Critical realism is a philosophical approach to understanding science. It is one of several types of philosophical realism and forms of realism advocated within social science, such as analytic realism and subtle realism. It contrasts forms of empiricism and positivism, seeing science as identifying causal relationships (Rundell et al., 2005). In contrast to positivisms dogmatic and empiricist epistemological basis, critical realism argues that science must be constructed from an explicit ontology (Benton & Craib, 2001). Critical realism is said to be a broad basis for social research. However, it can be considered as such only when combined with other approaches.
This is because each concept is in its own way biased on the one hand, and on the other, carries with it a high potential for cognitive, social wisdom. At the same time, this potential cannot be called absolute. Critical realism is an attractive base for sociological research because its discourse is based on causal connections (Vandenberghe, 2009). At the same time, it seeks the advantages of realism in the social sciences, especially in sociology. This is proved by the fact that realism as a philosophical metatheory is an appropriate philosophy for the social sciences (Benton, 1981). In fact, it is the first valid philosophy of the social sciences. Particular attention is paid to sociology as the subject of realisms metatheoretical interests. Traditional philosophy of science, including positivism and empiricism, did not deal with the social sciences because it believed that they were not sciences (Outhwaite, 1987). Against this background, the main goal of critical realism is to reconstruct the rules of empirical scientific practice in social cognition.
It is worth identifying the main differences between critical realism, positivism, and empiricism in this context. The main difference between positivism and empiricism is that positivism claims that all authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge. In contrast, empiricism claims that the sensory experience of perception is the source of all knowledge. Positivism and empiricism are two interrelated philosophical theories. Positivism describes the nature of knowledge, the testing of knowledge by scientific methods. On the other hand, empiricism describes the source and origin of knowledge (Harre, 1972). In addition, it is essential to note that positivism is built on the theory of empiricism. Positivism is the kind of epistemological position that has long since lost all influence in the philosophy of science and is currently not supported in its pure form by anyone.
According to positivists, scientific knowledge is empirical, derived from experience, based on what is directly given. Only those judgments that can either be directly reduced to protocol propositions or deduced from them by logical operations are scientific (Danermark et al., 2001). In contrast, critical realism asserts that it is not the statement confirmed by experience that can be considered scientific (Sayer, 2000). The thesis for which the conditions for its refutation, or falsification, have been proposed. The process of scientific cognition, according to realism, is a way of rejecting false hypotheses as a result of experimental tests.
The primary efforts of the realist critique of positivist and empirical metatheory are directed against their tendency to reduce ontology to gnoseology and both, ultimately, to methodology. This is because this ontological relation between structure and action is not just a matter of methods (Collier, 1994). The two dimensions can and should be analytically divorced, as proven by successful research using such a system. Thus, critical realism is a reasonable basis for sociological research. However, the social sciences require multiple methodological approaches no less than the natural sciences (Laudan, 1996). The merits of such systems can only be judged by the practice of the sciences and the extent to which they enrich understanding of the social world. Therefore, it can be claimed that critical realism as a metatheoretical position creates the possibility of rational debate. Consequently, combined with other theoretical approaches, it can serve as an objective basis for sociological science.
Realism is a trend in literature and art that aims at truthful and objective reproduction of reality in its typical features. The reign of realism followed the era of Romanticism and preceded symbolism. This literary trend originated in the XIX century, and its adherents sharply opposed sophisticated forms of poetry and the use of various mystical concepts in works. The concept of realism is a term, and nothing more, and in order to understand the essence of the direction, it is necessary not only to know its definition, but also its defining features, principles, philosophy and other foundations.
Historical Context
The second half of the 19th century was marked by the American Civil War. This war became the bloodiest conflict in the history of the nation. Of all the world powers, America was the only one in the XIX century to go through such a terrible historical shock (Thomas, 2021). When the war ended, and slavery ended, the pace of social development increased enormously. Big cities were growing by leaps and bounds; with them, slums inhabited by yesterdays slaves and immigrants who knew no more than a dozen phrases in English. Literature responded to these dramatic, exciting events sometimes with enthusiasm and more often with alertness. Many writers, filled with great hopes and faith in the historic mission of America, then experienced periods of doubt and disappointment.
