Republic of the Philippines

University of Eastern Philippines

Laoang Campus

Bachelor of Secondary Education -2

Major 13 EEL 115a (Survey of English & American Literature)
1st Semester, SY 2022 – 2023
Module 5 The 20th Century to the Contemporary Period
Overview of the Module 5
This module delves on the 20th century literature to the contemporary period which sets
generally after World War II. It also talks about the characteristics of the literature of this period.
which is called the modernist period. This module includes the select literary piece for students’
understanding in order to give clearer view as regards to the types of genres that are written
during this period.

Learning Outcomes; At the end of the lesson the students should be able to:
a. familiarize with the major theoretical and critical terms of the period.
b. get an insight into the major issues related to the cultural and social context introduced
in the literature of the 20th century.
c. appreciate the masterpieces of literature written in this literary period.
d. digest select literary pieces during this period.
Characteristics of 20th Century Literature
The 20th century was like no time period before it. Einstein, Darwin, Freud and Marx
were just some of the thinkers who profoundly changed Western culture. These changes took
distinct shape in the literature of the 20th century. Modernism, a movement that was a radical
break from 19th century Victorianism, led to postmodernism, which emphasized self-
consciousness and pop art. While 20th century literature is a diverse field covering a variety of
genres, there are common characteristics that changed literature forever.
Fragmented Structure
Prior to the 20th century, literature tended to be structured in linear, chronological order.
Twentieth century writers experimented with other kinds of structures. Virginia Woolf, for
instance, wrote novels whose main plot was often "interrupted" by individual characters'
memories, resulting in a disorienting experience for the reader. Ford Madox Ford's classic "The
Good Soldier" plays with chronology, jumping back and forth between time periods. Many of
these writers aimed to imitate the feeling of how time is truly experienced subjectively.
Fragmented Perspective
If there's one thing readers could count on before the 20th century, it was the reliability of
an objective narrator in fiction. Modernist and postmodern writers, however, believed that this
did a disservice to the reliability of stories in general. The 20th century saw the birth of the ironic
narrator, who could not be trusted with the facts of narrative. Nick Carraway, narrator of
Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," for example, tells the story with a bias toward the novel's titular
character. In an extreme case of fragmented perspective, Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" switches
narrators between each chapter.
The Novel of the City
 The 20th century is distinguished as the century of urbanism. As more people moved to
cities in Europe and America, novelists used urban environments as backdrops for the stories
they told. Perhaps the best known of these is James Joyce's "Dubliners," a series of short
stories that all take place in various locales in Dublin. Other 20th century writers are also closely
associated with various urban centers: Woolf and London, Theodore Dreiser and Chicago, Paul
Auster and New York, Michael Ondaatje and Toronto.
Writing from the Margins
The 20th century gave voice to marginalized people who previously got little recognition
for their literary contributions. The Harlem Renaissance, for example, brought together African-
Americans living in New York to form a powerful literary movement. Writers such as Langston
Hughes, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston wrote fiction and poetry that celebrated black
identity. Similarly, female writers gained recognition through novels that chronicled their own
experience. Finally, the post-colonial literary movement was born, with writers such as Chinua
Achebe writing stories on behalf of subjugated peoples who had experienced colonization by
Western powers.
The Main Characteristics of Modernist Literature
Literature scholars differ over the years that encompass the Modernist period, however
most generally agree that modernist authors published as early as the 1880s and into the mid-
1940s. During this period, society at every level underwent profound changes. War and
industrialization seemed to devalue the individual. Global communication made the world a
smaller place. The pace of change was dizzying. Writers responded to this new world in a
variety of ways.
Individualism
In Modernist literature, the individual is more interesting than society. Specifically,
modernist writers were fascinated with how the individual adapted to the changing world. In
some cases, the individual triumphed over obstacles. For the most part, Modernist literature
featured characters who just kept their heads above water. Writers presented the world or
society as a challenge to the integrity of their characters. Ernest Hemingway is especially
remembered for vivid characters who accepted their circumstances at face value and
persevered.
Experimentation
Modernist writers broke free of old forms and techniques. Poets abandoned traditional
rhyme schemes and wrote in free verse. Novelists defied all expectations. Writers mixed images
from the past with modern languages and themes, creating a collage of styles. The inner
workings of consciousness were a common subject for modernists. This preoccupation led to a
form of narration called stream of consciousness, where the point of view of the novel meanders
in a pattern resembling human thought. Authors James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, along with
poets T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, are well known for their experimental Modernist works.
Absurdity
The carnage of two World Wars profoundly affected writers of the period. Several great
English poets died or were wounded in WWI. At the same time, global capitalism was
reorganizing society at every level. For many writers, the world was becoming a more absurd
place every day. The mysteriousness of life was being lost in the rush of daily life. The
senseless violence of WWII was yet more evidence that humanity had lost its way. Modernist
authors depicted this absurdity in their works. Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," in which a
traveling salesman is transformed into an insect-like creature, is an example of modern
absurdism.
Symbolism
The Modernist writers infused objects, people, places and events with significant
meanings. They imagined a reality with multiple layers, many of them hidden or in a sort of
code. The idea of a poem as a riddle to be cracked had its beginnings in the Modernist period.
Symbolism was not a new concept in literature, but the Modernists' particular use of symbols
was an innovation. They left much more to the reader's imagination than earlier writers, leading
to open-ended narratives with multiple interpretations. For example, James Joyce's "Ulysses"
incorporates distinctive, open-ended symbols in each chapter.
Formalism
Writers of the Modernist period saw literature more as a craft than a flowering of creativity. They
believed that poems and novels were constructed from smaller parts instead of the organic,
internal process that earlier generations had described. The idea of literature as craft fed the
Modernists' desire for creativity and originality. Modernist poetry often includes foreign
languages, dense vocabulary and invented words. The poet e.g. cummings abandoned all
structure and spread his words all across the page.
10 of the Best Twentieth-Century Novels Everyone Should Read

