Entry 71: Historical Influences

Look at the time line on pages 632-633 of your textbook and examine the political and social events that went along with the development of the Modernist movement. Which events are you most familiar with? Which events are new to you? Choose a few events that you think might have been particularly influential in shaping the artistic movements of the time period and describe what they were and why you think they were important. Do you see any historical, social, or political events in today’s world that might influence artistic movements, either now or in the future?

• The events that particularly had influence in shaping the artistic movements of the time period are usually bad and negative in some way. It is these negative events that caused the optimistic American Dream to be torn apart, resulting in people becoming pessimistic and causing and motivating them to change their ways of expression in art and literature. The main event is war. War caused many people to realize that the world is actually not optimistic at all, and the deaths and destruction of war just made people realize just how terrible war, and the world, is. Many people became depressed and pessimistic about the world, that war would not end and they would all have to suffer. Finally, the war ended. Then came depression, making it harder for everyone to survive. Prices inflated, money was lost, and people couldn't live without working themselves until they couldn't work anymore. This caused even more people to fall into despair, and this is when the modernist movement peaked. People began to not only depict the "true" nature of the world, also know as reality, they began to create art and literature that is totally and completely new, different from traditional ways of art and literature.