1. Realism ( )

2. Realism Reaction against Romanticism
Literature/poetry didn’t sugarcoat anything – reflected the “real world”
Focused on the lives of ordinary people (much like Romantics did), but it rejected the notion that ordinary people were heroic or went on fantastic adventures
Child in a Straw Hat, Mary Cassatt

3. Realism Anti-materialism – rejected the American “class” system
View of nature different than Romantics
Nature = powerful/indifferent force beyond man’s control
Naturalism
Sub-genre of Realism
Universe unpredictable
Fate is up to chance
Free will is an illusion
Characters shaped by forces they can’t control

4. Motifs/Themes of Realism
Survival of the fittest
Life is unpredictable
Violence is inevitable
Nature is indifferent
Work to change social problems
Adolf Schreyer : Wallachian Blizzard

5. Realist/Naturalist Authors
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Fredrick Douglas
Escaped slave; famous speaker; autobiography most famous
Mark Twain
Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn
Stephen Crane
Red Badge of Courage
Jack London
Call of the Wild
To Build a Fire
Bret Harte
the Old West
Kate Chopin
The Awakening
Willa Cather
My Antonia