Effects of Major Political and Social Movements on the Literary Works of 20th Century Essay Example For Students

Effects of Major Political and Social Movements on the Literary Works of 20th Century Essay Just a decade back, the calendar changed from 1999 to 2000 and the event was marked by joyous celebrations and fireworks throughout the world. Television networks broadcasted this grand event from all over the world. Though the year 2000 belongs to the 20th century, none of us were actually bothered celebrating the turn on of the 21st century. However, I don’t think the same celebration took place when the calendar was turning on the very first day of 20th century. Hardly anyone had any idea on that day on what is about to unfold in the coming hundred years. Then the human civilization saw the most eventful century of the entire history. It was a hundred years when human race observed the greatest of the inventions that changed the lifestyle at a very rapid pace. It was the century when various social and political ideologies were born, spread and died. The world saw two of the most devastating global wars, which could have caused the end of mankind. We saw the rise and fall of super powers and we saw a new kind of war that was not fought with the weapons. We saw the end of colonialism and we saw the rise of terrorism. The world economy suffered from two of the greatest financial meltdown. Knowingly or unknowingly, all these great events had enormous effect on the lives of the global citizens. And just like any other time, literary works from this period was influenced massively by the events of this happening century. A hundred years is not a very lengthy period in the context of human civilization. But in these hundred years of 20th century, there were far more remarkable events or happenings than any other century. The century starts with the collapse of imperialism (Twentieth Centurys Triumphant Entry†) which was followed by the collapsing of colonialism during the middle of the century. The first half of the century saw two great wars, World War I (914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945), and the Great Depression during the inter-war years (De 129). This is the century which saw the end of colonialism at the last decade of its first half. This is also the decade when a bomb named ‘Little Boy’ destroyed the life of half million people in Hiroshima in under 5 minutes (â€Å"Tale of Two Cites†). The second half of this century was ruled by a war of nerves, known as the cold war (Thompson 7). The end of the Second World War gave birth of 2 political super powers, United States and the Soviet Union, who tried to rule the post colonial period with their military strength and political influence. The cold war dominated the geographical life for more than 45 years and came to an end with as the Soviet Union collapsed internally in 1991 (Brown). Though this century saw many major wars, the century itself was not just about wars. The century also saw the advancement on other fields such as medicine, science and technology. X-rays, antibiotics, contraceptive, penicillin, vaccination are just to name a few which had changed the world of medicine and so did the life of the people. Advancement in the field of science and technology was just enormous. From television to computers, from satellites to space shuttles- the advancement of science and technology is seen in every single place. Scientific theories such as the theory of relativity drastically changed the world view of the scientist. The mechanization and automation took place on every sector and still taking place even today. This is also the century when mass media, telecommunication and information technology has made the w orld’s knowledge more widely available. The media brought the world closer and as people see the struggle of others, awareness started to build up on issues like human rights and global warming. Apart from the great wars, medical and scientific advancements, 20th century also saw the development of various new philosophical schools. Existentialism, post-structuralism, Marxism, feminism- just are a few to name. Such new philosophic thoughts influenced the religion, politics and social values. Existentialism is generally considered to be the philosophical and cultural movement which holds that the starting point of philosophical thinking must be the individual and the experiences of the individual (Coates). Such philosophic values have strong conformation with many religious philosophies. Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry centered upon a materialist interpretation of history (Wolff, and Cullenberg 130) and was an inspiration for the Russian Revolution of 1917 (Weber, and Vale 4). Then there was the rise of feminism, which means â€Å"the radical notion that women are people†, according to British suffragist and journ alist Rebecca West. The feminist movement was a social and political movement that sought to establish equality for women and many writers from the 20th century reflected this ideology of equal right in their writing. The 20th century has a great number of writers whose works reflect both the time and the nature of life in this period. However, a very significant notion is that the great literary works from this period did not come only from the American or British writers; it also came from different part of the world. The rise of globalization has allowed European and American literary ideas to spread into non-Western cultures fairly rapidly, so that Asian and African literatures can be included into these divisions with only minor qualifications. Also, many native African or Asian writers either started writing in English or their great