Realism and Modernism are two very different categories of literature. Realism was written in an earlier time period than Modernism, and therefore, the two subcategories of American Literature are very different from each other. For example, one of the events that inspired Modernism was World War I. When World War I began, it kind of changed the point of view of the the world and the point of view that Americans even on their own nation. Before this specific event, many Americans self very safe at home and also felt like Americas was going through a very good time. After the war started though, the point of view of the World and a lot of Americans changed. For example, when the war started, people in the United States became scared. This war overall showed the mankind still had many flaws to overcome. For this reason, the style of writing from authors and also poets changed after the War. Things became much more sad because there were millions of people that died every day all due to human error and dying in war and other places. Also, this was one of the first times that Americans felt helpless. Citizens knew that the war was not going to end very soon and that the country would just have to continue sacrificing lives when it came to the war. For this reason, the mood of writing changed during the war. Happy stories soon became sad and also people started to lose hope in things that they once believed in. it was almost like the country was losing lots of moral. This was not the only reason why the tone in writing had changed over the years though. there were actually other events that had made the country and even the world change its point of view. For example, in the United States the 1920's were great for Americans. Economic times were good and also people were happy. Suddenly, at the end of the decade, one of the worst times in American history began-The Great Depression. In this era, times were obviously not good at all. The stock market had crashed, and many people who had become rich form the stock market had become poor, and also deflation had taken place. After, this happened, the tone of writing definitely changed. Writers changed their tone, from kind of stating what was true and how things really seemed, they started writing about the more sad things in life because things did not feel like they were ever going to look up for people in the world. Very common, in modernism writing, endings seemed to be very sad. For example, in the book "The Grapes of Wrath" it seems that at the end of the story, all is lost for the Joads after the storm. They really do not have a home anymore, and the baby has died. Fortunately, also common in modernist writing, there is a glimpse of hope at the end of the story where Sharon nurses a man to health, which is a main difference between modernism and realism.