One of the main problems of American philosophy was the gradual elimination of religion from public life. Now thinkers were faced with the critical question of knowing themselves and the world around them. The ideas of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had a great influence on the literary world (Thomas, 2021). Nietzsche was an atheist and believed that the norms and values that the Christian church preaches are false, because they elevate weakness and insignificance into virtue, and strength into sin, so people have become weak.
Values and Faith
The new school of American philosophers and psychologists sought to ensure that seemingly abstract arguments about materialism, idealism, determinism, and free will were established in the minds of Americans as something directly concerning them. In this way, they tried to prevent the washing away of the true human foundations of life by a massive flow of mechanical forces. In the works of the greatest realists, the American novel asserted its special theme of human resistance to the disfiguring influence of the environment (Thomas, 2021). In this sense, the choice of the main characters is extremely indicative. The essence of a realistic image of a person is the destruction of a ready-made scheme, including a moralistic one, with its simple opposition: bad good.
To the question, What is God? American realists no longer answered in the context of religion. Nietzsches famous thesis God is dead became the personification of the perception of God in the 20th century (Thomas, 2021). Religion, according to Nietzsche, turned people into enslaved people. An enslaved person cannot find the foundation of his life in himself. As soon as scientific discoveries shook religions authority, humanitys slavish nature was immediately revealed. That is why realists depict a persons inner impulses and desires, thanks to which he can achieve his goal. The religious answer to the question What does it mean to be a good person? , is that a person must observe the postulates and not commit bad deeds regulated by religion. Now the essence of a realistic image of a person is the destruction of a ready-made scheme, including a moralistic one, with its simple opposition: bad good. People survive only because of their inner strength, which stems from kindness, flexibility, and individuality.
The greatest writer of the early XX century Jack London reveals the theme of social inequality in his stories. They describe a new and unfamiliar world for Americans fearless people, gold diggers of the North, the world of romance and adventure (Newlin, 2019). The reverse side of the economic prosperity of the United States is depicted on a grand scale in the novels of the outstanding American writer Theodore Dreiser. One of the best works of the writer is the novel American Tragedy. The novel reflects the American way of life, in which the poverty of workers from the outskirts stands out vividly against the affluence of the privileged class (Newlin, 2019). He portrayed the social order surrounding him with the unwavering strength and skill of a true realist. However, despite how harsh the world appeared before his eyes, the writer never lost faith in the dignity and greatness of man and his beloved country.
Genres and Styles
At the end of the XIX century, a short story occupies a prominent place in American literature. OHenry proved himself to be a virtuoso master of the short story, a light, and cheerful novella. He longed for simple, honest prose and sought to free himself from certain stereotypes and pink endings that the press expects (Newlin, 2019). The next favorite genre among American realists is writing. This genre evokes a special feeling of the authors deep interest in what is being described, the feeling that what is being discussed is not indifferent but exciting, vital for the creator of the work. The Russian culturologist M. Bakhtin studied speech as a realistic literature genre. Bakhtins examples range from informal conversations to practical issues, such as chronicles, contracts, and letters, to literary ones, with a special emphasis on the novel. The realism genre was valid only in prose, and they had lost their realism in poetry.
Authors and Proceedings
Mark Twain is one of the first realists in American history. His most realistic and significant work is the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This work is about childhood, its special world, special laws, and an exceptional understanding of life when the main thing is the desire for freedom from the rules and conventions imposed by the adult world (Twain, 2022). Among other things, the book about the adventures of Tom Sawyer was a parody of a very popular genre of literature about good and bad children in the USA at that time (Twain, 2022). This genre performed a purely moralizing function and unequivocally proved that virtue should be rewarded. The images of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, despite the significant are similar in the main thing: they do not fit into the framework of the image of a good boy in any way (Twain, 2022). However, the most important thing for the writer was that Tom, in the process of both fictional and quite real trials and adventures, acquires the ability to judge everything, if not soberly, then with compassion.
