Literature changed dramatically between the 19th century and the 20th and 21st centuries. The idealistic views that British writers once held turned to skepticism when Britain went to war and inequality increased. Writers of the 20th and 21st centuries wrote realistically about what was happening in the world. The Moment Before the Gun Went Off by Nadine Gordimer and "The Day They Burned the Books" by Jean Rhys are both stories that show the shattering of idealism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. British colonialism caused many problems for the natives and natural born English. who lived in the colonies. The illusion of patriotism was shattered as conflicts of race, class and gender equality came to light. The Moment Before the Gun Went Off by Nadine Gordimer discusses racial issues in South Africa. The story itself is very realistic in its approach to discussing the complex racial issues in South Africa. Unlike nineteenth century stories that discuss how things should be; twentieth- and twenty-first-century histories tell it as it is. This style of writing makes the reader feel as if the writers have lost hope that the world will ever recover. However, it's not hard to understand why writers have such a hopeless view of their world. The moment before the gun goes off shows how divided the world truly is. The story shows how the issue of race was portrayed in black and white, when a white farmer accidentally shot his illegitimate black son. Even though the farmer knows it wasn't a racial crime, he knows people will use it as such. “How will they ever know, when they archive newspaper clippings, evidence, evidence, when they look at the photographs and see his face… guilty! guilty! t...... middle of paper ...... writers of the day explore the gray area of ​​the world. In The Moment Before the Gun Goes Off Gordimer shattered the idealistic view that world issues are bilateral. Through his very concrete writing style; he wrote about realism. His story made the reader feel and think about the problem because the problem was never solved by the end of the story. Rhys Story “The Day They Burned the Books” shows how patriotism was declining due to colonization. Most nineteenth-century writers felt strong ties to England and had idealistic views because they had nationalism. However, without nationalism, idealistic views shatter and skepticism takes over. In conclusion, inequalities and war become present in the lives of many writers; idealism has disappeared. Feelings of uncertainty about whether the world was actually getting better led writers to write stories filled with skepticism..