Major Historical Events: World War I (1914-1918), The Great Depression (1929-1939), World War II (1939-1945, America entered 1941), the Holocaust (1941-1945), Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937), airplanes (1903)

Major authors: Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Wilfred Owen, Randall Jarrell, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Edwin Arlington Robinson, E.E. Cummings, and Ernest Hemingway.

Major Historical Events: Civil Rights Movement, JFK assassination, man lands on moon, MLK assassination, Bill Clinton scandal, Watergate, Vietnam War, 9/11

Major authors: Elizabeth Bishop, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Amiri Baraka, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, Joy Harjo, Timothy Yu, Lo Kwa Mei-en, Miller Oberman, Maisha M. Prome.

Major Historical Events: World War I (1914-1918), The Great Depression (1929-1939), World War II (1939-1945, America entered 1941), the Holocaust (1941-1945), Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937), airplanes (1903)

Major authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ralph Ellison, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner.

Dates: Published in 1925 & Set in 1922

Point of View: First person 

Themes: The American Dream, Wealth, Love, Deception

Connection: The Great Gatsby connects to modernism via the American Dream and bootlegging. Nick says, “‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all. . .’ Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder” (Fitzgerald 69). This quote is a great representation of the American Dream. During the 1920s, everyone thought that they could pursuit their dreams. America was though of as a utopia for many of people. The Great Gatsby connects to the time period  also through World War I. Gatsby says, “‘Then came the war, old sport’” (66). Gatsby fought in World War I and that took his away time from Daisy. 

 

Dates: Published in 1920, set in World War I

 

Point of View: First Person

 

Themes: Terror, Confusion, The Reality of War

 

Connection: “Dulce et Decorum Est” connects to its time period through World War I and technological advancements. Wilfred Owen writes, “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est” (27). This Latin phrase is taken from the Roman poet Horace and it means, “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” This line and title of the poem indicate that the poem is about World War I. “Dulce et Decorum Est” also connects to the modernism time period because of the technological advances. The speaker notes the “gas-shells dropping softly behind” (8). Gas-shells were a technological advancement during the war in order to quickly kill off the opposition.

 

Dates: 2020

 

Point of View: First person

 

Themes: Questioning, Being alive, Music

Connection:  “Alive” connects to its time period through Corona Virus and questioning society. Maisha Prome writes, “still can’t go outside” (5). This is about the quarantine period that happened at the beginning of the Corona Virus Pandemic. This poem was written to remind the readers of what life was like during this terrible and confusing time that we lived in. Prome is quick to question why society did not go outside more before the pandemic. This is shown by her writing, “All those years when the city was alive / And yet we sat still and studied” (7-8). Promes thinks that we should have spent our pre-pandemic life outside and living instead of inside.