Depression after Modernism

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway contains characters who all seem to be almost redeveloping their social skills, personalities, and confidence after the World War that had taken place right before the plot begins in America. Large events in American history influence the changes and development of literature in America and the first World War was one event that was particularly damaging. The ideas present in literature became much more somber and complex, making the effects of the war evident. American authors had been impacted by the war and their writing, the style, characters, plot, setting, and overall methods of writing had changed creating a writing period of depression in American literature.

Modernism is the period that these changes were most easily seen in as the period started following the war. I studied the Modernism period in English at the start of the semester and with that research now present in my mind I am able to notice characteristics of modernist writing in the literature we read inside class and outside of class. When reading Hemingway's book, not only the style and techniques used in his writing are obviously modern, but the characters feelings and struggles with their own view of themselves and self-confidence are examples of the depression they were involved in following the war they had fought in before the book began. This connection was interesting for me to understand and helped me to realize what the Hemingway was trying to express through his characters personalities and actions.