works were translated. As a result, the literary resources get richer by day and the reflection of the people and their life from all over the world become more prominent in literature. Since 20th century has seen a very large amount of great literary works, only a handful selection of fiction is used in this paper. Each selection is unique and has its own theme . However, collectively they share a common pattern, portrayal of individuals than society, and show the various effects of socio-political factors of that time. Geosynchronous Orbits EssayFeminism is another phenomenon that has widely influenced the writers of the 20th century. Though the concept of feminism started to grow in the later part of the 19th century, 20th century is the period when it was established as an idealistic movement. Literature from this period started to take a more insightful observation towards the women of the society. Many writers mentioned the oppression and social injustice that women have been facing over the years. The authors also tried to analyze the psychological aspects of women and how the surrounding male dominant environment shapes up their mind. D.H. Lawrence was perhaps the most prominent writer from the 20th century who analyzed woman psychology at a great depth. In â€Å"Odour of Chrysanthemums† Lawrence showed the transformation of an ordinary housewife who is no more afraid to face the life even after she becomes a widow. Similarly, Joyce also upheld this feminist self-dependency approach by ending â€Å"Evelyn† which can be interpreted that Evelyn no longer wants to get identified by his father or his to-be husband. It is also notable that not too many writers in the previous century showed the psychological development of women in their writing. But 20th century writers took a different approach and many of them actually tried to make a point that women are not just meant to cook, clean or bear babies, they can think as well. Morrison developed the character of Claudia in â€Å"The Bluest Sky† who tries to figure out not just how the life of another typical black woman rolls, she also tries to find out why they have to meet their â€Å"fate†. Apart from the above themes, which are mostly resulted due to political and philosophic movements taken place in that period, 20th century literatures also carries certain characters that is very distinct from the literature of the other periods. The writers tried to focus on individuals, rather than society, how individuals are suffering from identity crisis, how the modern civilization is creating void in human relationship and how the psychological forces are shaping up their behavior. Individualism is a very prominent feature in 20th century writing trend. If we look back at the fiction writers in the previous century or even earlier, we may notice that they highlighted mostly society and various social problems. Individuals were just representative of certain social segments. They do not have their own individual dimension. Social issues like slavery, racism etc. were focused but the individual lives that are affected by these forces, were hardly receiving any attention. But this trend changed in the 20th century, when writers started to focus on the individuals. If we take a look at all the discussed texts related to this paper, we will see every piece of writing address and prioritize the individual than the society. Whether be it Mrs. Elizabeth Bates, Evelyn or Tommy Wilhelm, they all represent individuals. In this connection it can be said many of the 20th century writers also wrote on the lives of the people of middle-class, which has emerged due to the indu strialization and rapid urbanization. 20th century literature also takes the great suffering of identity crisis of the individual from almost all level of the society. From housewife to tribal hero to modern stock broker, almost everyone is in quest of their identity. Mrs. Bates seeks the meaning of life as she gets tired of being a good wife and mother. Evelyn is not sure which course of life she should choose. Oknowo just knows about masculinity, not about anything else that should matter in life. Maureen cannot figure out who she really is despite her husband and children adapts to a new life. And Tommy, who has tried almost all the professions of the world, is still unsure what suits him. So, almost every piece of text we have read, we see individuals are confused about who they really are and looking for their true identity. Finally, the approach of the writers from the 20th century is more towards the psychic of human. We see enhanced analysis of ordinary individuals and how the social forces and factors are affecting their soul. Human alienation has been a dominant theme in the literature of this period. From the isolated death of Mr. Bates in â€Å"Odour of Chrysanthemums† to Tommy Wilhelm’s weeping over a stranger’s corpse in â€Å"Seize the Day†- they all represent how the modern men are getting more and more isolated, resulted by the complexities of life. Bellow was perhaps the master of all who portrayed a very realistic image of modern human through Tommy Wilhelm, who is termed very significantly as â€Å"alone in the crowd†. It is so true that today we have so many amenities around us to make our life comfortable but perhaps in doing so we are ignoring the human bond which has formed the relations and kept everyone tied together. If someone is asked, how you would define 20th century in a single sentence, one may answer that this is the century which has seen enormous progress in human civilization but has also been bleed severely due to all the wars. And literature from this period also reflects these forces that shaped up the human life and civilization.