The twentieth century gave us literary modernism, postmodernism, magical realism,

dystopian fiction, and new perspectives on race, empire, gender, and politics. Below, we
introduce ten classic twentieth-century novels which anyone aiming to be well-read in twentieth-
century fiction should aim to read.
1. James Joyce, Ulysses.
Although it has a reputation as a ‘difficult’ work – and Joyce’s 1922 novel is around 800
pages representing the pinnacle of literary modernism in the novel form – Ulysses is actually a
very democratic book, taking in all classes and stripes of Irish culture. It’s also set over the
course of just one day, 16 June 1904, as we follow the ad man, Leopold Bloom, as he wanders
around the city of Dublin. Breakfast, visits to the library and to the pub, sexual arousal, and trips
to the lavatory all ensue in a work that was deemed too dirty to appear in Britain until the 1930s,
more than a decade after Joyce finished writing it.

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

This is not only one of the greatest twentieth-century novels but one of the greatest
novels of all time, and often appears near the top of any list of great novels. It was published in
1925 during the ‘Jazz Age’, and is narrated by Nick Carraway, who enters the moneyed world of
the titular Jay Gatsby, who owns a large Long Island mansion and is known for throwing lavish
parties.
Although Fitzgerald’s novel is known for its brilliant descriptions of cocktail parties and
life among the wealthy ‘new money’ of America, it also evokes the other side of New York, and
the industrial squalor many Americans were living and working in. Before he decided upon The
Great Gatsby as his title, Fitzgerald toyed with calling his novel ‘Under the Red, White and
Blue’, ‘Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires’, and, worst of all, ‘The High-Bouncing Lover’.
3. Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse.
Although we chose Mrs Dalloway as Woolf’s best novel in our pick of the greatest 1920s
novels, really there’s little to choose between that novel (set on just one day, like Ulysses) and
this 1927 novel, which focuses on the Ramsay family during their visits to the Isle of Skye just
before, during, and after the First World War. In this novel we really see Woolf’s use of interiority
– sometimes named (or misnamed) stream of consciousness – come into its own, especially in
those sections focalized through the artist, Lily Briscoe.
4. George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
This novel often tops the list of ‘books people lie about having read’, with an estimated
two-fifths of Brits pretending they’ve read Orwell’s classic dystopian vision in order to look
smart. The term ‘Orwellian’, now in common use, shows the influence of this novel, which was
initially going to be called The Last Man in Europe. Focusing on Winston Smith who works for
the Ministry of Truth (loosely based on the BBC, where Orwell worked during the Second World
War), and featuring Room 101 (based on a room at the BBC where Orwell had to sit through
tedious meetings!), and newspeak (thoughtcrime, sex, crime, double plus good, etc.), this novel
remains the novel about state surveillance and totalitarianism, and although many people lie
about having read it, thousands if not millions are still reading it every year.
5. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man.
This novel about life in the United States for African-Americans was published in 1952,
and is a touchstone for mid-twentieth-century attitudes to race, racism, and politics in the States.
The novel won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1953 – not bad for a book Ellison
had started to write in a barn in 1945 while on leave from the Merchant Marine! Narrated by an
unnamed black man living in squalid conditions in a town in the South, Invisible Man was
proclaimed a ‘masterpiece’ by Anthony Burgess and continues to be read as a classic, and
studied on college courses.
6. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.
Sometimes named Britain’s favorite novel, The Lord of the Rings is a single novel – it
was only published as a trilogy because of post-war paper shortages in the mid-1950s – in
which Tolkien helped to create the blueprint for modern fantasy (although Tolkien’s work was
itself standing on the shoulders of such earlier giants as William Morris and E. R. Eddison). The
quest the hobbit Frodo Baggins undertakes to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mordor has
become many people’s best-loved book, and despite its flaws (find someone who actually likes
the Tom Bombadil section – good luck!), it remains a classic work of twentieth-century fiction.
7. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart.
Written by the Igbo Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and published in 1958 at a time when
many African countries were gaining their independence from European countries, and the