The next writer, Stephen Crane, had roots dating back to the era of the American Revolutionary War. Having published a novel about the Civil War, The Red Badge of Courage, he enjoys constant success as a champion of the common person, a realist, and a symbolist. Maggie Crane: The Girl of the Streets is one of the best, if not the earliest, realistic American novels. This is the heartbreaking story of a poor, sensitive young girl whose parents completely let her down. She wants to escape her abusive family life, so she starts living with a young man who soon leaves her (Sigar et al., 2020). When her mother rejects her, Maggie becomes a prostitute to survive, but she soon commits suicide out of desperation. Cranes earthly subject matter and objective, scientific style, devoid of moralizing, distinguish Maggie Crane: The Girl of the Streets as a real job.
Another American writer, William Dean Howells, used the genre of realism as a patronage and illumination of the identity of the American way of life. Howells asserts the dominance of ethical values as opposed to the ideology of bourgeois success. In later works, the author tried to show that the USA is following its path of realism (Newlin, 2019). Democratic rights and freedoms are triumphant in the USA, so optimism and joy are much more appropriate. The main thing in the book is the contrast between the idle upper class and the suffering lower classes, as well as various attempts to eliminate or mitigate social injustice. The writer builds a whole system of characters social types and carriers of different points of view, without giving final and simple answers to complex questions.
Passages
Analyzing Mark Twains famous work The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, one can characterize the author as a representative of American realism. Twain not only entertains the reader. There are not so many puns, comic hoaxes, or parodies in the story as in some of his early works. Even now, laughter helps the writer show different sides of American life. Twain mockingly draws churchmen and exposes the falsity of Sunday school. In St. Petersburg, he shows, there are a lot of hypocrites (Twain, 2022). The widow Douglas prays all the time may she be empty! and causes Huck irritation. There is no real purity in the church, the choristers are always giggling, and no one can listen to a boring sermon (Twain, 2022). Boys exchange tickets received for memorizing verses from the Bible for fish hooks. As a result, Tom, who cannot name any of the twelve apostles, but managed to exchange the right number of tickets, is awarded the Bible for his superior knowledge of the gospel.
To conclude, Americas suddenly changed habitual life has affected all spheres of culture. American writers were now surrounded, on the one hand, by the collapse of existing religious and state foundations, coupled with the devastating civil war that had left its mark, and on the other hand, by an abundance of new scientific, technical, biological and philosophical concepts that viewed the role of man and nature in the world in a new way. The emergence of realism logically stems from the cultural upheaval of peoples consciousness. American realists sought to convey concrete authenticity in the description of the existing reality, attention to the surrounding world in all its manifestations, recognition of everyday, everyday human life worthy of artistic description, and conviction in the ability of art to know and reflect the real world.
References
Newlin, K. (2019). The Oxford handbook of American literary realism. Oxford Handbooks.
Sigar, P. Y., Rorintulus, O., & Lolowang, I. S. (2020). The influence of the environment to Maggies behavior in Cranes Maggie: a girl of the street . Journal of English Culture, Language, Literature and Education, 8(1), 64-79.
Thomas, B. (2021). American literary realism and the failed promise of contract. University of California Press.
Twain, M. (2022). Complete works of Mark Twain. Illustrated: The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, personal recollections of Joan of Arc, The Prince and the Pauper and others. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing.
William Dean Howell put forward the idea of realism in the 18th century. He argued that most businesses at the time were collapsing because the traders lacked morals (Dooley 75). Most of the traders were vulgar or had seen themselves as being in a different class above those who bought from them. He emphasized that the value of mankind was in the manner in which people treated one another with moral justice.
The championing of this idea was mainly done in literary presentations. Instead of focusing on the illusions of romance and eroticism, authors had to write books in which heroism in their characters resulted from moral solvency unhyped by material wealth. Here, characters had to act with real motivations in the real world rather than illusions of their personal feelings. In this essay, we shall discuss some of the main characters in several books and see if they adhered to Howells idea of realism.
Realism in the in Cadian Ball
Kate Chopin, a native of Louisiana, wrote stories that depicted her home base. Most of her fiction showed color fiction and expressed the power of women. Gibert (69) asserts that although realism had been thought to be associated with morals, Chopin drew from her own home and wrote stories of eroticism explicitly.
