Out of D. H. Lawrence's “Odour of Chrysanthemums,” James Joyce's “Araby” and “The Dead,” and Virginia Woolf's “Kew Gardens," select one who most efficiently demonstrates the effects of literary Modernism. Why does the chosen writer exemplify the features of Modernism in their work? Use detailed examples of the writer’s modernist style and consider any of the following to back up your claim: plot line, tone, narrative voice, style, character development, theme, descriptive techniques, syntax, and so on. Additionally, deliberate if literature still stands as a way for “disparate souls” to connect.

This is a difficult question, as we have before us four exemplary modernist texts. At first, I was torn between Woolf's "Kew Gardens" and Joyce's "The Dead." Critic and writer Anthony Burgess points to "The Dead" as the quintessential modernist text in his ReJoyce, while Erich Auerbach chooses Virginia Woolf as the quintessential modernist author in his Mimesis. I agree with Auerbach on Woolf, but will pick "Araby" as the choice over either "The Dead" or "Kew Gardens" on the basis of the requirement of efficiency.
I will focus primarily on narrative effects: much of modernism was an attempt to redefine the narrative voice, moving away from an all-knowing, "objective" narrator standing outside the confines of a story and toward a subjective narrator who exists inside the confines of a story. This, modernist writers believed, more accurately captured the reality of life as people actually experience it.
Joyce succinctly captures subjective narration in "Araby." The entire (very compact) story is told through the consciousness of the unnamed narrator, and Joyce makes no attempt to "correct" the boy's version or understanding of events. The story also efficiently redefines the idea of what a story's conclusion should be, replacing a plot resolution with an epiphany, or sudden insight, on the part of the subjective narrator. This emphasis on self-awareness is typical of modernist literature.
The tone is bleak, also conveying a chief attribute of modernism: a critique of the limitations of modern, industrial society. The narrator is as disillusioned about the capacity to find romance in the modern world as Prufrock is in Eliot's poem. Disillusionment is a hallmark of modernism, which the boy fully experiences.
In a very brief space—only 23 paragraphs—Joyce's story exemplifies key tenets of modernism: subjective narration, the primacy of interiority and psychological insight, and disillusionment.
Literature definitely is a way for disparate souls to connect. A great writer exposes and puts into words truths that may have been hovering in an inchoate way in many people's minds and gives us a chance to discuss them and ruminate on them with other people.

James Joyce’s The Dead exemplifies modernism largely due to the main character in the story—Gabriel Conroy. He leads an empty, outcast, and seemingly insignificant life, which aligns with the theme of alienation of man which is characteristic to modernism—especially British and Irish modernism.
Gabriel Conroy seems mostly indifferent and unattached from society. He is somehow unable to connect with others, which is again a characteristic of modernism. Under any halfway challenging circumstance, he is “socially clumsy” (Schwarz 105). He cannot even carry on a successful conversation with Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, unintentionally offending her by alluding to the night's coming upsets. Being brought down by Lily, a girl of a lower social class than himself, was disturbing to Gabriel.
The situation with Lily was not nearly as distressing, however, as his embarrassment by Miss Ivors (Joyce 109). He is unable to retain his composure when she questions him about his nonexistent nationalism blurting out “O, to tell you the truth, I’m sick of my own country, sick of it” (Joyce 125). Modernism was at least partially a reaction to the horrors of World War I, which was a war fueled largely by the nationalism of countries in Europe. So, Gabriel’s anti-nationalistic statements embody the modernist rejection of what got Europe into the war in the first place.
Gabriel's feelings of alienation also mean that he seems out of touch with what others think and feel. During his speech, he puts himself in the same generation he now disapprovingly belittles—talking himself in circles just as his life runs in the same repetitive circle each year (Schwarz 109).
The situation with his family is not much better. Gretta was a country girl, and Gabriel’s mother initially disagreed with him marrying someone who was beneath him (Schwarz 106). Worst of all, Gabriel knows nothing about Gretta’s first love, Michael Furey; he feels remorseful that Michael Furey got to experience Gretta’s love while he never will (Schwarz 67).
In the end, Gabriel’s main source of alienation is that he senses that he was not good enough. He lacks a “coherent self” and a “sense of self-worth” (Schwarz 67, 106). Gabriel also has a lamentable attitude towards his being alienated. He yearns to experience passion as Michael Furey once did. The Dead ends with Gabriel commenting on how snow is “general all over Ireland,” hinting at Gabriel’s feeling of paralysis—his feeling that you can be alive but, at the same time, not really living.
Works Cited
Joyce, James, and William T. Moynihan. Joyce's The Dead. Allyn and Bacon, 1965, pp. 105-130.
Schwarz, Daniel R. "Gabriel Conroy's Psyche: Character as Concept in Joyce's 'The Dead.'" The Dead: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, James Joyce and Daniel R. Daniel R., Bedford St. Martin's, 1994.