‘winds of change’ were blowing through Africa (in Harold Macmillan’s memorable words), Things
Fall Apart focuses on what life was like in Nigeria before the British arrived, and then what
happened when they did, with disastrous consequences, in the late nineteenth century.
Although written in English, the novel makes use of many proverbs from Igbo oral culture.
8. Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea.
 One of the shortest novels on this list, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is, famously, a prequel
to the novel Jane Eyre, which follows the early life of the ‘madwoman in the attic’, Bertha
Mason, from Charlotte Brontë’s novel. The novel helped to reinvigorate Rhys’s struggling career
as a writer (essentially, as a modernist novelist and short-story writer), and shows how our
attitudes to empire were shifting by the mid-twentieth century and the breakup of the British
empire.
9. Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children.
This 1981 novel won the Booker Prize that year, and then the ‘Booker of Bookers’; it also
won various other high-profile literary prizes, and remains a seminal work of magical realism
showcasing Rushdie’s remarkable facility with the English language. The novel focuses on life
in India just prior to, and after, the partition of the country in 1947 (hence the title: the
protagonist, Saleem Sinai, discovers that all children born in India an hour after midnight on 15
August 1947, the day of the partition, are imbued with special powers).
10. Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale.
We’ll conclude this pick of classic twentieth-century novels with another dystopian book,
published in 1985 but still viewed by many readers as prescient of twenty-first-century attitudes
to women’s bodies and the power of the patriarchy. Offred, the protagonist (not her real name,
but one which denotes that she belongs to a man named Fred: ‘Of Fred’), is a Handmaid, a
fertile woman who is kept by a male ‘Commander’ for the purposes of breeding. Atwood
published a sequel, The Testaments, in 2019, but the original novel is the one to read.
The Contemporary Period (1945 to present)
The United States, which emerged from World War II confident and economically strong,
entered the Cold War in the late 1940s. This conflict with the Soviet Union shaped global politics
for more than four decades, and the proxy wars and threat of nuclear annihilation that came to
define it were just some of the influences shaping American literature during the second half of
the 20th century. The 1950s and ’60s brought significant cultural shifts within the United States
driven by the civil rights movement and the women’s movement. Prior to the last decades of the
20th century, American literature was largely the story of dead white men who had created Art
and of living white men doing the same. By the turn of the 21st century, American literature had
become a much more complex and inclusive story grounded on a wide-ranging body of past
writings produced in the United States by people of different backgrounds and open to more
Americans in the present day.
The Contemporary Period of literature occurred directly after the Modernist period. In
fact, it is often referred to as the "Postmodern" period. The events that brought this era about
were the realization of the holocaust and the power of the atomic bomb, the wars America had
with Korea, Vietnam, and the USSR, and the Civil Rights Movement. "Postmodernism" signals
work that were created after Modernism and were characterized by multiple qualities.
Contemporary works often featured ordinary places and dealt with an awareness of itself, a
release from meaning, an interest in process, a desire to revise the past, and a desire to have
fun.
With the end of World War II and the discovery of the holocaust and the atomic bomb, the
American society became more abstract towards reality. Art displayed this new mindset as
much as the literature of the time period did. There was also a desire to revise the past and the
atrocities that occurred during both of the World Wars. It was ultimately the advancement of
technology that led Americans to searching again for their identity and wondering if there was
any good left in humanity.
As technology continuously advanced, the American society could better define who they
were. With the dropping of the atom bombs, Americans now saw themselves as a major world
power. Along with society as a whole, women and African Americans also began developing a
voice and identity distinct in American culture. With people like Martin Luther King and Malcolm
X leading the Civil Rights Movement, the African American identity started becoming recognized
by society. Even though Americans started recognizing the blacks as a culture, not everyone
liked with them. Racism also became another important theme of the Contemporary era.
These events in society shaped the writing of this ongoing era so that it would display the
