Life In Twentieth-Century America

Life in Twentieth-century America
Society is changing every day. Prior to just over a year ago, it was not legal to marry the person you love if that person was the same gender as their significant other. Disparities between men and women continue to decrease. Our government is increasingly recognizing the need for social change. The selection’s we’ve read in this section have commonly revealed the personal relationships of Americans in the twentieth century. Literary works across the twentieth century have shown a significant transition in topics, with topics on sexuality, abortion, and the middle class taking rising to the stage. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, it was uncommon to hear about these topics in literature. I assume this may …show more content…
These poems were more relatable, at least for me, because the topics are issues that we still have today - they're more relevant. In the latter part of the twentieth century, social structures began to change and people were more open to discuss these topics. They don't deal with specific groups or races, so they're very relatable for readers of all backgrounds. "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden deals with a father-son relationship. I'm sure dads everywhere have varying relationships with their kids, even from day-to-day. They might even feel underappreciated at times. "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks is a look at the relationship between a mother and her aborted child. Brooks does a really good job at touching the reader's heart. We're aware of the great deal of emotion experienced by the mother, and it's very likely that mothers today feel similarly. Finally, in Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California," we get an account of the narrator's trip to the grocery store. People watching at the grocery store is nothing new for me as I do it all the time, and I'm sure many others do too. This poem delves into the topic of homosexuality. Both the poets Ginsberg mentions in this work, Whitman and Lorca, and Ginsberg himself are homosexuals. Homosexuality in America is still a significant problem, and it was no doubt a significant problem in the twentieth century. The poem takes the reader on a journey with Whitman as he shops, which can seem a bit creepy as if the narrator is stalking him. However, Whitman's shopping trip appears to be normal and routine; his homosexuality did make it any different. This shows that he's simply human and no different than anyone