A Modern Example of Modernism

In English this week, we did something very different than I have done before in high school English. We watched a movie that was not based on a book we read, but, instead, a mainstream movie made in 2010, Christopher Nolan’s Inception. It was a nice change from all of the early 20th century or earlier literature that has been the sole thing studied in high school to date. It was surprising and very cool to learn that a modern movie possesses many of the modernist characteristics of other literature we have been studying recently and to view a film in the critical lense that is typically used to view literature.

Inception contains many different modernist characteristics. One is that the plot structure is not linear. The film starts in medias res, in the middle of the story. The first scene where Cobb goes to Saito’s castle is continued in one of the last scenes and is the end of all of the dreams. The concept of time and space as interior objects is also used. Time in the dream spaces is equivalent to approximately 20 times the time in the previous level. This idea of time being adjustable is central to the plot as the whole arctic hospital raid scene takes place within the time it takes for the van in a higher dream level to fall off of a bridge into the water. Space is also tinkered with with illusions like the infinite staircase becoming reality in dream space. Physics is also bent in the gravity-free hotel hallway fight scene and the streets of Paris are literally bent during Ariadne’s first dream. The movie also utilizes an ambiguous ending with powerful results. At the end of the film, the top, that signals if they are in a dream or reality, appears to be about to fall, but the scene cuts out. This leaves the viewer wondering many things at the end of the movie. Among others, the main question is is Cobb in reality and truly reunited with his kids or is it just another dream? All of these techniques add a lot to the film and the film is a good way to understand the modernist movement.

The Power of a Title

This past week in English class was spent studying Modernism. We read several short stories, two by Ernest Hemingway and one by Virginia Woolf, and we learned about and discussed the modernist techniques and characteristics present in the stories.One story I was particularly fascinated with was “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. We spent most of our class discussion of the story talking not about the story itself, but the title instead. I was surprised by how much the title embodied both the plot of the story and modernist characteristics.

The title sums up the plot of the story very well. Hills are round and, so, serve as a metaphor for a pregnant belly. This refers to Jig being pregnant in the story and the debate over abortion that the story is about. The phrase “white elephant” also refers to this and is used as euphemism in the story. A white elephant is an unwanted gift which is exactly what the man feels the baby is and is why he wants Jig to have an abortion. Furthermore, it also is something that is more trouble than it is worth, which is also a description of a baby from some points of view. The title also contains several modernist techniques. One of these techniques used is language that is not transparent. The meaning of the title is not immediately obvious to the reader, but as they read the story and figure out the meaning of the story, the meaning of the title becomes apparent. This is also an example of impressionism because Hemingway expects you to pick up on clues in the text to figure out what the conversation is truly about and, consequently, what the title refers to. All of this depth to the title is why I found it interesting.