don't love anybody," Krebs said.

Its not that he doesn’t love her I don’t think, I believe the war just drained him of all feelings. I know there’s some kind of disorder for soldiers and I can’t think of it off the top of my head, but I think that’s what it is. That’s what happened to a lot of people over there. You hear stories of courage and heroes, and I’m sure that back then they didn’t really hear a whole lot of stories about soldiers who came back badly depressed. This story shows the truth and takes away the illusion that a lot of authors before this probably wrote about the war.

Richard Corey

This poem pretty much says these people who have to work really hard for their money, envy this guy named Richard Corey. They think he has it all and that he’s happy and that’s what they want. Then one night Richard Corey went home and killed himself. This poem brings a whole to meaning to the "Grass is always greener on the other side" phrase. I guess what makes this poem modernism is the fact that sometimes theirs more to something than meets the eye. These people saw this guy as something great and they wanted to be him, but it turns out they were happier than he was all along.

Mending Wall

This poem is about two guys with a wall in between their houses. Then every time something happens to the wall they fix it as soon as possible. It’s hard to tell but I think they never actually see each other, other than when they are fixing the wall. I think there is more to it than that. Maybe the wall is a symbol for segregation or racism. I think it means that we can never all get along or live as one unless the wall of racism is brought down.

A Dream Deferred

This poem is about what happens to a dream once its gone. I guess this is modernism in the way that it gets inside the mind. It’s a psychoanalyst piece of writing. He is asking what all is going on inside of your mind. Where do your dreams come from, what are they, and where do they go. It’s a pretty interesting piece of writing, it’s simple.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

This is a poem about a black man who comparing himself and relating himself to ancient rivers. He describes how he is old like the rivers and his soul has grown deep like the rivers. This would have to be modernism by relation to the Harlem renaissance. Its talks about this black man and how he is lived life and experienced just as good, of not better, than any white man.

Incident

This poem is about a black guy, who visited Baltimore along time ago when he was eight. It’s been some odd years and the only thing he remembers is a man calling him by a racist slur. This is definitely disillusionment. It shows how powerful and hateful that word is and will always be. This can give people a real idea of how terrible that word is, and why its something you shouldn’t call another human being.