During the modernist era, artists gradually moved away from realism towards themes of illusion, consciousness, and imagination. In the visual arts, realism evolved into cubism and expressionism. This movement has a parallel in literature, as illusions and the sensation of flow replaced realist themes of moral truth and intimacy. What, we must ask, was the impetus for this change? Although the paintings offer little information, a review of the literature provides some insight. An examination of the evolution from “The Land of Sharp Firs” to “The Great Gatsby” reveals that Jewett and Fitzgerald attribute this change to the social force of urbanization. Jewett, a realist writer, offers readers a time and place where these forces are minimal and characters are able to achieve intimacy in their relationships, find moral truths in life, and perceive reality. He contrasts these scenes with some examples of the destructive infiltration of city life into the countryside. Fitzgerald's modernist novel makes the same argument, but focuses on city life. It focuses on characters living in the New York metropolitan area who are plagued by an obsession with the superficiality of materialism, leading to pretentiousness, illusions, and frustrated dreams. At the end of the novel, Fitzgerald contrasts these social evils with a vision of New York before industrialization and urbanization, a place where harmony and dreams can be achieved. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Visual art popular in the mid-to-late 19th century, Jewett's era, is classified as realism. In realism, subjects are represented simply: in scenes of everyday life, without idealizations. These paintings therefore achieve almost the same effect as a photograph. In general, the artworks of this era are rooted in reality and there is a sense of intimacy between material objects and people. As an illustrator for Harper's Weekly, the best-known magazine of the late 19th century, Winslow Homer became its spokesman for the American realist movement. His illustrations for Harper's Weekly were painted in a realist style. The critic Lloyd Goodrich writes that "his war drawings were exceptional for their realism. There was nothing heroic about them; they mostly showed everyday life in the camp... their naked honesty, their sense of character and humor, and their bold graphic quality set them apart" (13). The phrase "naked honesty" in this criticism highlights the direct approach to reality taken by realist painters. Furthermore, criticism focuses on Homer's efforts to intimately portray the subject's character. The sketch of late 19th-century Maine country life illustrated in "The Country of the Pointed Firs" parallels the themes found in the paintings discussed above. The main goal of realist writers - like realist painters - is to present life from an objective point of view (Donovan 129). Realist writers also echo painters' efforts to provide clear representations of characters' personalities. However, one theme of realist writing not found in Homer's work is the corruption of urbanization. Literary critic Josephine Donovan explains the technique commonly used by writers: Romanticism was the first literary reaction against industrial capitalism, and realism carried forward its criticism. Both movements denounced the effects of mechanization: its reduction of products to qualitative equality and of people to the level of products. Literatureromantic tended to exalt the value of personal, subjective, emotional reaction and the virtues of places and times far from the industrial city of the 19th century. Writers in the tradition of realism…chose to focus on the details of contemporary life to evoke a similar critique in the reader's mind (129). Jewett uses Donovan's technique to show his disgust with city life. In his novel, characters find moral truth in friendship and family; they have a firm grip on reality and there are several moments of emotionally satisfying intimacy, all in the absence of industrialism. Jewett then contrasts these images with negative views of the advent of urbanization in the rural city. In "The Land of Sharp Firs," feelings of deep personal connection are exemplified by Mrs. Todd's harmony with the other characters. The narrator's relationship with Mrs. Todd begins as a business relationship, but Mrs. Todd's sincere and empathetic personality eventually shines through and a strong bond is formed. Jewett writes, "Mrs. Todd and I were not separated or distanced by the change in our business relationships; on the contrary, a deeper intimacy seemed to begin" (Jewett 7). The word "intimacy" in this passage sums up the mood of many parts of the novel and recalls one of the main themes of the entire realist movement. Mrs. Todd's herbs are a symbol of her lively and personable demeanor. The narrator not only notes that herbs serve as a treatment for common diseases, but also states, "It sometimes seemed that love, hate, and jealousy... could find their adequate remedies even among the curious plants from 'Wild Look of Mrs. Todd's Garden' (Jewett 4). Like herbs, she also shows an aptitude for dealing with things like love and loss. The character of Mrs. Blacket serves as a focal point for the family unit, with her talent for seeing things with the clarity of a realist painting. The motif of family reunion in this novel is used by Jewett to show the intimacy of a close-knit rural community and a strong moral conviction in the characters. Reflecting on a visit to her mother's house on Green Isle, Mrs. Todd looks out at the island in the sea. Just then, "The flash of sun on that outermost island made it seem like a sudden revelation of the world beyond this one which some believe to be so near. 'That's where mother lives,' said Mrs. Todd." (Jewett 30). The ray of sunshine in this passage is a symbol of the family unity woven by Mrs. Blacket. By using light - traditionally a symbol of purity - and describing the family bond with divine thoughts, Jewett gives the impression that the community of family bonds is a right thing. Furthermore, in a happy family reunion scene later in the novel, all the other family members know who she is and rally behind her as she crosses a field. As a stewardess on Green Island, Mrs. Blacket displays her ability to clearly assess her surroundings. The narrator says: "Her hospitality was something exquisite; she had the gift that so many women lack, of being able to make themselves and their home belong entirely to the pleasure of the guest... Touch is after all a sort of mind reading, and my landlady held the golden gift" (Jewett 46). Mrs. Blacket has a firm grip on reality, a dominant theme found in both realist painting and literature. While themes of intimacy and truth dominate the novel, Jewett occasionally touches on the idea that urbanization is a destructive force. The characters' contempt for the loss of the seafaring tradition that once flourished in the city exposes this perspective. Captain Littlepage is one of theOlder town shippers who find the urbanized aspects of Dunnet Landing deplorable: I see a change for the worse even in our town here... I believe that a community shrinks and becomes terribly ignorant when it is locked