Question

Which of the following statements best connects how modernism impacted society?
• It furthered feelings that already existed, such as disillusionment with society.
It led to a return to traditional values as a form of comfort after massive destruction.
• It led people to embrace unrealistic imagery and political criticism.
• It encouraged reflection by leaving interpretation entirely up to the viewer.

Answer 1

"It furthered feelings that already existed, such as disillusionment with society."

Reason: Modernism largely expressed and amplified preexisting anxieties—disillusionment with industrialization, urban life, and the devastation of World War I—and challenged older certainties about progress and tradition. Works like T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land or Picasso’s early modernist pieces capture that sense of fragmentation and loss. The other choices are less accurate: modernism was a break from, not a return to, traditional values; while it often used nonrealistic imagery and sometimes critiqued politics, that’s only part of the story; and although it opened interpretation and ambiguity, it didn’t simply leave everything “entirely up to the viewer.”