Characters in American novels of the 20th century

In the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, the author criticizes the meatpacking industry during the nineteenth century and uses vivid imagery to display horrible living conditions of the people in that time. The Jungle was a book that truly showed the the migrant workers in the factories who were in poor working conditions and put anything in meat as long as they did not get in trouble. This brought many unsanitary conditions in and outside the factories. In the novel The Jungle, Upton Sinclair…

judgement. In many classic American novels, the characters do the same. In John Steinbeck 's Of Mice and Men, Lennie appears very much a classic “tough guy.” In Ernest Hemingway 's The Old Man and The Sea, Santiago is viewed as being dangerously unlucky, as well as strange. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby seems to the public the picture of success and happiness. However, in all of these novels, there is more than meets the eye. How the world views each character is not…

To be an American in the 20th Century meant that you were in pursuit of the American Dream, or, “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative”. The finish line shown in our mural represents the American Dream, with each character seeing a different goal for themselves at the end of it. The four different lanes represent the different paths the characters had to take to achieve their dream. This…

overview of the life and afterlife of one of American literature’s most important texts….A sharp work of cross-disciplinary criticism that gives new power to a diminished novel. Reynolds successfully repositions the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe as a major political work, crucial not just to the abolitionist movement, but as kindling for the Civil War and an important inspiration to the cultural discussions of race relations through most of the 20th century” — Kirkus Reviews In a well deserved…

Superiority: Ground Work of Social Justice Barrier Compare to 20th century, our society significantly demolished the barrier of social justice. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison accentuate the barriers of equal opportunity in our society in the 20th century by using the actual setting and background, which means she primarily focused on the of social justice specifically in the 20th century. After I finished the novel, I searched the definition of social justice on assorted websites, and my own…

trying to express themselves through their art. Although that amount of freedom didn’t come easily, that did not stop these artists from perusing their goal. For instance, Modernism was the most influential literary movement during the 20th century. It surrounded the novel Ulysses (1922), by James Joyce. This piece demonstrates what a Modernist writing…

how the foreign characters were treated compared to that of real-life immigrants from the late 19th century to the early 20th. During the 19th century and the early 20th, there was a spike in the number of immigrants to America from all over the world. During this time, however, there was a large amount of “Native” Americans (Colonial) who greatly opposed the new immigrants (southern and eastern Europe). In the book, we can see similarities to that of real life, that of the character Crazy…

The Decline of Victoria Ideals in Manhood and Womanhood During the transition into the 19th centuries, a push and pull between what previously was the “New Israel” versus the “New Canaan” changes to American pop culture versus Victorian ideals. Because of popular culture, Victorian ideals of manhood and womanhood underwent challenges and transformation to produce what many people accept today as true womanhood and true manhood. By looking at different sources, including Tarzan of the…

said, “you don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say” (Brainyquote). In his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald embodies several significant themes that he believes must be said, while relating each of them to the corruption of the American dream. In The Epic of America, J.T. Adams describes the American dream as, “That dream of a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank which is the greatest contribution we…

and abstraction are common features that characters portray in their world of interaction. Characters are forced to assimilate new ways of life in order to match with their immediate surroundings while others are resistant to such changes. In East goes West, several attempts are being made to form relationships. Evidently, some of the relationships work successfully while others are not. This nature of things brings about ambivalence in the lives of characters, which leads to Chungpa Han’s most…