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The Characteristics of Literary Prose in the Decades between the World Wars The period between the World Wars in the United States became a great, modern nation and witnessed a lot of changes. National demographics of the 1920 s has been also changed by industrialization, urbanization and immigration. The wars transformed the nation in various terms, politically, socially and economically. For example, as sale, manufacture and exchange of alcohol was forbidden, this gave incentive to the emergence of organized crime and Gangster phenomenon.
Although segregation and racism were still present in the North, African American population has become a significant part of the U. S. nation. This obviously found reflection in American prose. While some changes had devastating effects on the nation, the others had contributed to countrys economic growth, stimulating technological innovations and new era in American history. The events that took place within these decades found reflection in works of U.
S. writers as writers began to describe the realities of those days. Some American writers offered a completely different, an alternative way of understanding the world, making an important contribution to American culture and various movements (for example, Harlem Renaissance, black U. S. writers and women writers; the development of drama, etc. ). The essay examines characteristics of literary prose in the decades between World War I and World War II to support the thesis that changes in literature paralleled other social and cultural changes, using such readings like The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by K.
A. Porter, Black Boy by Richard Wright and others as examples to support the viewpoint. During the period between the two World Wars (1914 - 1945), America has undergone drastic changes and became a modern nation. The literature of that period was mostly focused on how to understand and response the new changes and new realities. While some American writers welcomed new changes and considered that the nation has finally stepped into the new era, the others described positive picture of the past and lamented the loss of the good old world and way of being. For example, An American Tragedy (1925) written by Theodore Dreiser describes the failure of a young person who wanted to rise from poverty to wealthy and glamorous society.
Sinclair Lewis in Main Street (1920) and Babbitt (1922) showed the intellectual, emotional poverty and monotony of the U. S. middle class of those days. Josephine Herbst in her Pity is Not Enough (1933) showed the life and development of American society, interlinking it with the historical and social events of those days. Katherine Anne Porter in her The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (1930) told the story of a dying woman, who reminds how she was left at the altar on her wedding day and her fear to be abandoned in the same way by the God (The Jilting of Granny Weatherall). This story reflects the despair and gloominess of the period between the wars.
American prose of that period was quite diverse, as some writers searched for new forms in literature, and others described future utopias. Yet, with no exception to the rule, all writers were reflecting in prose social, economic and political changes. The urbanization, inflow of immigrants, industrialization, - everything affected the way American writers wrote their works. The prohibition of sale and manufacture of alcohol that given birth to the so-called Gangster phenomenon contributed to the emergence of the images of gangsters and crime in American literature. The popularization of the ideas of Austrian psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud, the 19 th amendment that made women more politically engaged and changed their roles in public and private spheres of life, made women to advocate equality with men (although such writers like Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound still considered that writing was a job and vocation for men alone). The phenomenon of Great Migration and the fact that World War I has evoked industrial needs, African Americans finally began taking advantage of freedom and new opportunities in the North of the country.
Although the racism and segregation were still present, African Americans began making their contribution to all spheres of American life, becoming an important and influential part of the U. S. culture. With the end of the Jazz Age the U. S.
prose began reflecting the gloominess and despair of the Great Depression. This period has given birth to the authors, such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison and others writing about social tensions between social classes and races. Wrights Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth became the precursor of the Black Arts movements of the 1960 s and immediately made the author famous. This story was mostly an autobiographical account of the authors childhood memories on a rural Mississippi plantation (Wright). Similar to many other black novels, Black Boy realistically reflects a life of African Americans in a system of racial segregation, in the Jim Crow American South. In conclusion it can be said that the period between the World Wars in the United States caused significant political, social and cultural changes in the history of America.
As American writers were direct witnesses of these changes, no wonder that changes in literature paralleled other social and cultural changes in America between the two wars. Works Cited The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. 1930. 9 July 2009 < web >. Wright, R. Black Boy (American Hunger: a Record of Childhood and Youth). Perennial, 1993.
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