Modernism: Essay

The end of the 19^th century is known for its revolution period in the cultural life. The well-known artists and writers went off the frames "of life in the forms of life" in their works. They claimed that the artist`s work shouldn`t be the means of public enlightenment and education, but an expression of the artist's creative freedom. That is why it is quite hard to find out straightforward the real theme of the work. The most used themes in the end of the 19^th century became the poor class; the recognition of the impasse in which humanity found itself owing to the rapid development of the civilization; the crisis and reassessment of the traditional values; the recognition of human loneliness and others.

Thus, the poem “The Eyes of the Poor” that was written by Charles Baudelaire, in the very original way shows the position of the poor people. The personification was used in order to feel the atmosphere of the life of poor people deeply by the reader. The author uses hyperbole in order to compare the miserable life of poor with the unreasonable life of rich by showing the bottles and glasses that contain drinks that are larger than their thirst. To underline the society gap, the love story is developed on the second line of the poem. It shows the impossibility to have the relationships for the people from different social classes because of diversity of views, communications, customs and general ideas of life.

Marshall Berman’s book ‘All That Is Solid Melts into Air’ examines the economical and social modernization as well as its conflicting connection with modernism. During the whole book there is the line of defining the two terms: modernization and modernism. The same common themes to the modernism style are depicted here: the socio-cultural regeneration, the despair and desolation of the lonely person, apparent emptiness. The author is based on such well-know figures as Kant, Marx and Goethe. He examines and compares their views about the modernity and modernism. After the extensive analysis of Marx and Goethe, Berman takes their thoughts as a key to understandings of the term modernity. Moreover, he examines the literary representations of urban transformation. In Berman’s book, the development of urban policies mainly emerges as the part and aesthetic effects of the “will to power” What is more, the author examines the works of Charles Baudelaire and finds out if he was a real member of the flow of modernism.

The painting ‘The Ragpicker’ that was written by Eduardo Manetho depicts all the main ideas of the previous works, but in the picture. From the first site, the picture describes the old man that is very poor, even homeless. Our common image is that the ragpicker is a poor person who picks rags in order to survive. Following the main principles of realism, Manetho left behind all the details of the man's position in life, as if the man's dirty clothes and unwashed hands proved this enough. However, this is a very out-side look. The viewer's attention is based mostly on the figure of the man. The other features of the picture are omitted. In fact, the man is almost seven feet tall. The author painted the picture in such a way that the viewer is forced to look up on the man`s gaze. The picture of his eyes is the main idea of the picture. His eyes are kind and deep, this make us think about the reasons why this man became the ragpicker. These make us think about our own position in the life.

The differences between the real painting and the picture of it are obvious. Firstly, you can`t express the real feeling of the painting, the real tone and colors. Secondly, while looking on the picture, you can`t see all the details and the general sense can be omitted. At last, the influence of the painting is much deeper that simply from the picture.

To sum up, all the three works are very similar. They depict the ideas and atmosphere of the end of the 19^th century and are the beginning of the modernism. What is more, the works have the same deep impact on the reader and viewer having showed the problem that would always be present in the society – the social gap. In the addition all the three woks make people to think about their level in the society line and the possibility to become the one of the heroes of the works.