multiculturalism of the country and also the materialism and commercialism of the country. The
writing started describing everyday family life around the new electronic inventions of the era.
The Contemporary Era focused on what was going on now and even the future. It was and is an
ongoing period of literature where literature itself is evolving.
Nelle Harper Lee was born as the youngest of five children to Amasa Coleman Lee and
Frances Cunningham Finch. She was born in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1926. Her father
practiced law in the Alabama State Legislature and her mother was a homemaker. As a young
child, she loved to read, but she was also a tomboy. One of her best childhood friends was the
famous Truman Capote, who was the author of In Cold Blood(1966).
While Lee attended Monroe County High School, she developed a love for English literature.
She graduated from high school in 1944 and then attended an all-women’s college.
Approximately twelve years after she graduated from high school, she received a gift from a
writer, Michael Brown. This gift was a year's worth of wages so that she could do nothing but
write whatever she desired to. Collaborating with editor Tay Hohoff, over the next couple years,
she produced and finalized her only novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.
To Kill A Mockingbird was published on July 11, 1960, and was an immediate bestseller. It
won much positive critical acclaim and a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. In 1999, it was voted best novel
of the century. In the novel, Scout is an eight-year-old girl who is also a tomboy like Lee. The
father, Atticus Finch, is modeled after Harper's own father who was an attorney. Dill, the boy
who comes to Maycomb in the summers, is modeled after Lee's good friend Capote. Despite
the major similarities between the novel's characters and Lee's own life, Lee downplays the
autobiographical parallels in the book.
After the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, she accompanied her friend Capote to
Kansas, where the two of them worked to acquire the material that he used to publish his most
famous novel, In Cold Blood. After returning home, she became reclusive from society and
partook in very few interviews and public appearances. She attempted to work on two other
novels, but left them unfinished when she became dissatisfied with them. To this day, she has
no further publications, except for a few essays. The explosive success of her novel and the
fame that followed it were distasteful to Lee.
Lee did, however, have a minor life in the limelight. She became good friends with Gregory
Peck, an actor who not only portrayed Atticus Finch in the screenplay adaptation of To Kill A
Mockingbird, but also won an Oscar for it. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Lee
to the National Council of Arts. Lee spent most of her time split between an apartment in New
York and her sister's home in Monroeville and during that time, Lee accepted many honorary
degrees, but refused to make speeches.
 Forty years later in 2006, Lee wrote a letter to Oprah Winfrey talking about how much she
still loves books in a world driven by technology. In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded
Lee the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S. Today, Harper
Lee lives in an assisted-living home, wheel-chair bound, partially blind and deaf and as a victim
to mild memory loss. When asked why she never wrote again, she said "Two reasons: one, I
wouldn't go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill A Mockingbird for any
amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again" (Lee).
The Contemporary Period keys in on several themes that are characteristic to most of the
literary works of the time period. The themes of identity, racism, family, and a search for
goodness in humanity are the main themes of this time period. Identity was a theme commonly
found in many African American works as they began to write about their culture and heritage.
The theme of family became more prominent in stories such as that in To Kill A Mockingbird, a
novel which shows the importance of a family and the bonds between them. Racism was
another main theme as is shown in To Kill A Mockingbird as well. It was a time period where
African Americans began pushing for Civil Rights, battling the hatred of many white people,
especially in the south with Bull Connor.
Many scholars refer to this time period as post-modernism, and the fact that Americans
began searching for the good in humanity aligns almost perfectly with that term. During the
modern era, two major World Wars and the greatest depression the U.S. has ever seen
occurred. After these events, many Americans tried to find hope in society; hope in humanity.
Authors tried to reflect society in a way that there was still some goodness in it, even after two
devastating wars.