The story at the Cadian Ball was one of such local fictions based on the Louisiana dialect. Most critics argue that the story showed more of color than realism and hence Chopin might have used racism to nurture her writing (Gibert 77). When Alcee unexpectedly falls in love with Clarisse at the end of this tale, it indicates that the real women strive to escape traditions to earn their rights. This is seen in todays society. Clarisse had told Alcee on his face that she loved him. Alcee was astonished and thought the world had changed. In many societies, it is tabooed for a woman to seduce a man for love.
Cultural values limit womens expressions and sexual needs. Women were supposed to kowtow to the roles assigned to them and as the story is, women did not achieve individual freedom (Korsgaard Para.1-4). As a motivation by the physical desires, Clarisses actions were a show of realism (Gibert 78). She tries not to expose them because the society would frown at it. Her feelings force her into it. When Alcee is called out by the servant, he is already having a good time with Caxta but when a different voice calls him, he gives in. He is finally taken by Clarisse. Caxta, another rival of Clarisse, notes that she has lost the battle even though she speaks to her to let the man bid her farewell.
Realism in the in the storm
As a continuation of real feelings on womens sexuality, varying situations are shown as relative reality. Bobinot and his son Bibi are in town at the time of the storm. When his wife, Caxta (at home) is shutting her windows, Alcee arrives to seek shelter. They rekindle their feelings amid the storm which leads to sex, and then he leaves after the storm. When her family arrives, she is happy to welcome them back. The story ends with a tag, So the storm passed and every one was happy! (Ondix Para.2). Whereas cheating in marriages had better be unknown, the usual happiness expressed here is abnormal. Real women should have the power to resist giving into desires the way Caxta did. However, it may show the weakness on the part of Alcee, falling to a womans desires! This is quite true of todays societies.
Realism in under the lions paw
Hamlin Garlands short story, Under the lions paw , shows dominion of people against others (Vaz para.3). The author is well informed with the environment in the setting. It drafts the desolation and pleasure of Midwestern rural life. Realism in the story is about confronting daily stresses in life. Barren clouds are shown in the sky when the story begins then snow starts to fall and people have to shelter away from the wetness although people have to endure this to plough their farms.
Stephen Council is a good-natured and hard-working man, and is always helping those in need or in misery. Mrs. Council is supportive of her husband. This trait contrasts with their environment. One cold day, a man appears before him in need of a place to shelter, Council helps him out and promises to give him help till the next harvest. He even asserts that he is always disturbed with seeing problems with people (Vaz para. 4-6).And that he says is religion from which fulfillment is derived. He helps other people with similar problems. They cant pay him back so they promise to repay that help later.
Haskins having been accommodated at Councils for a while begins his life afresh. He enters a deal with Butler to use his land which has been fallow but Butler betrays the deal, Haskins is angered and eventually plots to stop butler from further robbery. Realism is shown in the sense that our societies are full of people with weird characters (Vaz para. 7). Even in such a crowd, honest and sympathetic people like Council and Haskins exist; their efforts are rarely appreciated
Realism in The real thing
This story by Henry James shows the conflict between pride and shame, the appearance and the reality of that appearance and the fate of victims of a society that is about appearance alone. Miss Churm belongs to the lower and she varies her appearance from a street pauper to a princes. Oronte is an Italian fit-anywhere. There is a couple who is searching for work having stayed and gotten used to life in the monarch that is now financially crippled. This monarch can not however be versatile; some members of this monarch cannot laugh at a later photography session when they have gone poor. They used to do so previously. Their pride has taken control of them and now they cannot even serve others. When Miss Churm is dressed up in a princely outfit, she becomes a respectable woman even when all her life has been spent in a lower, poorer class (Bernardo para. 4-7).
Conclusion
This shows that it is difficult for people in high social classes to face the reality when poverty suddenly comes in. Lower classes earn respect when they appear in outfits won by higher classes. But sometimes theres lasts briefly after which they revert to normal life of poverty.
