The Modern Period

It is common that the affluent writers of the modern period would naturally write about the events and circumstances of their time. It seems easier to write about people who mirror their society. Additionally, in doing so, it makes the content more relatable to their literary lay readers. No one really understands what they have not personally experienced. Therefore, it seems astute to have a storyline based on broad pragmatic circumstances. Therefore, they had an ideal reader in mind, hoping they would relate to the content. For instance, they spoke about religion, God, economy, race issues, family conflicts, etc. All these issues were at-hand during the modern era. Moreover, such controversial issues went hand-in-hand with suffering of some sort that was unfortunately, experienced by most. The times were hard and dire and the authors probed at their audience accordingly. Analyzing the collection of works of Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Flannery O’Connor is identifiable that they centralized the historical and thematic concerns based on the modern period.

Willa Cather reflected the modern period history and themes of human relations, friendships, sociological issues and values in her collection of works. She focused on the psychological aspect of her characters as well as their characteristics and/or virtues. In her piece, My Antonia (1918) the character Antonia is perceived as kind, loyal, smart and inner strength as well as optimistic though a challenged life as a result of her father’s death. Cather’s novel is set in the 19th Century living conditions as well as frontier people. She touched on matter regarding gender and race. Also, she highlights individual values that branches out into other subc...

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... of the issues of life were ever in the forefront in her pieces. She commonly used controversial issues in her tales for example, her character would consider, no doubt, black people to be positioned “on the bottom of the heap” (O’Connor) merely because of their race.

Unique authors were Cather, Fitzgerald and O’Connor. However, they did base their writings on the modern period and the era’s themes and history accordingly in their works. These issues were common for the times and relatable by most lay readers. This made it an easy read, and most likely enjoyable as well as entertaining. Possibly even with the history connotations made it a learning experience. Also, with their works mentioning religious lessons and themes it may have had an impact on their audience as having been enlightening perhaps to those who knew nothing about the subject of God.