Reading Activity 1 Pride and Prejudice by J. Austen

Novel by Austen
Pride and Prejudice, romantic novel by Jane Austen, published anonymously in three
volumes in 1813. A classic of English literature, written with incisive wit and superb character
delineation, it centres on the burgeoning relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of
a country gentleman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich aristocratic landowner. Upon publication,
Pride and Prejudice was well received by critics and readers. The first edition sold out within the
first year, and it never went out of print.
Pride and Prejudice is set in rural England at the turn of the 19th century, and it follows
the Bennet family, which includes five very different sisters. The eldest, Jane, is sweet-tempered
and modest. She is her sister Elizabeth’s confidant and friend. Elizabeth, the heroine of the
novel, is intelligent and high-spirited. She shares her father’s distaste for the conventional views
of society as to the importance of wealth and rank. The third daughter, Mary, is plain, bookish,
and pompous, while Lydia and Kitty, the two youngest, are flighty and immature.
Mr. Bennet is the family patriarch. He is fond of his two eldest daughters—especially his
favorite, Elizabeth—but takes a passive interest in the younger ones, ultimately failing to curb
their childish instincts. An intelligent but eccentric and sarcastic man, he does not care for
society’s conventions and mocks his wife’s obsession with finding suitable husbands for their
daughters. As several scholars have noted, however, Mrs. Bennet is rightfully concerned.
Because of an entail, the modest family estate is to be inherited by William Collins, Mr. Bennet’s
nephew, who is the next male in line. Indeed, as Austen scholar Mary Evans noted, “If Mrs.
Bennett is slightly crazy, then perhaps she is so because she perceives more clearly than her
husband the possible fate of her five daughters if they do not marry.” Unfortunately, Mrs.
Bennet’s fervour and indelicacy often work against her interests. A woman of little sense and
much self-pity, she indulges her lively youngest daughters.
Throughout the novel, the Bennet sisters encounter several eligible bachelors, including
Charles Bingley, Darcy, Lieutenant George Wickham, and Collins. Bingley has recently let
Netherfield estate, which neighbors the Bennets’ home, Longbourn. Austen describes him as
“good-looking and gentlemanlike; [having] a pleasant countenance and easy, unaffected
manners.” He has come by his fortune through his family’s interest in trade, which was seen as
a less respectable means of obtaining wealth than by inheriting it, as his friend Darcy has done.
Darcy is clearly a product of this hierarchical thinking: he believes in the natural superiority of
the wealthy landed gentry. He is arrogant but perceptive.
Darcy’s estates were once managed by Wickham’s father, but he and Wickham are no
longer friendly. Wickham is attractive and charming, making him immediately popular among the
women in the nearby town of Meryton, where he and other soldiers have been stationed.
Collins, on the other hand, is “not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but
little assisted by education or society.” He is a clergyman whose patron, the controlling Lady
Catherine de Bourgh, is Darcy’s aunt.
Other supporting characters in the novel include Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte Lucas, who
is described as sensible and nearing an age where marriage is unlikely; Charlotte’s parents, Sir
William and Lady Lucas; Mrs. Bennet’s brother, Edward Gardiner, who works in trade, and his
wife, both of whom are generous and well-grounded; Bingley’s sisters, the snobbish and
scheming Caroline and Louisa Hurst; and Darcy’s 16-year-old sister, Georgiana, who is painfully
shy but good-humored.
Summary
The novel opens with one of the most famous lines in English literature: “It is a truth
universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of
a wife.” The statement is seemingly what Mrs. Bennet thinks as she sets her sights on the newly
arrived Bingley, who she is sure will make a suitable husband for one of her daughters. At a
ball, Bingley takes an immediate interest in the beautiful and shy Jane. The encounter between
his friend Darcy and Elizabeth is less cordial. Although Austen shows them intrigued by each
other, she reverses the convention of first impressions: the pride of rank and fortune and
