Ask The Dust Analysis

795 Words2 Pages

Miranda, 1
Anthony Miranda
Mr. Fernando
American Literature/Composition
April 16, 2015
Exploring Spaces
Introduction : Some people may confuse the modernists movement with the standard dictionary definition of modern. Modernism in Literature is not a chronological designation, rather it consists of literary work possessing certain loosely defined characteristics. Modernism is marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views. Modernism comes from experience from alienation, loss, and despair.Modernism came from the fallout of WWI and focuses on the consciousness of one being, as well as self awareness and exploring the darkness of humanity. …show more content…

“I went up to my room, up the dusty stairs of Bunker Hill, past the soot-covered frame buildings along that dark street, sand and oil and grease choking the futile palm trees standing like dying prisoners, chained to a little plot of ground with black pavement hiding their feet. Dust and old buildings and old people sitting at windows, old people tottering out of doors, old people moving painfully along the dark street” (ATD,47). This shows that to Arturo he does not think of Los Angeles as a beautiful place as it was commercialized. He uses a bit of grotesque writing within his descriptions as he escapes modernism for a moment. Bandini hates that he has changed his mind of how Los Angeles was going to be because of the commercializing of LA, although seeking the optimistic view at the end. “You'll eat hamburgers year after year and live in dusty, vermin-infested apartments and hotels, but every morning you'll see the mighty sun, the eternal blue of the sky, and the streets will be full of sleek women you never will possess, and the hot semi-tropical nights will reek of romance, you'll never have, but you'll still be in paradise, boys, in the land of sunshine”(ATD, 49). This excerpt may be seen as Modernism in the way that at first he says that Los Angeles is ugly and you will live in an ugly place an

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