Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg wrote a poem called Chicago that describes his home city. The general message of the poem is used to describe how people worked and lived in the city-based on his personal judgments. He gives the viewer a snippet of what it was like to live in a metropolitan city during the industrial revolution where there were prostitutes, murder, hunger, and the shortcomings of the government (Villarreal). He also describes the city’s sound (loud, big, busy and full of action) and the weather (stormy, husky and brawling). After giving the viewer a vivid picture of the city, he counters it by detailing what he finds great about the city and promises to fight (sneer) anyone who goes against his city. Carl Sandburg deviates from the writing styles of early American writers and poets (Ruland and Malcolm). Prior to 1865, the majority of novels, poems, and books were written with the aim of romanticizing a particular way of thinking that values an individual over the group (Anvarovna, 17). This usually put a person’s emotional experience above any rational reason highlighting the importance of natural ambiguity over man-made order. An example of these is the book by Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and his poem The Raven. Towards the end of the American Civil War, romanticized literature began to fall out of favor as many soldiers returned home after witnessing one of the most grueling experiences in human history. Writers, many of them were veterans, wrote pieces that were detailed and contained unembellished visions of the world (Jay). This phenomenon was known as naturalistic literature (Bode). This was seen in many books between 1870 to 1910 with examples of books like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Anvarovna, 17).
The poem Chicago took the naturalistic aspect of the previous period of American literature while taking into consideration advances in science and technology that was as a result of industrialization. The poem was among the first pieces of literature that gave audiences a sense of unprecedented progress in which it tries to vividly showcase the spread of technology, like skyscrapers, to its audience (Jay). The realistic approach, similar to that of naturalistic American literature, was aimed at showcasing both sides of technological progress. Without the growth of Chicago as an industrial hub, vices like prostitution could not be found in the city (Anvarovna, 17). These contradictory approaches acted as an inspiration in which modernist literature emulates. This was a commonplace from pre-world war years to the end of the post-world war, where artists began to use their work to showcase a radical break from the past (Ruland and Malcolm). This was mainly projected as destructive acts that caused people to lose faith in traditional institutions and belief systems (Anvarovna, 17).
One of the most renowned proponents of Carl Sandburg’s approach was Francis Scott Fitzgerald in his book The Great Gatsby. In this book, he uses the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on the prosperous long island to tell a story between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchannan. The book uses the modernism aspects employed by Carl Sandburg to compare and contrast themes like the American Dream, Gender relations, and Class inequality. The book also tries to showcase the breakaway from past American ideals into the modern age by focusing on issues the change in social structure and the rise of women in society (Bode).
Currently, the United States of America is in a contemporary phase that is characterized by the emergence of the United States as the dominant world superpower after more than four decades of proxy wars and threats of global annihilation. This added more complexity and inclusivity to American literature in topics that seemed to reflect the view of persons from different backgrounds (Ruland and Malcolm). The contemporary phase to American literature borrows heavily from the naturalistic phase, especially in African American literature like the Black Boy, written by Richard Wright that vividly explains the plight and problems faced by them post-civil war era and the segregation era (Bode). The contemporary literature phase also shows the break away from the past through the emphasis of themes like feminism and consciousness that are engaging in American society (Villarreal). Finally, it makes use of Carl Sandburg’s approach of trying to build a long-lasting influence with other writers while increasing the expectations of the reader (Bode).
It can be concluded that the contributions of Carl Sandburg towards the creation of the modern phase of American literature. Carl Sandburg is responsible for transforming the previous phases of romanticized literature and naturalistic (realistic) literature into the modernist literature. This can be seen in pieces of literature like The great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Native Son by Richard Wright that tried to incorporate past phases of American literature. The aspects of these phases of literature can be credited with the creation of contemporary literature works like the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and Howl by Allen Ginsberg.
Works Cited
Anvarovna, Mustafayeva Mavlyuda. “The basic periods of American literature.” Достижения науки и образования 4 (17) (2017).
Bode, Carl. “Highlights of American Literature.” (1995).
Jay, Gregory S. American literature and the culture wars. Cornell University Press, 2018.
Mustafayeva, Mavlyuda Anvarovna. “THE BASIC PERIODS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.” Достижения науки и образования 4 (2017): 52–53.
Ruland, Richard, and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A history of American literature. Routledge, 2016.
Villarreal, Evert. Recovering Carl Sandburg: politics, prose, and poetry after 1920. Diss. Texas A&M University, 2006.