Letter on Modernism/Sandburg

I really enjoyed reading the "Letter to the Reader", and yes I did read the entire thing even though it was very long.    There are so many things, technologically, socially etc. that have changed, and yet there is still the basic "American Dream" that we believe in.  "Everyone has creative liberty.  The creative mind finds new ways and stops at no law laid down by, or piled upon us by lesser or non-creative minds . . ." (Cain, 323).  If you have the ambition and the desire there is no one who can stop you.  That is what I liked most about this chapter is it is America kind of coming into it's own and people finding out who they are.  There were changes in the labor laws and though not everything was solved overnight people realized that they could do something about it.  Women realized that they had rights as well and were finally granted the right to vote.  Because of the amazing industrial revolution that was taking place in the United States, "America was acquiring supremacy in the world's markets . . .and thus was extending its power outward and attracting millions of workers and their families from abroad" (Cain 309).  This is one of the great changes that happened during this time because this is what makes America what it is.  The United States is shaped by the diverse cultures and traditions that the immigrants who came during this time brought with them.  One of the greatest changes that happened during this time was the "rise in literacy which was connected to the expansion of education opportunities (Cain 311).  I think one of the things I like the most about the modernist movement is that it seems that everyone was a part of it and it was a change that affected that entire country, even us today.  It seems like it is still alive and happening.  This is one of the reasons why I like the poem by Carl Sandburg. 

In the biography of Carl Sandburg he is described as the "poet of immigrants and laborers, of common men and women, a celebratory singer of the working people of America, its industries and factories, and its grand panoramas of mountains, rivers and landscapes." (Cain 414)  When I read the poem "Chicago," I thought this description couldn't be any more perfect of the poet who wrote it.  He describes "his city" Chicago and all the evils that are in it, gunmen, prostitutes, hunger and he "says to all those who sneer . . .come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning" (lines 7-10).  Just in these few lines he paints a picture of immigrants who are proud of who they are and where they live, despite what people may say.  The poem is simple, but I think that's what makes it so relatable and "of common men and women".