Brandon+B

- Brandon Ballesteros
 * 1) Modernism is the present. It is everything that was made and is within the current times. Modernism is always changing, so things in modernism cannot stay modern forever. Modernism changes and leaves things behind and makes room for the new things. Though modernism changes what is in it, the idea stays the same. All things those are “modern.” Modernism is whatever is modern. Things that are “modern” must be defined by the people who bask in modernism. This is why modernism is always changing. People always change the idea of what is modern. Some people could consider modernism as a progression of improvements because humanity is always improving things and making new thing to be modern. Then everything else becomes old, outdated, and old fashion. That is what modernism is.

3. The poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a modernist because of the various words used in the poem. This poem is mostly modernist because if the fact that it is describing a modernist person. “Do I dare/ Disturb the universe” (Eliot, 53-54). The poem is describing a person that feels alienated from the rest of society. We discussed in class how modernist are people who have been alienated for the rest of society. In the line the character is being described as feeling “why bother.” Thereby describing a modernist person. He wants to keep to himself because people are not ready to accept him. People normally fear what they don’t understand. This could be the character’s mindset so he feels that society will push him away. That is hat make this poem a modernist poem. - Brandon Ballesteros

4. The term existentialism is the philosophical theory that existence of an individual person is greater than the essence. “I think; therefore I exist” (Descartes). This quote explains how existence precedes essence. It presents this by basically saying that when a person thinks, they are also individual. Thus proving that the person exists. It also claims that without thought, a person cannot truly exist. They become part of a matched set and no longer have any individualism. For existence to precede essence, a person has to have thought that contributes to society. - Brandon Ballesteros