1. Realism

2. OBJECTIVES
Introduction to Realism Competency Area #1 (Literature and Culture)
Important Themes in Realism Competency Area #2 (Essential Themes and Ideas)
Stylistic Characteristics of Realism Competency Area #2 (Essential Themes and Ideas)
Historical Characteristics of Realism Competency Area #3 (Literature and History)

3. LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Competency Area 1 (Literature and Culture) What is Realism?
Movement in History, Arts, Literature, and Humanities
A representation of reality (focuses on everyday life) as the writer sees it
Who are some of the key writers?
Mark Twain, Sui Sin Far, Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Kate Chopin, Zitka la Sa
What are the sub genres of Realism?
Regionalism (Kate Chopin)
Naturalism

4. HISTORICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Competency Area 3 (Literature and History)
Social Structure
Industrialization and urbanization, Emerging middle class, Increasing rates of literacy and democracy
End of Civil War
13th Amendment and 15th Amendment
Writers: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Alice Dunbar
End of Indian Treaty Era
Writers: Zitkala Sa
Emergence of Women’s Rights
Writers: Kate Chopin, Alice Laurence Dunbar

5. HISTORICAL CHARACTERISTICS (Continued)
Competency Area 3 (Literature and History)
New Wave of Immigration
European Immigration (Irish Immigration) Writers: Stephen Crane, William Dean Howell Jewish Immigration Writers: Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska Chinese Immigration Writers: Mark Twain, Sui Sin Far

6. THEMATIC CHARACTERISTICS
Competency Area 2 (Themes and Essential Ideas)
Social Class
Social standing is very important
Class struggles are common
Objectivity
Exclusion of the author from the text in the form of personal feeling or opinion
Complex Ethical Choices

7. THEMATIC CHARACTERISTICS (Romanticism vs. Realism
Imaginary
Ordinary People as Heroes & Villains
Imaginary Setting
Elevated, abstract prose
History or Legend
Real or ordinary life
Everyday People (mixture of qualities)
Real world setting
Natural Vernacular (dialect)
Everyday life

8. STYLISTIC CHARACTERISTICS
Competency Area 2 (Themes and Essential Ideas)
Characters
Believable, Everyday Characters
Characters dominate the plot
Plot
Characters experience ordinary events
Plot serves characterization
Setting
Real World Setting or setting like a real place
Setting at the service of characterization

9. FEATURED AUTHOR: MARK TWAIN
“I came in with Halley's Comet in It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together” (Twain).

10. FEATURED AUTHOR: MARK TWAIN
Born in Joplin, Missouri
Mischievous Child
Married Olivia Langdon
Father of Four Children

11. FEATURED AUTHOR: MARK TWAIN
Twain, the Traveler
Mid and South West in the US
Europe, Middle East, and Asia
Twain the Inventor
Most inventions not as successful as his writing
Memory Game, Adjustable Strap
Twain the Writer
Huckleberry Finn (widely known)
Known for use of Humor and Satire

12. FEATURED AUTHOR: MARK TWAIN
HALEYS COMET The night of his funeral the comet flew overhead in the night sky – the second time in 76 years.