Works Cited
Bernardo, Karen. Henry James the Real Thing. 2007. Web.
Dooley, Patrick K. Moral purpose in Howells realism. St. Bonaventure University. Web.
Gibert, Teresa. The Role of implicatures in Kate Chopins Louisiana Short Stories. Journal of the Short story in English. Numero 40(Spring 2003):69-84.
Korsgaard, Christine M. Realism and constructivism in the twentieth Century moral philosophy. 2000. Web.
ONDIX. The storm. 2004. Web.
Vaz, Teresa M. Under the Lion s paw: a critical writing. Mestrado em Estudos Seminario de Literatura. Universidade Aberta. 2009. Web.
Magical realism is explained as the desire of the author to show the ordinary life of people with the instances of unreal, fantastic events. In most cases the desire to present the magical realism in short stories is explained by the desire to create a fairy tale, however, the reasons are deeper.
Garcia Marquez used magical realism to write fascinating short stories such as A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World that captivated his readers and kept them interested up to the end of the stories showing human attitude to those who seem strange or not look like others.
The stories under consideration are absolutely different, however, they show human attitude to absolutely strange people. The The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World tries to show people how they usually consider others knowing about them nothing. A man is found dead and strange people express a desire to bury the body in accordance with the rules.
Reading the story it becomes obvious that strange people are ready for much when they do not know a person, but they like him/her. The main idea of the story is to show how people who absolutely do not know the body make everything for him just because they feel sympathy to him, just because they like the appearance of the man.
The villages know nothing about him, but his appearance helps them create the whole story of his life, they imagine that he had a wife and many other aspects which make sure that he was a good person. The imaginary realism plays the role of human consciousness and the desire to think about people only positive and good things.
The next story has almost the same meaning, but in this case the judgment of people is shown. In A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Garcia Marquez discusses human opinion about a person they do not know. The magical realism is aimed at presenting more vivid picture, to express human thoughts more powerful and with specific images.
People always have personal opinion about others, and the author tries to make this opinion better. Reading the story, a strange man appears in different images. Some people believed that he was an angel as he had the wings. Others believed him to be a poor one as he was dirty, etc.
Therefore, it may be seen that different people created their opinion about this person on the basis of the particular images. The transformation of the hero depended on one particular thing either in the cloths or on the face expression of the man.
Therefore, it may be concluded that referring to the magical realism Garcia Marquez tried to show the inner world of human beings their relation to strange people and the aspects which create the opinion of different people. The social public opinion is created on the basis of the points of view people express.
The more similar ideas, like in The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World the more guarantee that the society will accept the person on the basis of this opinion. However, the general social opinion may be absent as there is no common opinion about a person, like in the short story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Garcia Marquez by.
It is hard for readers to ignore the many peculiarities that are found in Winkfields novel including the rare multicultural heroine and the books deviation from the antagonist/protagonist approach in literature.
The novel also introduces several facts that are difficult to place in the eighteenth century society including the roles of female missionaries in the spread of Christianity and the heroine who alters the fate of an entire population.
The peculiarity of this eighteenth century novel has invited various scholars to criticize the realism and the relevance of Winkfields work in the then society. In addition, scholars have often attempted to map the novels social placement in light of its far-fetched realism.
Some of the scholars who have examined Winkfields novel have found it to be wildly inaccurate in a manner that diminishes its literary value. There are contentious issues that touch on realism and the unreal aspects of Winkfields novel including gender, class, imperial, racial, and national issues.
It is easy to dismiss Winkfields work as mere fantasy but the novel highlights credible realism on several instances. Some of the cultural and social fantasies that are outlined in the novel are deliberately crafted to deliver some real aspects of Winkfields society.
This paper presents the argument that the presence or lack of realism in Winkfields novel is used to shed light on both the real and unreal aspects of its eighteenth century society.
The most striking instance of realism in the novel is the situation surrounding the main characters activities. In the novel, the main character does not face any insurmountable challenges as is common with other heroes and heroines.
Unca Eliza is stranded on an unknown Island but she does not struggle in any manner to find her way around. In many works of fiction, the labors of the main characters and their self-subsistence are often used to make them real and relatable.
