Unit 4- Modernism

ELAALRL2 is most difficult because you have to provide literal evidence from a passage to support your analysis and you have to know how to use it in American Literature rather than any certain kind of Language Arts.

1. Choose one of the Modernism themes named above that you are most interested in studying. Write a paragraph that describes why you made this choice and how you expect to see the topic you chose represented in the literature you are about to read. I chose Disillusionment because I liked the way it's opening everyone's eyes to the real America. Disillusionment is the process of realizing what your reality is instead of believing a dream or usuing your imagination. Modernism uses Disillusionment to tell people about how the American Dream isn't real. The American Dream was the illusion that America was "the land of oppourtunity and all its people were virtuous." Yet, that wasn't true at all. In America there was poverty and crime just like in any other country or city during WWI. I do know that I am going to read about Disillusionment in stories by authors such as Ernest Hemingway. I can understand his stories because I know that he was in WWI and he was placed in a hospital in France, I think, and he didn't want to leave. Towards the end he was even a very unhappy man.

2. Read the story that corresponds to the theme you chose. The disillusionment story wouldn't work on my computer so i read the psychoanalysis one instead.Type a two-paragraph response to the story you read, and then provide another two paragraphs in which you analyze the theme you chose and how it is represented in the story. Take time to explain how the author features the theme you chose, and go deeper and explain what you believe he or she is saying about America. This will require you to provide examples straight from the texts as well as some synthesis on your part.

I liked the story I read about Mr. Mitty. Walter Mitty is a man who lives in London I think; he has a wife to which he must obey her every say-so. Walter drops his wife off at the hairdressers and throughout the time it takes him to wait for her he goes on more than one fruitful adventure.

His first adventure begins after his stop at a red light. He goes to see the doctor because his wife told him to, but all the while there he pretends that he is a famous doctor and saves the day when a machine breaks down in the operation room. His second adeventure takes place in a courtroom to which he is on trial for murdering someone. Finally, his third trip is into battle during WWI I guess; he's interuppted when his wife comes back from her hair appointment.

This author does a good job capturing the theme of psychoanalysis. I believe this because throughout the whole story, Mr. Mitty is trying to escape the reality of his nagging wife. I don't know why he goes to war, or becomes adoctor, or even imagines that he kills somebody; but I think thats the point of psychoanalysis.

To me, the author is trying to say that America is full of straight- laced, rule- following people. The story says that to live in America you need to have an imagination to get away from the everyday stresses; even if it's just dealing with an unfriendly wife.

3. Read the following poems and write a paragraph response to each in which you explain your opinions about what is being written as well as identifying one of the elements of modernism in each.

• Richard Corey by Edwin Arlington Robinson- I think this poems represents the Modernism theme of Disillusionment because the author explains to you how he was a gentleman, he was rich, and everyone envied him. Then, in the end Richard Corey kills himself. You don't figure out why, but I think disillusionment because everyone onthe streets was so wrapped up in his appearances and his wealth that they never realized his pain, and that kind of sums up how America isn't as great as it should be.
• Mending Wall by Robert Frost- To me, all this poem is describing in a wall. It has told me how many different ways the wall was knocked down, and how it was yet put up again. I think that Robert Frost was using the psychoanalysis theme because twoward the middle and end of the poem, the character was wondering why good fences make such good neighbors. The poem never tells you why they have to put back up their wall and why it makes them good neighbors; so I think that Frost wants you to look for some deeper meaning and to analyze what the wall could mean to them and their orchards.
• A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes- I think maybe Langston Hughes was talking about disillusionment. His poem is called a dream deferred, so why couldn't he be talking about the American dream? Or is he talking about the African American Dream and using the theme of the Harlem Renaissance? Either way he is talking about what happens to a dream once someone finds out it's not going to come true or sets it aside.
• The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes- The Harlem Renaissance was used in this poem I believe. This poems speaks of how one person, or race maybe, has been by rivers in many different situations. The poems explains how there was a hut built near a river, someone heard Abe Lincoln in New Orleans, and another person decided to pull up a pyramid near a river; in all that time they had all grown respect for the rivers and their souls and minds ran as deep as the river.
• Incident by countee Cullen- This story most definetly has the influenceof the Harlem Renaissance. This little boy was discriminated against because the color of his skin; he was eight and he probably didn't understand why either. The harlem renaissance told about some of the strifes of African Americans, and so does this poem.

4. How have you improved on understanding the Georgia Performance Standard you said was most difficult for you? I've practiced and had to provide direct evidence to support my opinions, and now that I did that and I understood that themes of whatever Literary element I'm studying, it's gotten easier.