Which writer is associated with the Modern and Contemporary eras?

• A. Mark Twain
• B. J.D. Salinger
• C. Charles Dickens
• D. Toni Morrison

Answer: (B)

The concept being tested is how authors belong to and shape different literary eras, specifically Modern and Contemporary, through their time of writing and the themes they explore. J. D. Salinger fits this well because his major works emerged in the mid-20th century and center on personal consciousness, alienation, and a skeptical view of adult society—traits that mark Modernist-era experimentation with voice and subjectivity and that continue to influence postwar and later contemporary literature. His most famous novel, published in 1951, became a defining voice for a generation grappling with meaning after World War II, helping to bridge Modern ideas into the later Contemporary era.

Mark Twain is strongly associated with 19th-century realism and regional storytelling. Charles Dickens belongs to the Victorian era, with concerns and forms characteristic of the 1800s. Toni Morrison is a later 20th-century and contemporary voice renowned for exploring African American experience, but her work sits more clearly in the Contemporary period rather than the Modern. So, J. D. Salinger is the writer most closely linked to both Modern and Contemporary eras.