Upon her arrival at the Island, the main character stumbles upon a magical manuscript that makes her journey through the strange Island to be quite easy (Winkfield 23).
Eliza is also rewarded with several goodies upon her arrival at the Island. The main characters smooth sailing makes it hard for self-discovery or self-determination to occur. These contradictions highlight the lack of realism in Winkfields novel. Self-discovery journeys are not instantaneous and they often take a toll on the travelers.
Consequently, The Female American appears to be exempt from the realism that is associated with authentic literature.
Another instance of misconstrued realism is revealed through the main characters ability to fit into her newfound society. For instance, although Eliza is the stranger in the Island she is still able to supplement the hermit with survival accessories.
In addition, it appears that Eliza is able to speak different languages but the author does not offer an explanation for this ability. The main characters multilingual abilities are a contradiction to realism. In the novel, Eliza is able to speak English, Greek, Latin, and other Native-American languages with admirable fluency (Winkfield 32).
Further research into the native language that is used by Uncas mother during her exchange with a Christian convert indicates that this dialect is a mixture of Indian and Greek or Hebrew.
The mixture of languages can be interpreted as lack of realism. However, the various languages could be used by the author to reiterate the hybridity of the main character. The hybridity of the Atlantic front during the eighteenth century was real and the author might have used the main characters fantasy to highlight this fact.
On the other hand, it can be argued that Winkfields story like her made up language are components of unintentionally crafted fiction. Consequently, the heroine would bear no significance in relation to the eighteenth century transatlantic society.
The Female American was supposedly written when the first European-American encounters were taking place. Therefore, Elizas experiences in England should resonate with those of other American individuals who had ventured into Europe in the eighteenth century (Hunter 102).
This coincidence gives the reader a chance to explore the realism and the unreal aspects of Winkfields book.
During the eighteenth century, visiting delegations of Native American tribes would be received with outmost curiosity in England. Consequently, the sightings of the Native Americans and their colorful mode of dressing became artistic inspirations for Londoners.
The main characters description appears to be in line with the artworks that depicted Native Americans. For instance, the narrator speaks of her lank blank hair that is adorned in diamonds and flowers, and a bow and arrow that are hung on her shoulder (Winkfield 49).
It is unlikely that a woman who is stranded in a strange Island would appear as the narrator describes her. It is important to note that the overstatement of the costumes that are adorned by the main character is only supposed to appeal to those who encounter Native American Indians in works of art.
The authors focus on American iconography can be used to point out both the real and the unreal aspects of The Female American . It is also likely that the author of the book had very limited knowledge of the Americas and its inhabitants. Consequently, she has to rely on her artistic knowledge of the Americas when she was writing this book.
The American iconography continues with the resemblances between the Indian-themed monument that Unca designs in honor of her mother and the war themed monument that was installed in London around 1761.
There is enough evidence in the book to indicate that the author of The Female American was trying to depict her Americas in a relatable manner. Consequently, it is difficult to argue for or against the realism of Winkfields book using these aspects.
On one hand, the portrayal of America in the novel might be meant to satisfy the readers fantasies. On the other hand, the portrayal of the Americas by the author could be meant to add realism to the book. The author could also be mocking the travel-genre by trivializing the appearances of America to the people of England.
There are several aspects of the novel that articulate its realism or lack thereof but its portrayal of the Americas within England is not one of them.
One of the most obvious fantasies in Winkfields book involves the scenes that depict a magical oracle. Unca Eliza, who is a Christian convert, uses a pagan oracle to impress the native Indian communities (Winkfield 79). In addition, Unca uses the oracle to prophesy about the introduction of Christianity in her community.
This scenario does not bear any similarities to any other recorded missionary accounts. It is hard to decipher what the author was trying to accomplish with this unreal incident.
Some scholars argue that the author was trying to indicate that the spiritual nature of the Indian tribes was not being taken away from them but it was just evolving into a new form. A further examination of the literature of the time indicates that oracles were not accepted in Christian circles.
