The Shattering of Idealism in Nadine Gerfimer´s The Moment Before the Gun Went Off and Jean Rhys The Day They Burneed the Books

Literature changed drastically between the nineteenth-century and twentieth and twenty-first century. Idealistic views that British writers once held, turned into skepticism as Great Britain enter war and inequalities grew greater. The writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries wrote realistically what was happening in the world. The Moment before the Gun Went Off by Nadine Gordimer and “The Day They Burned the Books” by Jean Rhys are both stories that show the shattering of Idealism in twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Britain’s colonialism caused many problems for natives and natural born British who lived in the colonies. The illusion of patriotism shattered as conflicts of race, class, and gender equality took light. The Moment before the Gun Went Off by Nadine Gordimer discusses racial issues in South Africa. The story itself is very realistic in its approach in discussing the very complex racial issues in South Africa. Unlike, stories in the nineteenth century which discuss how things should be; stories in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries tell it as it is. This style of writing makes the reader feel as if the writers have lost hope in world ever recovering.

Although, it is not hard seeing why writers have such a hopeless outlook on their world. The Moment before the Gun Went Off shows a how divided the world truly is. The story show how black and white the issue of race was portraying, when a white farmer accidentally shot his illegitimate black son. Although, the farmer knows this was not a race driven crime, he knows people will use this as such. “How will they ever know, when they file newspaper clippings, evidence, proof, when they look at the photographs and see his face----guilty! guilty! t...

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...day writers explore the grey area of the world. In The Moment before the Gun Went Off Gordimer shattered the idealistic view that the world issues are two-sided. Through her very factual writing style; she wrote about realism. Her story made the reader feel and think about the issue because the issue was never gone by the end of the story. Rhys Story “The Day They Burned the Books” shows how patriotism was falling due to colonization. Most nineteenth century writers felt strong ties towards England and had idealistic view points because they had nationalism. However, without nationalism idealistc view points shatter and skepticism takes over

In conclusion with inequalities and war becoming present in many writers’ life; idealism faded out. The unsure feelings if the world was actually going to get better made writers’ write stories that were filled with skepticism.