Throughout the 19th century, an array of new speculations and ideals about the world swept through the United States. Largely birthed by the forward-thinkingness of the Enlightenment movement in the 18th century, both romanticism and realism entered the American headspace radically and powerfully, bringing exciting changes to literature, philosophy, and artwork. Two timeless examples of both realism and romanticism stand with the works of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself.
Romanticism first emerged in the early 19th century of the United States, at a time of dissent leading to the greatest American conflict in history, the Civil War. The work of James Fenimore Cooper and his stories of adventure surrounding …show more content…
Throughout Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain emphasizes the brutality and stubbornness of the rural south, drawing much from his own childhood in Missouri and time serving in the Civil War. As mentioned before, the individual freedom of Jim throughout the novel is threatened by various characters he and Huck come across, such as the slave catchers in the fog, Miss Watson before she allows Jim his freedom, and the Phelps. Additionally, Huck feels constrained by the world around him as well, fearing his own father’s greed and inebriation, “but what he had been saying give me the very idea I wanted...I can fix it now so nobody won’t think of following me”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,24), as well as trying to go against the manners and properness of the Widow Douglas, “Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me.But she wouldn’t. She said it was a mean practice and wasn’t clean”(2). Even at the end of the novel, when he is finally in a position of safety after finding out his father has died and Jim is a free man, he still has the urge to escape society and live on his own terms,“...got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before”(220). Huck’s maturity and further connection to realism can also be seen in his religious beliefs,or lack thereof, finding them strange and not a major influence on his life, “but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time...I don 't take no stock in dead people”(2). Later in the novel, he remarks, “Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she’d take a job that was more nearer her size”(144). Alternatively,Song of Myself is more constituently a romantic poem, but contains a large number of realist ideals. Like Huck Finn, Whitman condemns inhibitors, both physical and social
Romanticism first emerged in the early 19th century of the United States, at a time of dissent leading to the greatest American conflict in history, the Civil War. The work of James Fenimore Cooper and his stories of adventure surrounding …show more content…
Throughout Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain emphasizes the brutality and stubbornness of the rural south, drawing much from his own childhood in Missouri and time serving in the Civil War. As mentioned before, the individual freedom of Jim throughout the novel is threatened by various characters he and Huck come across, such as the slave catchers in the fog, Miss Watson before she allows Jim his freedom, and the Phelps. Additionally, Huck feels constrained by the world around him as well, fearing his own father’s greed and inebriation, “but what he had been saying give me the very idea I wanted...I can fix it now so nobody won’t think of following me”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,24), as well as trying to go against the manners and properness of the Widow Douglas, “Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me.But she wouldn’t. She said it was a mean practice and wasn’t clean”(2). Even at the end of the novel, when he is finally in a position of safety after finding out his father has died and Jim is a free man, he still has the urge to escape society and live on his own terms,“...got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before”(220). Huck’s maturity and further connection to realism can also be seen in his religious beliefs,or lack thereof, finding them strange and not a major influence on his life, “but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time...I don 't take no stock in dead people”(2). Later in the novel, he remarks, “Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she’d take a job that was more nearer her size”(144). Alternatively,Song of Myself is more constituently a romantic poem, but contains a large number of realist ideals. Like Huck Finn, Whitman condemns inhibitors, both physical and social