For instance, one eighteenth century author explored the conflict between Christian and oracle-related issues. According to this author, there is no clear-cut difference between Christian miracles and oracle-related practices. The oracle is one of the aspects that indicate that Winkfields work was not meant to portray any social reality.
On the other hand, the novelist might have been setting new realism standards by portraying futuristic aspects of Christian missionary work. The popular belief among Christians in the 1700s was that the powers and abilities that were possessed by oracles were evil and diabolical in nature.
Consequently, the marriage between oracles and Christianity as is portrayed in The Female America defies most aspects of realism.
The Female American has often been considered as an unpopular but significant work of literature. The author of this book goes through a lot of trouble to hide the novels connection to realism and reality. The main characters overcomes hurdles easily and integrates into her new society in record time.
This lack of realism is common in the book but there are other incidences that contradict this unreal aspect of the book. The Female American is a quagmire of realism and unrealness that is well disguised by the author.
Works Cited
Hunter, Paul. Before Novels: The Cultural Contexts of Eighteenth-Century English Fiction, New York: WW Norton & Company, 1990. Print.
Winkfield, Unca Eliza. The Female American: Or, The Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield, New York: Broadview Press, 2014. Print.
Define Realism and its characteristics as a literary movement
Realism refers to the recreation of life in the literature that took place during the historic eighteenth and nineteenth-century periods. This faithful representation of reality aided in developing the English novel and other literary conventions.
Emphasizing everyday life
Realist writers believe that books should center on everyday experiences that depict workers as real people. These writers inject life into the scenes, objects, and characters, to allow readers experience the reality of the texts. In the text, Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert depicts the daily tasks of the actors and their social obligations (Flaubert 23). In the text, the main character worries about shopping and household expenses. On the other hand, Wide Sargasso Sea explores the daily life of Bertha throughout her marriage, promiscuous behavior, and death (Rhys 8).
Easy to understand texts
Another characteristic of realism is the belief that texts should be simple for the common person to understand. This translates to making the book available not only to the educated aristocrats but to all. As I read the texts, the regular language used in the two texts is evidence that the writers sought to make their texts easy to understand for both the middle-class Americans and the aristocrats.
Absolute objectivity
This characteristic makes a single character the center of interest in a text. The two texts under study cover the development of persons who are struggling with social barriers. In Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert (41) centers around the life of Emma, whose marriage fails to meet her idealized expectations and later embarks on an adulterous affair. On the other hand, Wide Sargasso Sea focuses on the life of Bertha Mason, a madwoman who is locked in an attic (Rhys 26). The two characters Bertha and Emma are at the center of the two texts.
The struggle to overcome societal barriers
Another aspect of realism is the autonomy of characters who demand to be accorded their inalienable rights. In both Wide Sargasso Sea and Madame Bovary, the authors represent gender and sexuality through their texts. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the author tries to fortify the madwoman in Jane Eyre by giving her a voice, despite her silent nature as a character (Rhys 26). On the other hand, Madame Bovary constructs class, sexuality, and social morality (Flaubert 43). Together, these two texts contest the paradigms of gender and sexuality by explaining how society hears and silences the voices of women.
Define the Gothic and examine its influence on Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea
Gothic refers to a literal genre-mixing fiction, horror, and romanticism. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the atmosphere of mystery and suspense brings the gothic nature of the text to life. In the text, the Victorian empire gothic focuses on the romance between Jane, a governess, and Edward Rochester, an aristocrat (Rhys 29). Bertha Rochester, the first wife of the aristocrat is the central gothic element for her role as a madwoman. Jean Rhys gives Bertha a life and an identity that enables her to narrate her upbringing in West Indies (Rhys 29). It also goes on to tell the reader the story about her marriage to young Rochester that leads to her incarceration in the attic.
The gothic in this story represents a backward birth, given that the text itself is a backward creation. For Antoinette, England represents the gothic element as Jena Rhys assaults her counter-invasion with her backward rebirth (Rhys 29). The text begins from Jane Eyre but is centered on events taking place before the novel is written. Jean Rhys uses gothic to confuse a reader who is interested in finding the preceding text intentionally. The author also enacts a gothic reversal through the display of regression from sanity to madness and chaos. She moves from freedom to a locked room in an English manor house. The author tries to challenge the institutional stereotypes, which are present in many cultures.
