Major Historical Events of the early 20th Century in American Society:-
The three major historical events of the 20th century were the First World War that broke in 1914. The second important event was The Great Depression that was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in America it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s.The third most important historical event was the Second World War that occurred in 1939.
Effects of the Major Historical Events On Society:-
The affects of these events were immense as War changed the mindset of the whole society, making them rebel against the norms. After the World War I, the second great shock that in twentieth century was faced by America was the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Americans, being proud of their prosperous past were not able to cope with the adverse circumstances as the past comforts were in sharp contrast to the new difficulties. Politically, America became strong after World War 1. It rose to become the major superpower of the world but unrest was created in the people due to the anti-war sentiments. The experiences of the war in the west led to a sort of collective national trauma. The optimism of 1900 was entirely gone and those who fought in the war became to known as 'the Lost Generation' because they never fully recovered from their experiences. The large-scale migration after World War, also posed a threat to the country's stability. The immigrants began to be treated with suspicion and distrust. People had become disillusioned from religion due to the innovations posed by science, but seeing the destruction caused by scientific inventions during the war, disillusioned them from science as well consequently this generation became empty and hollow from inside. Women became more active in the affairs outside home. Soldiers left behind helpless families. The sense of family life was disturbed and shattered. People became pessimistic about the future, as they had lost faith in the possibilities of human potential. Fear and uncertainty was created in people's psyche.
Major Writers and Themes of the Post War Era
Historical and social changes have always molded the novelists' perception while writing. This phenomenon is particularly visible with regards to post-war literature. The early twentieth century was dominated by cataclysmic events. The Americans survived the two World Wars and overcame the economic upheaval of the Great Depression. They won, but were not victorious. These events reverberated through society and left a devastating psychological impact. In the novels of the era during and after world war, Man's helplessness in facing different events was portrayed tragically.
The major thematic concerns of these times inadvertently focused on how the individual had to combat with the restrictions and impediments posed by society. In addition, the extreme emptiness felt by the Lost Generation became a recurrent theme in the writings of this era. After the World Wars, Man became rootless and alienated from tradition. This loss of tradition was accompanied by moral degeneration and a resurgence of the meaninglessness of life. Man in these times was seen as fighting against a malignant Natural world. As Daiches (1960) comments:
"The loss of the confident sense of a common world, of a public view of what was significant in human action…had an effect on both the themes and the technique of fiction."
D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway were the major writers of this era. D.H. Lawrence was one of the notable literary figures in the early twentieth century. His works are a reflection of the major modern issues. He focuses upon the destructive effects of the so-called modernity (an effect of the World War). He writes about the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and explores the nature of individuals and their relationships with one another. Similarly, Franz Kafka's works reflect the anguish and guilt of Modern Man. Kafka builds up the grim mood of individual tragedy that is common to many of his contemporaries, which had its roots in the grim experiences of War on that generation. Kafka himself is said to have stated:
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us … we need the kind of books that affect us like a disaster, that grieves us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide."
Major Influences in Hemingway
In Hemingway's works there is a disillusionment caused by the horrors of war. The hard realities of life, like that of a sudden death or any sudden loss, are depicted in his writings. Both physical and mental/emotional disturbance is to be found under scrutiny in his works. The past child-like faith in happy endings is negated by Hemingway. He gives a lesson of courage even while knowing how the reward might not be given, even to those who remained courageous.
Hemingway's life and his writings were influenced by many personal and public events and The First World War provided Hemingway with experiences, which made him a more mature man and changed the inflexible ideas and illusion of his youth. Especially his experience of being wounded in the First World War was not only a physical but also an emotional wound.This unkind display of indifferent death familiarized him with the depressing reality of life. (Young, 1968)
During his recuperation, he saw many wounded soldiers who were suffering from great stress after confronting the calamities of their lives in different ways. After this injury, Hemingway had no desire to maintaining his gay, courageous mood of his youthful ideals regarding the glory of war. (Dimri, 1998)
Another fundamental influence or experience on Hemingway and his writing is his association with a nurse named Agnes Von Kurowsky whom he met in the hospital while he was injured. His contact with her later developed into a romantic affair. In this context Baker (1972) comments
"Young women like Agnes Von Kurowsky were soon aware of a newly aggressive sexuality, (i.e., people like Hemingway) hitherto sublimated but now brought forth by the long confinement in bed, the kindly attention of pretty nurses, and a romantic setting of a hospital in wartime Milano."
