The Realist literary movement brought many influential novels and short stories into American literature. The movement lasted for about fifty years, beginning around 1850 and ending in 1900. This was a huge time for change in America with rising tensions between the North and South, the Civil War, westward expansion, and The Great Migration. Cities were quickly expanding and teaming with people looking for homes. Factory jobs were rapidly replacing farming and many Americans lived in city slums. Authors adapted to these changing times through their literature. Realism was greatly influenced by the Civil War (1861-1865) and the post-war period. The Civil War influenced authors to write about the lives of soldiers and the average American
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Regionalism is a sort of literature that concentrates on the people and customs of a certain region. It is used to try to accurately portray daily life in a specific society and its geographical area (Arpin 419). Many authors have said that regionalism helped re-unify the post-Civil War country and rebuild the national identity (Campell 1). The second subset of Realism is Naturalism. Naturalism maintains the idea that nature has ultimate power over characters; characters can do little to prevent or change their fate against the environment. Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was used in Naturalist fiction to support these ideas. The Theory of Evolution is based off of natural selection and “survival of the fittest” concepts. Naturalist authors “[looked] at human life as a grim losing battle” (Arpin 421). Some influential Naturalist authors include Jack London, Stephan Crane, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser.
Though some say that Mark Twain was the “father of Realism”, there were many other influential Realist authors. Herman Melville, one of Twain’s contemporaries, was the author of the well-known novel, Moby Dick. Kate Chopin was another very important Realist author. She wrote the short …show more content…
Unfortunately, their son Langdon Clemens died not too long after birth due to severe sickness. Twain’s three daughters were named Suzy, Clara, and Jane. Twain dealt with a lot of pain and death in his later years. In 1896, his oldest daughter, Suzy, died after suffering from meningitis. In 1904, his wife passed away after years of agony from devastating sickness. Five years later, in late 1909, Twain’s youngest daughter, Jane, died of an epileptic seizure. After all of this family tragedy, Twain wrote, “Possibly, I know now what the soldier feels when a bullet crashes through his heart” (“Mark Twain” 451). Four months after the death of his youngest daughter, on April 21, 1910, Twain himself died of a heart
Regionalism is a sort of literature that concentrates on the people and customs of a certain region. It is used to try to accurately portray daily life in a specific society and its geographical area (Arpin 419). Many authors have said that regionalism helped re-unify the post-Civil War country and rebuild the national identity (Campell 1). The second subset of Realism is Naturalism. Naturalism maintains the idea that nature has ultimate power over characters; characters can do little to prevent or change their fate against the environment. Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was used in Naturalist fiction to support these ideas. The Theory of Evolution is based off of natural selection and “survival of the fittest” concepts. Naturalist authors “[looked] at human life as a grim losing battle” (Arpin 421). Some influential Naturalist authors include Jack London, Stephan Crane, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser.
Though some say that Mark Twain was the “father of Realism”, there were many other influential Realist authors. Herman Melville, one of Twain’s contemporaries, was the author of the well-known novel, Moby Dick. Kate Chopin was another very important Realist author. She wrote the short …show more content…
Unfortunately, their son Langdon Clemens died not too long after birth due to severe sickness. Twain’s three daughters were named Suzy, Clara, and Jane. Twain dealt with a lot of pain and death in his later years. In 1896, his oldest daughter, Suzy, died after suffering from meningitis. In 1904, his wife passed away after years of agony from devastating sickness. Five years later, in late 1909, Twain’s youngest daughter, Jane, died of an epileptic seizure. After all of this family tragedy, Twain wrote, “Possibly, I know now what the soldier feels when a bullet crashes through his heart” (“Mark Twain” 451). Four months after the death of his youngest daughter, on April 21, 1910, Twain himself died of a heart