in its own affairs and gains no knowledge of the outside world except from a cheap and unscrupulous newspaper (Jewett 20). For him, the sea opens avenues for the soul's adventure, which he contrasts with dependence on the city's manufactured and suffocating means of communication, namely newspapers. His point of view may seem unreliable because he is a mentally deranged individual, but Mrs. Todd also has this opinion. As he reflects on the times when seafaring flourished, he says: "There was more energy then... These days the young people are all imitators, afraid of not being all the same; as for the elderly, they pray for the advantage of being a little different" (Jewett 64). Here, Mrs. Todd argues that the advent of city life in Dunnet Landing breeds oppressive conformity. The theme of urban dehumanization through mass media and social conformity contrasts starkly with the divine praise of family bonds in the countryside, a contrast that forms the basis of Jewett's argument about rural versus urban life. As in Dunnet Landing, turn-of-the-century industrialized nations were experiencing a wave of urbanization accompanied by increased consumerism. In fact, the 1920 US census shows that for the first time a majority of Americans lived in urban centers (www.census.gov). It was in this context that the modernist movement was born dominated by two revolutionary styles in painting: Cubism and Expressionism While the brand of Cubism shows multiple points of view for an object or scene, the philosophy is: "Cubism is not a manner but a 'aesthetics: it is a state of mind' ( Cooper 12). Therefore, the distortion of space through the assimilation of different points of view on one thing is the result of a symbolic recreation of reality. Cubism was followed by a similar style of expressionism. In expressionism the artist's intention is not to faithfully reproduce a subject, but rather to stylize it in such a way as to reveal its state of mind. The unifying theme of modernist visual art is a departure from objective reality, initiated by the artist's existential feelings. The William S. Paley Collection in the Museum of Modern Art contains many famous Cubist and Expressionist paintings. An example of a Cubist still life is "The Architect's Table" by Pablo Picasso (1912). The views of this still life are so confusing that if it were not for the title of the painting, it would be difficult to discern what is being depicted. Critic William Rubin writes, "These paintings are difficult to read, because while they are articulated by planes, lines, shadows, space, and other vestiges of the traditional language of illusionistic representation, these constituents have been largely detached from their descriptive functions" ( 106). Rubin's description of the style as "illusionistic" is certainly apt. The portrait "Woman with a Veil" (1927) by Henri Matisse is a hybrid between cubism and expressionism: the space in which the woman sits seems distorted and the scene is highly stylized. Despite obvious deviations in form and composition from realist portraiture, the biggest difference is the limited scope that modernist painters give to their subjects' personalities. Armstrong explains that “placed behind the curtain of a veil – a psychologically distancing and self-protective device – his hypnotic gaze allows no entry” (91). This is in stark contrast to the serious and open personalities of the characters portrayed by Homer and Jewett. Modernist authors distort reality and obscure the personalities ofcharacters just like modernist painters. TS Eliot, a modernist poet, sums up the mood of the movement with his famous quote: “Humanity cannot bear reality much” (Karl 27). As this quote shows, one of the main concerns of the modernists was the question of existence. This concern is partly the result of Sigmund Freud's groundbreaking work on conscious reality at the turn of the century. Freud created a theory that explains that consciousness is actually a thin veil that protects man's true intentions: the unconscious. The idea of ​​consciousness acting as a veil is echoed in the painting discussed above: it is the imagery used in Matisse's portrait to show psychological distance, and it is the source of Picasso's recreation of reality, connecting themes of modernist painters and writers. Based on these existential ideas, modernists felt that the past should be rejected and the present exalted, because the present was what mattered. However, “Even if the present is praised, it is perceived as diminished, since the present was created materialistically and technologically” (Karl 13). This notion led to literary criticism of the increasingly industrialized world: a possible source for the psychological distance from objective reality exhibited by modernist painters. This increasing industrialization - and resulting consumerism - has created a diminished reality, a major theme in Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." The novel is set on the East Coast of the 1920s, where fame, fashion and moral corruption were rampant. In this materialistic society, they too become pretentious and suffer from illusions - very unlike Mrs. Blacket and Mrs. Fitzgerald who create this state mood in the first pages of the novel: Nick Carraway, through whose eyes the story is told, discovers that, “The intimate revelations of young people or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic” (Fitzgerald 6). They provide the characters with information about the outside world that has little or no relevance to their lives, taking away their individuality – a parallel to Captain Littlepage's denunciation of the newspapers. Tom Buchanan represents the gullibility of city dwellers with his deep interest in the obviously far-fetched book "The Rise of the Colored Empires." “Little Broadway tabloid revues” (Fitzgerald 33) appear throughout the novel, such as “Town Tattle” and “Simon Caller Peter.” These magazines illustrate the characters' unhealthy infatuation with the distant lives of celebrities: a product of pop culture and consumerism. The relationship between Gatsby and his guests emphasizes the moral corruption inherent in the cult of pop stars. People from all over New York flock to its parties to mingle with celebrities and wealth; a simulation of the glamorous scenes they read about in magazines. Yet no one seems to know that Gatsby is, and when he dies only Carraway and Gatsby's father attend his funeral. In contrast to the family reunion in Jewett's novel, where everyone knows Mrs. Blacket, the destructive forces of urban values ​​are evident in Fitzgerald's novel. Wilson's passing also shows the delusions of consumerism. Outraged by his wife's infidelity, he exclaims, "'You can fool me but you can't fool God!' Standing behind him Michaelis saw with amazement that he was looking into the eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg,” (Fitzgerald 167): the eyes of a giant billboard. In this scene, Fitzgerald criticizes American society, implying that people foolishly praise the objects they see in advertisements and pop culture as if they were gods. The main conflict in this novel is Gatsby's struggle to realize his love for Daisy. However, his dream is.