prejudice against the social inferiority of Elizabeth’s family hold Darcy aloof, while the pride of
self-respect and prejudice against Darcy’s snobbery hold Elizabeth equally aloof.
The pompous Collins soon arrives, hoping to marry one of the Bennet sisters. Mrs.
Bennet steers him toward Elizabeth, but the latter refuses his offer of marriage. He instead
becomes engaged to her friend Charlotte. During this time, Elizabeth encounters the charming
Wickham. There is a mutual attraction between the two, and he informs her that Darcy has
denied him his inheritance.
After Bingley abruptly departs for London, Elizabeth’s dislike of Darcy mounts as she
becomes convinced that he is discouraging Bingley’s relationship with Jane. Darcy, however,
has grown increasingly fond of Elizabeth, admiring her intelligence and vitality. While visiting the
now-married Charlotte, Elizabeth sees Darcy, who professes his love for her and proposes. A
surprised Elizabeth refuses his offer, and, when Darcy demands an explanation, she accuses
him of breaking up Jane and Bingley and of denying Wickham his inheritance. Darcy
subsequently writes Elizabeth a letter in which he explains that he separated the couple largely
because he did not believe Jane returned Bingley’s affection. He also discloses that Wickham,
after squandering his inheritance, tried to marry Darcy’s then 15-year-old sister in an attempt to
gain possession of her fortune. With these revelations, Elizabeth begins to see Darcy in a new
light.
Shortly thereafter the youngest Bennet sister, Lydia, elopes with Wickham. The news is
met with great alarm by Elizabeth, since the scandalous affair—which is unlikely to end in
marriage—could ruin the reputation of the other Bennet sisters. When she tells Darcy, he
persuades Wickham to marry Lydia, offering him money. Despite Darcy’s attempt to keep his
intervention a secret, Elizabeth learns of his actions. At the encouragement of Darcy, Bingley
subsequently returns, and he and Jane become engaged. Finally, Darcy proposes again to
Elizabeth, who this time accepts.
The work, which Austen initially titled First Impressions, is the second of four novels that
Austen published during her lifetime. Although Pride and Prejudice has been criticized for its
lack of historical context (it is likely set either during the French Revolution [1787–99] or the
Napoleonic Wars [1799–1815]), the existence of its characters in a social bubble that is rarely
penetrated by events beyond it is an accurate portrayal of the enclosed social world in which
Austen lived. She depicted that world, in all its own narrow pride and prejudice, with unswerving
accuracy and satire. At the same time, she placed at its centre, as both its prime actor and most
perceptive critic, a character so well-conceived and rendered that the reader cannot but be
gripped by her story and wish for its happy denouement. In the end, Austen’s novel has
remained popular largely because of Elizabeth—who was reportedly Austen’s own favourite
among all her heroines—and because of the enduring appeal to men and women alike of a well-
told and potentially happily ending love story.
Pride and Prejudice inspired various stage, film, and television productions. Notable
adaptations included the 1940 film with Greer Garson as Elizabeth and Laurence Olivier as
Darcy, the 1995 TV miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, and the 2005 movie
featuring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. The novel also served as a premise for a
myriad of books at the turn of the 21st century, including the best seller Bridget Jones’s Diary
(1996) by Helen Fielding (which was followed by a number of sequels and adapted into a
popular movie series [2001–16] starring Renée Zellweger, Firth, and Hugh Grant). Other such
books included Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009) by Seth Grahame-Smith (also adapted
into a movie [2016]) and Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged (2015) by Ayisha Malik, in which a 21st-
century Muslim woman is intrigued by her sullen tattooed neighbor. These interpretations
showed the universal and enduring appeal of Pride and Prejudice and its themes.
Activity 1. Answer the following questions
1. Tell me in your own words the plot of Pride and Prejudice?
2. What is the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice?
3. Give the conflict of the story
4. What was your first impression of Darcy?
5. Do you think that Elizabeth overreacted to her interpretation of Darcy's rudeness?
6. Do you think her first impression was valid?