It was intrinsically absurd that a badly injured soldier, who had experienced the failure of the delusion of immortality a few weeks after he enlisted, fell in love with a nurse. This same absurdity which is found in his life is also found in his writings as well. The harshly injured heroes are seen falling in love in spite of their dark vision of life during war.
It became difficult for Hemingway to adjust in society after returning home from war. The experiences that he had undergone were very different from the norm. The time that he spent in Italy created a sense of tragic adventure. He found it hard to live an ordinary existence at home. (Gurko, 1968)
The Spanish Civil War is one of the greatest influences on Hemingway. When the war started in 1936, Hemingway began reporting on it. Many of his short stories therefore are set in Spain. Among them The Undefeated, Today is Friday, The Killers, The Butterfly and The Tank, and Night Before Battle stand out. In all these stories, he threw light on the suffering of Spaniards.
The element hope or faith is prevalent in Hemingway's work – whether it's the presence or absence of such emotions. At this connecting in Hemingway's works Dimri (1994) says:
'As a matter of fact Hemingway is the most unconventional of modern writers. It is difficult to define him within the boundaries of religion or a particular philosophic group. He has been called by all available names __ existentialist, wounded idealist, romanticist, realist, sentimentalist, stoic, nihilist, naturalist, materialist, pragmatist, impressionist etc….The benign presence of God is totally missing in his major works. In his struggle, the hero finds no support, no help from any divine source, the solace of religion is denied to him. In his moment of extreme pain Nick declares to have made a separate peace, Krebs declares himself to be out of God's Kingdom, Jake Barnes, Frederick Henry, Robert Jordan do not find comfort in God at the time of crisis or suffering."
Hemingway's works are cynical, his disillusioned characters spend their time drinking, fishing, fighting, and wrenching. These activities are, of course, time-honored diversions of epic and fictional heroes; but in Hemingway they cease to be diversions and become not only goals of existence, but a sort of mystical masculine moral obligation of a lost generation, tough, courageous, and honest, but broken physically and emotionally by the brutality of war and disillusioned by the in sensitivity and hollowness of civilized society.
If we take a critical look at the novels of Hemingway we can clearly find out how the crises of 20th century has influenced his writing on great scale.
In Our Time is a collection of short stories by Hemingway. The title comes from the Common Book of Prayer but the stories reveal that there is "no peace in our time". In this book ministers are shot, lovers are separated, affaires come to an end, murders are committed in short the story deals with everything decent coming to an end.
The Sun Also Rises is a story of a few American expatriates who were living in Paris after the war. They were all wounded either physically or psychologically. The story focuses on how the old pre-war values cannot give them the directions that they are looking for and in this lost world they are all lost souls. All the characters in this story at the end come to realize the limitations of their own existence.
A Farewell To Arms is about the First World War and its epitomizes the whole of the American response to the First World War. It is the novel in which Hemingway has written about the experience of Henry who was a wounded soldier of war, he falls in love with a nurse and in his effort to protect his love he runs away from battle field but at the end the beloved, his child and his carrier all is lost and he is left all alone in the wide world. The Hemingway hero will carry the scars of this fatal accident with his through out his life.
Novels such as The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms are populated by men who are, in Hemingway's words, "hurt very badly; in the body, mind, and spirit, and also morally." In these works, World War I casts a shadow over characters who, no longer believing in the traditions and values of the nineteenth century or in the goodness of government, are disillusioned idealists who reject nationalist propaganda and easy sentimentality.
For Whom The Bell Tolls is about the story of an American volunteer who has been assigned the task of blowing up the bridge in the hills. He falls in love with a girl Maria but at the end of the novel he dies and deserts her. In the novel Hemingway has dealt with the issues as democracy, fascism, human freedom, communism and most importantly the destiny of man.
The Old Man and The Sea is a story of an old man who goes out on a journey to catch a fish . After long struggle for 84 days he ends up catching a fish but on arriving on the port he is left with a skeleton of the fish only. The theme of the story is man's struggle and man's helplessness in the hands of destiny. Death and courage are two of the themes that Hemingway often writes about essentially. Hemingway thinks of courage as a person's ability to be calm and controlled in face of death. "A man may be destroyed, but not defeated," he declares in The Old Man and The Sea.
Conclusion
Thus, we can conclude by saying that in Hemingway writing the disturbance, turmoil, restlessness and confusion of the twentieth century is clearly evident. The events left a great impact on the individual as well as the society on the whole, the American literature of that time is enriched with the impressions of those events.
(Article is for academic use only)
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