The modernist style is characterized primarily by fragmentation in style, character, plot, theme and the arrangement of the story line. Writers toy with the conventional narrative style by arranging the story line into fragmented sections, or a jumble of stories. The fragmentation mirrors the sense of unease that was tormenting the post-war public.
As writers wrapped their heads around the tragic wake of World War I, they gravitated toward pessimistic themes in their writing. "Loss" and "questioning the truth" are two of the most common themes in postmodernist literature. Destruction of family and characters living as outcasts are common themes in modernist literature. Often, authority figures are shown to be untrustworthy throughout modernist works.
Modernist writers strayed away from the traditional narrative style. Instead of using objective, omniscient third-person narrators, writers chose to write in the first-person narrative, which can provide a biased and untrustworthy narration of the story. Often the first-person narration is questioned, which helps create the theme of constantly-questioned truth. The characters within the story are given sparse physical description.
As opposed to the writers before them, modernist writers chose to create ambiguous and incomplete endings that often left the reader feeling unsatisfied. The reader is left to question the ending, which reflects the uncertainty of the post-war times.