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His contribution to the modernism is his story about "jazz age" or as he defined as the society after WW1
https://fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org/about-us-2/biography/

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His contribution to Modernism is his "Iceberg Theory" where the writer should focus on the present with background being implicity told.
https://www.mypspa.org/article/more/the-iceberg-theory

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Famous for his story "of Mice and Men". Contributed to Modernism by his realism and his social perceptions.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1962/steinbeck/biographical/

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What is the time period of American Modernism?

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What is the time period of American Modernism?

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American Modernism started in the 20th century, from 1914 to 1946. This was also the time period where WWI, WWII, and the Great Depression broke out.

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What was important to the American people during this time period?

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What was important to the American people during this time period?

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Things that are important to the American people during this time period were money, jobs, and hope because the Great Depression and the two World Wars destroyed the U.S.'s economy and ruined many American's lives.

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-Modernists used the "Stream-of-Consciousness" in their writings, which is when authors let the readers know what exactly what a character is feeling or thinking as those thoughts and feelings occurs. This brings readers closer to what the characters are actually thinking and help them understand the characters better.
-These writings often have jumbled/nonlinear novel structures which forces readers to looks closer at the writings to understand what's happening in the text fully.

Works Cited:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYAUkfv3kwM&t=36s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVNBy5GHuqo&t=50s

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The stream of Consciousnss is a narrative way to capture a person thoughts in a realistic way. For example if a character is  stressing, the author could remove or limit the amount of punctations to simulate the stress.
https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-stream-consciousness

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What is Stream of Consciousness? - Transcript (English and Spanish Subtitles Available in Video)

By Liz Delf

Click HERE for Spanish Transcript

Stream of consciousness is a narrative style that tries to capture a character’s thought process in a realistic way. It’s an interior monologue, but it’s also more than that. Because it’s mimicking the non-linear way our brains work, stream-of-consciousness narration includes a lot of free association, looping repetitions, sensory observations, and strange (or even nonexistent) punctuation and syntax—all of which helps us to better understand a character’s psychological state and worldview. It’s meant to feel like you have dipped into the stream of the character’s consciousness—or like you’re a fly on the wall of their mind.

Authors who use this technique are aiming for emotional and psychological truth: they want to show a snapshot of how the brain actually moves from one place to the next. Thought isn’t linear, these authors point out; we don’t really think in logical, well-organized, or even complete sentences.

For example, on my way to record this video, I didn’t think “Ah, now I am walking to the library. When I get there, I will say good morning to the videographer, and then begin recording. I hope it goes well.”

A more accurate representation might be more like this: “cold / bright / wish I had my sunglasses / walk faster / late again / always late / did I send my script? / should I have practiced more? / oh hi Dylan / which class was he in? / shoe’s untied / ooh colors trees red orange bright / faster / late late late / so bright”

That more realistic, stream-like, associative thought process is what authors are aiming for when they use stream of consciousness narration.

Here’s a literary example from Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf:

“For having lived in Westminster—how many years now? Over twenty,--one feels even in the midst of the traffic, or waking at night, Clarissa was positive, a particular hush, or solemnity; an indescribable pause; a suspense (but that might be her heart, affected, they said, by influenza) before Big Ben strikes. There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable.”

This passage is about Clarissa Dalloway’s connection to the city, linking her own heartbeat to the clock’s chimes. But it’s also a good example of stream of consciousness: it has associative thoughts (moving from the clock chimes to her influenza), unusual syntax (all those semi-colons!), and sensory details (like sound, music, and the feeling of a heartbeat).

Virginia Woolf is particularly well known for this narrative technique, along with some other modernist heavy hitters like James Joyce, William Faulkner, and Marcel Proust. Those particular authors were writing in the 1920s and 30s, but stream-of-consciousness isn’t limited to a particular time period or literary movement. It’s unusual, but it has been used by authors like Ken Kesey and Sylvia Plath in the 1960s, as well as Irvine Welsh, George Saunders, and Jonathan Safran Foer in the last decade or so.

Here’s one more example, this one from Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved:

“the air is heavy / I am not dead / I am not / there is a house / there is what she whispered to me / I am where she told me / I am not dead / I sit / the sun closes my eyes / when I open them I see the face I lost / Sethe’s is the face that left me / Sethe sees me see her and I see the smile / her smiling face is the place for me / it is the face I lost / she is my face smiling at me”

This example is even more disjointed than the first, and that’s a key element of understanding this particular character. The speaker (Beloved) is childlike, ghostly, scared, and confused. Her agitated repetition of “I am not dead” makes it feel like she’s desperately holding onto life, and the many echoes of Sethe’s smiling face show the emotional resonance and importance that image carries for Beloved.

Association is also prominent in this example, moving from the house to the sun to the eyes to Sethe’s face. And how about that syntax?! This particular character’s thoughts are so fluid and stream-like that there is no punctuation at all. This adds to the urgency of the passage, the fear, and, finally, the hope.

Further Resources for Teachers

William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" offers a short glimpse into the young boy Sarty's "stream-of-consciousness" thought processes.  At the start of the story, Sarty identifies the man who tries to prosecute his pyromaniac father as his "father's enemy" before thinking "our enemy...ourn! mine and hisn both!  He's my father!"

Writing Prompt: How does the form of Sarty's thoughts relate to the stream-of-consciousness form described in the above video?  What anxieties or tensions does this repetition reveal in Sarty's worldview, and how do these tensions foreshadow later elements in the plot?

Interested in more video lessons? View the full series:

The Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms

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What is Stream of Consciousness? | Definition & Examples

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Learn what stream of consciousness means and how it shapes our interpretations through Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and everyday life.

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The 1920s or "The Roaring 1920s" was a period of time in America where the country was undergoing a lot of changes in society, increase of wealth, culture, and more.

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The Great Depression was a economic crisis caused by the stock market crash of 1929 as well as other factors like overproduction during the war, increase of living cost, and more.

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World War 1 started after the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand. The War lasted 4 years, from 1914 to 1918. The War became a World War because of the alliance system, which led many countries to enter the war to protect their allies.