Ap English Literature Realism Essay

The nineteenth century was a breeding ground for many literary movements, including realism, romanticism and naturalism. Realism consists of literature that is consistent, predictable, and sticks to the “simple truth” of how regular people live and talk. Romanticism is literature that contains things of intellect, strangeness and remoteness and tries to make the familiar unfamiliar. Finally, naturalism is literature that has regular people in extraordinary circumstances; the hero is at the mercy of larger social and natural forces, which are cruelly indifferent; traces of social Darwinism can be found in the literature and there is generally a brutal struggle for survival. Realism can be seen in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman,

The purpose of realism in the 1800s was to get people’s attention. The authors did that by relating to real life situations or adding in things people wanted or needed. For example, Frederick Douglass wrote My bondage And my freedom and Kate Chopin wrote “ The story of an hour”. Both authors included the point that people wanted to be free. When they both got what they wanted, they were not really free. The authors used methods to draw their points across by using conflict and irony.

The novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee is set in the early 1900’s and is based around the Finch family and their life in their home county of Maycomb, Alabama. The attitudes and values of Macomb County are presented through the expectations of the Maycomb society, and also the actions of the people of Maycomb and how these contrast or match eachother.

Naturalism is a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. Naturalism took place from 1890-1915. Some characteristics of Naturalism include: Survival of the fittest, violence (force vs. force), animal imagery, determinism, and taboo topics. Also, Naturalism is aimed at the lower class and is about the darker side of life. Ethan Frome is a novel written by Edith Wharton in 1911. The novel contains multiple attributes of Naturalism. Ethan Frome contains the following characteristics of Naturalism: Survival of the fittest, determinism (natural forces), and taboo topics.

Naturalism reached its peak at the time of the Great Depression as themes in these works were further emphasized and realistic. Determinism, a major characteristic of naturalism states that all events including human action are ultimately determined by causes external to their will. No matter how hard people try to fight their obstacles, they are doomed to fail. Since children born into poverty have no choice but to conform to the society and economical status which they were born in, they greatly suffered. It’s as if those children 's destinies were predetermined.

In Star Trek’s episode, “Balance of Terror”, there are differing ideals and points of view in action for two opposing sides in an epic cat-and-mouse chase in space. The members of the USS Enterprise, who are from Earth, become aware and learn of an enemy alien ship that is destroying their outposts. The reactions of the members of the USS Enterprise exemplify a combination of theories including the ideas of both realism and liberalism. The opposing enemy that the members of the USS Enterprise came into contact with engaged in ideals and actions that most predominantly reflect those of realism. In addition, in order to understand the connections of the theories mentioned previously to the actions taken by the characters in the film, one must be aware of and fully understand the

Along with this century, another important subjects can be seen for many writers like Hawthorne’s novel The House of the Seven Gables (1851) which centred on the importance of determining the identity of families by inherited property or subject that show the idea of the relationship between property and women’s body in the novel The Squatter and the Don (1881) by Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton and to reflect the social manners as it in the novel The Portrait of a Lady (1881) by Henry James.

Stephen Cranes story “Open Boat” was a naturalist story. In the story the men were trying to survive a shipwreck but the force of nature made it difficult to rowing the little boat. The weather and the waves kept beating down on them. So the example of naturalism is the weather that was causing them having a hard time of survival. In Cranes story “Blue Hotel” the guy in the story Swede had a very crazy imagination. He went to Fort Romper expecting to be killed instead he got to this hotel where they were playing a card game. The card game had no money involved and no one had guns playing the game. This made Swede suspicious. So Swede isolated himself from everyone thinking he was going to be killed by someone.

Another example of metaphor in the novel is how Mr. Twain depicts the characters to enunciate his views of the bigotry of social norms pushing the reader in a sense to understand what he means. Huckleberry Finn with his innocence and Jim with a thirst for equality metaphorically portray the minorities, Pap the trope of humanity that are corrupted and deprived by those that are uncivilized. “You’re educated, too, they say—can read and write. You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? i’ll take it out of you”(Twain 21) Widow Douglas and Miss Watson stand for the comity of religious woman in America and the judge is stands for the government with laws and regulations. Finally and very importantly to be clear Mark Twain utilized Diction and word choice to reveal the different languages in the South derived from these cultures in an effort for the reader to engage in a more realistic approach for his message about slavery, society and standards to be understood. In the beginning of his novel Mr. Twain in a clever detail as the narrator and character explains about the different dialects that are found especially in Missouri “the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary “Pike County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last “(Twain 4) . Mark Twain tells adventurous tale is told by a teenager’s point of view successfully with colloquial language. That is words and expressions of

Charles Darwin, a British naturalist originated the pro founding theory of Natural selection gave a revolutionary on biology and also on Philosophy, theology and history. His idea of natural selection created discontents among scientists and religious leaders during that period of time. The era of Christianity, supported by Enlightenment and

Literature is a mirror of society. It has thousands of threads which can weave the beautiful piece of art. Each thread has its own importance in the creative work. In the same way there are different types of narrative techniques for the narration of literature. Realism, in literature, is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. Although realism is not limited to anyone century or group of writers, it is most often associated with literary movement in nineteenth century France, specifically with the French novelists Flaubert and Balzac. Realism has been chiefly concerned with the common places of everyday life among the middle and lower classes, where character is a product of social factor.

Over the course of the semester, we have come across many different themes that bring up major topics for discussion. After reading, “The Beast in the Jungle” by Henry James, the keyword that came to my mind was “real”. We have covered different pieces of literature that really represent the theme of realism. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of realism is the qualities of being very much like real life and it is a style of art or literature that shows or describes people and things as they are in real life.

Jack London’s short stories are held in high regard to this day, and are still considered to show the true harshness of mother nature and the ignorance of man. London himself knows all too well the unforgiving vexation of the Klondike Gold Rush, having developed scurvy and an injury that permanently affected the use of his leg. His stories are also influenced by the literary movement of naturalism, which focuses on extreme conditions that shape human mentality. London’s usual writing style consists of very long, drawn out descriptions of the characters or the scene around these characters. A large sum of his stories focus on the instincts of animals and the questionable survival of man in extreme conditions and situations. A recurring theme

The idea of social realism is that in order to go beyond one must overcome and endure. Social realism first came about during an economic downfall in the 1920s. It was an art movement that social realists started to represent the working class. The word social refers to society and the word realism refers to accepting a situation and dealing with it accordingly. Social realism seeks to identify current issues that happen to ordinary people in society. Social realism represents ‘real life’ issues that society has. It is stripped from the glitz and glamour to show the harsh reality of the struggles that people face in their day to day lives. Social realism is constantly evolving just like society (Lay, 2002).

Idealism and Realism are two strongly opposed views of foreign policy. At the core of this opposition is the issue of power and security in politics.