Unit 9 Modernism

1. I think this unit is going to be going over modernism and defining "The American Dream"  and knowing what it means and also i think we are going to have to relate them to their contemporary context or historical background.

2. The selection i chose was "The Jazz Age" because for some reason i really never learned to much about that and I'm very interested in learning a little more about it, and then again it just sounded very intersting to me.

3. The story i chose was "May Day by: F. Scott Fitzgerald" This story related to the theme that i chose which was Jazz Age it talked about how the soldiers in the story went to a night bar/club and got so intoxicated that they were ready to pick a fight. This story states many parts of the theme that i chose cause the setting of the story was about a dance that they danced to  a jazz band at Delmonico and it stated the smells and the views that was seen in the story. But the main thing that the author in the story is trying to point out is how the soldiers/people in the story made a fool of themselves for example:  when the soilders had picked a fight with the may day protester because they didn't agree with the fight and the soldiers caused a big huge fight out of nothing.

4.  Poem(1) The first poem was Richard Corey by Edwin Arlington Robinson this poem was telling about how this rich man seemed so happy everyday and how nice looking he looked everyday and but at the end of the poem he killed his self so the man in the story i think lived really well but at the end of the day he probably wasn't happy with himself or he had some trouble in his life that he couldn't take.

   In this poem it shows Disillusionment very well because the people in the poem are thinking in their mind just because he is rich hes living happy and so great not knowing how he could really be thinking or feeling inside.

Poem (2)  The second poem was Mending Wall by Robert Frost this poem was talking bout A stone wall separates the speaker’s property from his neighbor’s. In spring, the two meet to walk the wall and jointly make repairs. The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls. The neighbor resorts to an old adage: “Good fences make good neighbors.” The speaker remains unconvinced and mischievously presses the neighbor to look beyond the old-fashioned folly of such reasoning. His neighbor will not be swayed. The speaker envisions his neighbor as a holdover from a justifiably outmoded era, a living example of a dark-age mentality. But the neighbor simply repeats the adage. In this poem it shows Disillusionment well to because the neighbor in the story is not use to nothing but a wall to make himself feel safe but the speaker is trying to convince him that everything is ok without it.  

  
                                                            

Poem(3) The third poem was A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes i think this poem was about  when u have a dream that seems like u will never reach it because people try and get in the way of your dream u just push it aside and LH is asking what happens to it when it all fails. This poems show Disillusionment because its talking bout if people get in the way of your dreams.

Poem (4) The fourth poem was The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes this story was about a  speaker telling us that he has known rivers and that his soul has come to be as deep as a river. Then he explains just how that transformation took place. He lived near the Congo River in central Africa. He helped to build the pyramids in Egypt . He tells us again that he has known lots of ancient, dusky rivers, and that his soul has become as deep as these rivers. almost four thousand years ago. But i think the Disillusionment in this poem was that he been threw so much as a African American but he still made it to the top and explored everything.

Poem(5) The fifth poem was Incident by Countee Cullen in this poem begins his trip to Baltimore full of joy and excitement. He sees a boy from Baltimore about his age staring at him. Thinking he could possibly make a friend he smiled, but was totally unprepared for the boy’s reaction. Instead of a friendly gesture in return the boy stuck out his tongue and called him a “nigger.” As you could imagine the boy’s feelings were hurt. Out of all the things he experienced.
   The disillusionment in this poem was that the little boy wasn't use to what was going on and ended up getting hurt because he was just trying to make a friend of another race.
     
Poem(6) The sixth poem was Chicago by Jack London this poem is about a celebration of an urbanization that was fueled by industrialism and inventions like electric lights and new modes of transportation. It is also a realistic look at a city growing so fast that its population at this time was doubling every 20 years. 
 The Disillusionment in this poem is how a big city is progressing over time from a horrible storm . 
 
5. In this unit it basically went over disillusionment and what it meant and i had to find out how disillusionment fitted in the poems and story's i read.This unit was really different from the others because it had to do with real life things unlike dark romanticism and the others we did.