American Lit Home

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Changing Philosophies from Civil War to World War I

1870-1915

Realism--

Realism is a reaction against Romanticism, and is characterized by concern for fact and reality. Whereas the Romantics used their writing and art to portray life the way they wanted it to be, the Realists portray life as it actually is, without romanticizing or idealizing things. It's not that the Realists disliked beauty or anything, they just believed one should learn to find it wherever one is, without manufacturing it. Realism portrays ordinary events and people, rather than heroic stereotypes, and does so with "photographic" precision and detail. An example is Mark Twain's use of dialect in Huck Finn. Twain spells Jim's dialogue phonetically so that when read skillfully, the dialect is completely accurate and realistic: "Yo 'ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwine to do." This is in direct contrast to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, in which the dialogue of the slaves was "idealized" and made to sound just like the language of the whites: "Well old man! Why don't you go too? Will you wait to be toted down river, where they kill you with hard work and starving?"

Naturalism--

Naturalism is a spin-off of Realism. Reflecting the growing interest in psychology and sociology, it is the idea that scientific laws are adequate to explain everything; no event or object has any supernatural significance. In other words, the world consists of what can be measured by the five senses, and there is no spiritual side to anything. Human behavior can be observed and recorded much like animal behavior, and every event has a natural cause. Dickinson's "I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died" counters the popular idea of the time that a person saw the heavenly light of of God at the moment of death. To tie back to the cause-and-effect idea, a character in naturalist literature usually stumbles and falls, and it's his own dang fault--there is no cosmic "force" that wills it to happen. Crane's "An Episode of War" ends with an ironic twist when the reader is unable to feel sympathy for the lieutenant because he evidently CHOSE to have his arm amputated.

Symbolism--

Symbolism presented itself as an effective way to express Realism and Naturalism. Writers and artists "searched for symbols that would express imaginative truths" while still maintaining the objectivity of Realism. They needed a way to portray abstract ideas that would not "stoop" to sentimentality and emotionalism. In "A New England Nun," Freeman uses a canary and a big dog to symbolize the abstract contrast between the prim, uptight and predictable Louisa and the large, well-meaning but bumbling Joe.

Impressionism--

Impressionism is concerned with the effect that scenes, emotions or characters have on the viewer, rather than objective reality. Reality is what it is, regardless of who views it, or even if no one views it at all. Impressionism must have a viewer, because it is the viewer's response to an experience that is emphasized. In art, impressionism highlights the impression created by light reflected by an object rather than the details of the object itself. In Monet's "Field of Poppies," for example, the artist wants the viewer to experience the way the light is reflected by the brilliant color of the field rather than the specific detail of each individual flower. Similarly, impressionism in literature emphasizes the effect that events and characters have on the reader or one specific character. In Crane's "An Episode of War" for example, the lieutenant watches a battery of soldiers that is described as "a tumultuous and shining mass. . . swirling toward the right."

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Unit 4 Review--

I. Poetic Devices--

A. Imagery is the use of language that creates a picture in the mind of the reader. Writing is much more powerful and memorable if it creates a lasting image in the reader's mind. Although most imagery appeals to the sense of sight, it can also evoke sensations of taste, smell, hearing and touch as well.

B. Figurative Language (also known as "Figures of Speech") is language not meant to be taken literally. It is used to give emphasis to the point an author or poet is trying to make. "Decoding" figurative language, therefore, is the key to discovering the meaning of a poem or story.

Some of the more common types:

• Simile: a comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as."
• Metaphor: a direct comparison of two unlike things.
• Personification: giving human attributes to a non-human thing.
• Hyperbole: exaggerating something for emphasis. Symbol: a concrete thing that represents more than its literal self.

Sometimes figures of speech are used to emphasize small details within a work, and sometimes they are extended throughout the work to emphasize the overall message.

II. Authors and Titles--

• Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) --
  • Huckleberry Finn
• Walt Whitman --
  • "There was a Child Went Forth"
  • "What Is the Grass?"
• Emily Dickinson --
  • "I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed"
  • "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass"
  • "To Make a Prairie It Takes a Clover"
  • "I Years Had Been From Home"
  • "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"
  • "Because I Could Not Stop For Death"
• Stephen Crane --
  • "I Met a Seer"
  • "A Man Said to the Universe"
  • "The Wayfarer"
  • "An Episode of War"
• Edwin Arlington Robinson --
  • "Miniver Cheevy"
  • "Richard Cory" Edgar Lee Masters --
  • "Lucinda Matlock"
  • "Richard Bone"
  • "Mrs. Charles Bliss"
• Paul Laurence Dunbar --
  • "Sympathy"
  • "We Wear the Mask"
• W.E.B. DuBois --
  • "Of the Meaning of Progress"
• Mary Cassatt (painter)--
  • Most noted American Impressionist

III. Satire--

Satire is ridiculing someone or something for the purpose of emphasizing human vice or folly in order to inspire reform.

• Techniques:
  • wit -- intelligent verbal humor that is quick and sharp, showing swift perception.
  • sarcasm -- what is said is the opposite of what is meant ("Research essays are fun!").
  • irony -- what happens is the opposite of what is expected to happen (Marge tells Homer to speak to Bart about making faces, but he is busy making faces himself).
  • exaggeration -- enlargement or increase beyond the bounds of truth ("I told you a billion times!)
  • allusion -- a brief reference to a commonly known person, place, event, or work of art.
• Related literary types:
  • Burlesque -- a literary or dramatic composition that treats a serious subject ridiculously, or a trivial subject as it it were important (exaggeration).
  • Parody -- humorous imitation of serious writing.

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