Modernism

Modernism In Miller's Death of a salesman the theme of individual powerlessness is re-occurring. The entire play is based on the life of a man who has basically failed at everything he has done. All this bad fortune is not just Willy Loman's fault, he has to face the cruel reality for the world and try to cope with it. Unfortunately Willy fails at his attempt of coping with the real world. The theme of individual powerlessness and alienation is not just re-occurring in Death Of A Salesman. Individual powerlessness is a very common theme in modernism. Many other modern poets and writers show this same theme in their work. E.E. Cummings is a great example of a modern poet who shows the theme of individual powerlessness and alienation.Miller does a wonderful job in showing the theme of individual powerlessness and alienation that Willy goes through in Death Of A Salesman.Death of a Salesman (1951 film)Willy has a very hard life, which leads him to do several stupid acts. Willy is faced with so mu ch grief that he attempts to commit suicide several times by crashing his car. To some extent Willy is not the one responsible for all the bad things that have happened to him throughout his life. Society has rejected Willy and his old fashioned thinking. Society, at this point has evolved so quickly that Willy has not been able to catch up. So in a way, society is the one responsible for alienating Willy. He has not been able to recover from this new change in the world. Willy is seen as a loser, a no-body, someone who has not accomplished anything in his life. Willy's last action of powerlessness was his suicide.E.E. Cummings, along side of Arthur Miller, both wrote modern literature. Both these authors showed... Modernism A good example of Modernism is a short story called I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen. This story not only portrays gender roles but also family roles. Here the narrator is a mother giving the reader a glimpse into her life, choices she made as a mother, and being a single parent. Through her defense of her situation, she exposes to the reader the underlying insecurities that riddle her mind about her mothering. The tale opens with the narrator explaining the pain she feels when she is reminded of her past and the choices she made. The main character reflects on how the situation may or may not have affected her child Emily. As she suggests, although it is years later, she still does not have time for her children. The mother feels all her children after Emily have had it better. With that said, I shall try to explore the question. What is the difference from then and now? As a young mother, the narrator expresses how she wanted to be the best mother, the right mother for her child Emily. She admits that she was a first time mother ...with all the rigidity of first motherhood... She reads books to educate her self and she believes the experts and what makes the best kind of mother. Tillie Olsen writes about how the character, through physical sacrifice, nursed her child. The story raises our awareness of gender and family roles by the comments of the narrator. We become aware of the constraints we place upon ourselves to fit in with what the majority believes each role in a family should be. The character confesses that she had to parent alone, a nineteen-year-old single parent, and sarcastically quotes a note her husband left for her ...he could no longer endure. Tillie Olsen leaves us, the reader with the sense that the character in the story now feels more of a failure. Because of the thinking of her time, she should be married. It is unfortunate that her h...