Even though a lot of Americans claim to be Christians, they have completely cast aside Christian brotherly love and have wallowed in their own complacency and selfishness, unwilling to share any of their wealth with others or help contribute to a system to make everyone healthily and economically secure.
The majority of Americans have settled into a capitalist mindset where they are extremely afraid of every little thing that has a social edge. In the process, they therefore resort to renouncing any social proposal as a communist devilish good.
*
To remember:
- Romantic era: William Blake > words to highlight the hypocrisy in religion & humanity
- modernism = focus less on humanity as a whole + more specifically on the institutions of power in America + form of protest against changing American society + promoted a return to pre-industrial values.
- Robert Frost > class creates harmful divisions between people > classism distorts human relationships
- Robinson Jeffers: puts a spotlight on the corruption of America => America = empire doomed to rot away, just as others have.
- William Carlos Williams> lower class likely experiences more troubles in everyday life than a wealthy person
- America changing its values from a more domesticated, familial mindset, to a more industrial, capitalist one.
Literature has always been used as a voice for the voiceless. Historically, writers have used the written word to explore topics that would normally not be talked about. During the Romantic era, writers like William Blake would use their words to highlight the hypocrisy in religion and humanity. Poems like “The Chimney Sweeper” and “Holy Thursday” highlighted the self-righteous attitudes of the time. Modernism differs in that the focus is less on humanity as a whole and more specifically on the institutions of power in America.
Modernism came at a time when America was at a turning point. America was at the tail end of the industrial revolution, which was the beginning of the America we know today. Things were changing drastically. Institutions were being created, capitalist views were spreading, and the vision of America was changing. In Robert Frost’s poem “Death of a Hired Man”, he explores the concept…
View original post 527 more words
Some View on the World 