Isadora Duncan
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Dancer, adventurer, revolutionary, Isadora Duncan is known for her achievements as an artist, as well for the excitement and tragedy of her life. Both Janet Flanner and John Dos Passos wrote an essay about their opinion of Isadora Duncan. The essays are similar, yet the attitudes of each essay are very different. Unlike Europe, most of the American society didn't take to Isadora's lifestyle or dance techniques. Flanner and Dos Passos are both American, even though Dos Passos lived in France for a while. What is ironic, is that Flanner portrayed Isadora as avant-garde, yet Dos Passos displayed her lifestyle as sloppy and irresponsible.
Janet Flanner's tone was very positive and reverent, while Dos Passos' tone was very negative and sarcastic. Flanner found Isadora to be inspiring, and called her, "the mother of modern dance." She was sympathetic, but at the same time she idolized Isadora, "her spirit was still green as a bay tree, but her flesh was worn, perhaps by the weight of laurels." Flanner named her, "the last of the trilogy of great female personalities our century cherished...