Tovi+J

- Tovi F. Johnson
 * 1) Modernism is what is seen throughout today’s culture. The styles, new technology, hobbies, speech, laws, etcetera are all examples of modernism. New philosophy and common artwork are main contributors to the modernism of the generation. Through the ages there have been stages where one idea was more accepted than the others, such as certain deities, forms of government, architecture, language, artwork, etc. In the earlier years people based all belief off of religion and this is what waged wars, the art work did not develop into detail until much later. As this progressed new monarchies were being formed and people’s rights being debated, the plays and arts flourished bringing about realistic and well researched forms. The governments and exploration created different ideas through the form of government, nationalism brought about new ages. Then religion stopped being the most crucial factor in daily life as new studies and ideas were created during the Enlightenment. The compilation of all the past ideas and today’s interests make up modernism, this is the pop-culture where extreme representation and symbolism is found in artwork. What people like in artwork is often an explanation of what and who they are, depicting their individual styles and general culture.

3. T.S. Eliot’s poem is very modernist because it talks in a way that is absent of period. He relates to the world through time and people, aspects that never change through the eras. “There will be time, there will be time; To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands,” (Eliot 1). He speaks of time, but not the specifics of time so it keeps a modern tone applying to any age. This is a very modernist statement to make because it was modern when written and if repeated in the recent passage of time it would again be considered modern. He also talks about preparing a face, again lacking specifics of how it is prepared, to meet the faces you meet; this relates to the style of any point in time, thus being able to fit into modernism once again. To have time to murder and to create and work, all necessities of any time period; this is a pattern throughout that explains why the poem is considered so modernist. The words written do not only describe the modernism of the moment they were written, but they can be used at any other period after and still be considered modern. - Tovi F. Johnson

4. Existentialism is the basis for human individuality. An existentialist writer states, "No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse" (Nietzsche 18). This is explaining the essence of culture, where no one is anything other than one more person. Everybody has a similar goal and intends to blend in with the others to make it through life. The ones who choose to live and exist in this world have to plan and act upon it themselves. The quote explains the voluntary act of joining a madhouse, which means to be an existentialist one must endure pain and struggle and do it willingly. Without this hardship, existing is not possible. Those who live as a shadow of another who live the same as those around them will have an easier life, but that life will not have meaning. - Tovi F. Johnson