Realism In A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court

Krisite: Would the author have us believe that the story is real? How realistic is it? Realism is defined in many ways. The most common way of defining it is that it is an artistic movement that encourages real truth to the way the world actually is and interacts. When it comes to literature, realism is (obviously) its own category/genre. In class, a various number of themes that connect to realism were covered such as violence, characterization, war, and more. In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, realism is shown, but not the focus. The focus is rather science fiction-like. Twain had some knowledge of realism, especially with writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is about a boy who is true to himself and his journey, and Tom Sawyer. This novel has more technological ideals with a hint of realism in what Hank has the people of Arthur’s court do to improve- or what Hank sees as improve- their community. Does Twain want the reader to believe the story is real? I believe that he does, by using Hank to bring civilization to these renaissance-aged folks, it provides this sense of realism to the society that most people just think of …show more content…
By coming across a knight that is alone and standing, but dead, Twain is depicting the realistic sense of horror in Hank and Clarence at this point. They’d seen so much violence and death by now that they were able to crawl away from that. The war had definitely had an effect on them, as Hank says, “We had brief intervals of grim stillness, interrupted with piteous regularity by the clash made by the falling of an iron-clad.” (Twain 459). The realism of the whole war is great in the way that the depiction is true to how a war would be. With the end of the novel having Hank not able to conclude because of all of the dead bodies he sees, he is like a war hero in today’s