Reading Activity 2. The Lord of the Flies by W. Golding

Summary:
Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of humanity, the savagery that underlies even
the most civilized human beings. William Golding intended this novel as a tragic parody of
children's adventure tales, illustrating humankind's intrinsic evil nature. He presents the reader
with a chronology of events leading a group of young boys from hope to disaster as they
attempt to survive their uncivilized, unsupervised, isolated environment until rescued.
In the midst of a nuclear war, a group of British boys find themselves stranded without
adult supervision on a tropical island. The group is roughly divided into the "littluns," boys
around the age of six, and the "biguns," who are between the ages of ten and twelve. Initially,
the boys attempt to form a culture similar to the one they left behind. They elect a leader, Ralph,
who, with the advice and support of Piggy (the intellectual of the group), strives to establish
rules for housing and sanitation. Ralph also makes a signal fire the group's first priority, hoping
that a passing ship will see the smoke signal and rescue them. A major challenge to Ralph's
leadership is Jack, who also wants to lead. Jack commands a group of choirboys-turned-
hunters who sacrifice the duty of tending the fire so that they can participate in the hunts. Jack
draws the other boys slowly away from Ralph's influence because of their natural attraction to
and inclination toward the adventurous hunting activities symbolizing violence and evil.
The conflict between Jack and Ralph — and the forces of savagery and civilization that
they represent — is exacerbated by the boys' literal fear of a mythical beast roaming the island.
One night, an aerial battle occurs above the island, and a casualty of the battle floats down with
his opened parachute, ultimately coming to rest on the mountaintop. Breezes occasionally
inflate the parachute, making the body appear to sit up and then sink forward again. This sight
panics the boys as they mistake the dead body for the beast they fear. In a reaction to this
panic, Jack forms a splinter group that is eventually joined by all but a few of the boys. The boys
who join Jack are enticed by the protection Jack's ferocity seems to provide, as well as by the
prospect of playing the role of savages: putting on camouflaging face paint, hunting, and
performing ritualistic tribal dances. Eventually, Jack's group actually slaughters a sow and, as
an offering to the beast, puts the sow's head on a stick.

Of all the boys, only the mystic Simon has the courage to discover the true identity of the
beast sighted on the mountain. After witnessing the death of the sow and the gift made of her
head to the beast, Simon begins to hallucinate, and the staked sow's head becomes the Lord of
the Flies, imparting to Simon what he has already suspected: The beast is not an animal on the
loose but is hidden in each boy's psyche. Weakened by his horrific vision, Simon loses
consciousness.
Recovering later that evening, he struggles to the mountaintop and finds that the beast is
only a dead pilot/soldier. Attempting to bring the news to the other boys, he stumbles into the
tribal frenzy of their dance. Perceiving him as the beast, the boys beat him to death.
Soon only three of the older boys, including Piggy, are still in Ralph's camp. Jack's group
steals Piggy's glasses to start its cooking fires, leaving Ralph unable to maintain his signal fire.
When Ralph and his small group approach Jack's tribe to request the return of the glasses, one
of Jack's hunters releases a huge boulder on Piggy, killing him. The tribe captures the other two
begins prisoners, leaving Ralph on his own.
The tribe undertakes a manhunt to track down and kill Ralph, and they start a fire to
smoke him out of one of his hiding places, creating an island-wide forest fire. A passing ship
sees the smoke from the fire, and a British naval officer arrives on the beach just in time to save
Ralph from certain death at the hands of the schoolboys turned savages.
Activity 2. Answer the following questions
 1. Who is the Lord of the Flies?
2. What is the conch and what does it symbolize?
3. How does Simon die?
4. Why does Jack start his own tribe?
5. Do the boys get rescued from the island?
6. What is the message of the novel Lord of the Flies?
7. Our government has enacted laws for us the people to be protected, but there are
instances that they themselves (government officials) violate such laws. React.
8. What is the plot of the Lord of the flies?
9. Why is it important to have the presence of an adult person during the group decision of
an organization composed of young once?
10. In your life, what makes you decide?
Summary:
The 20th century opened with great hope but also with some apprehension, for the new
century marked the final approach to a new millennium. For many, humankind was entering
upon an unprecedented era. H.G. Wells’s utopian studies, the aptly titled Anticipations of the
Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (1901) and A
Modern Utopia (1905), both captured and qualified this optimistic mood and gave expression to
a common conviction that science and technology would transform the world in the century
ahead. To achieve such transformation, outmoded institutions and ideals had to be replaced by
ones more suited to the growth and liberation of the human spirit. The death of Queen Victoria
in 1901 and the accession of Edward VII seemed to confirm that a franker, less inhibited era
had begun.
References:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-
d&q=The+20th+Century+to+the+Contemporary+Period+
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pride-and-Prejudice/Summary
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/lord-of-the-flies/book-summary
http://crhe.weebly.com/the-contemporary-period.html

Prepared by:

Dr. Luisito P. Muncada, JD

Course Professor

Disclaimer: Learning activities in this module were culled out from the internet for instructional purposes only.