The story of Gabriel Garcia Marquez A very old man with enormous wings tells of an angel who falls from the sky at the yard of a poor familys house. The author uses the genre of magic realism, which unites reality with fiction, to create the situations, in which the faults of society are revealed. Marquez introduces the symbol of an angel to show the ugly sights of society people in the ordinary village where the angel lands do not understand, mistreat and misuse him. Eventually, they feel relieved as the angel flies away. Through the tool of introducing a fantastic storyline in the plot, the author raises the questions of morality, humanity, and religion in ordinary society.
The Use of the Genre of Magic Realism
The author uses the genre of magic realism a style that uses a realistic approach to describing events with the introduction of some magic elements. The technique is probably used to generate unusual extraterrestrial circumstances in which the characters of the story have to reveal their real faces. With the appearance of a fantastic creature, the inhabitants of the village do not understand what it is. Similarly, miracles come to peoples lives, under the guise of gray everyday life and in an inhospitable attire, one just needs to be able to realize what they are. After all, this magical creature can perform miracles, but people do not need them.
The family near the house where the angel lands consist of ordinary village people, who are not brave enough to make up their mind. They need the opinion and support of a neighbor who knew everything (Marquez 1) to be able to identify the creature and to decide what to do with it. They are kind people, but they cannot realize that the miracle happens in the house immediately, as their child who was ill recovers right after the angels arrival.
Even though they provide shelter for the angel, they do not protect him from others, who burn his skin and throw stones at him. Eventually, the family has become rich by selling the tickets to those who want to see the angel. Nonetheless, nowhere in the story do they show respect and gratitude to the creature that indirectly helps the family to improve its life. Thus, the magic line of the story shows the problems of humanity in the village where the angel falls.
The angel is described as a strange creature on the one hand, looks like an ugly old man in a dirty robe, but on the other hand, it has enormous wings, like those of an angel. He was dressed like a ragpicker& His huge Buzzard wings, dirty and half-packed were forever entangled in mud (Marquez 1). Marquezs angel is a toothless old man with frayed wings, which does not resemble the pictures of Raphael, Botticelli, or Da Vinci.
Perhaps the author wanted to depict him as an angel who flies to the world of cruel people, mirroring the qualities of society where the creature lands. This reflection shows the soul of people the way it really is bare, dirty, and defenseless. Thus, the symbol of an angel reveals the problems of morality and humanity in society.
The events in the story are interwoven with the topic of the role of religion in society. The local priest does not believe that the alien is a true angel, as he does not speak Latin, the language of God, &his first suspicion of an imposter when he saw he did not understand the language of God or know how to greet His ministers (Marquez 2). In the story, the church is shown as the body that cannot take decisions, recognize miracles, and where the local priests depend on the conclusion of the Pope in Rome, which never arrives. Thus, in times when a crucial decision must be taken, the church is incapable of making decisions or providing justice.
Despite the miracles that truly happened, society does not even believe in the magical nature of the angel. Not trying to understand, they consider him a stupid creature. &The blind man who didnt recover his sight but grew three new teeth, or the paralytic who didnt get to walk but almost won the lottery, and the leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers (Marquez 3). These miracles were interpreted as mocking fun , and the popularity of the angel falls as a new creature arrives at the village a girl who turned into a spider for not obeying the will of her parents. Hence, people only believe in what they want, limiting their faith to an invented framework.
Conclusion
The story of Marquez A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is a very deep philosophical work that makes its reader think about who we are, our soul, humanism, and the desire to be better. Along with cynicism, our world has a place for miracles and mysteries. While reading this story, the ordinariness and cruelty of the human world are felt in a brutal manner. Through the elements of fiction, the author shows the inability of people to stop and to introspect their lives.
The author reveals a humans desire to look at life events without analyzing and seeing their essence. In this story, everything is as real as it is irrational the angel is both an ugly old human, and a divine creature that performs miracles. Society shows both compassion to the fallen angel and indifference to his destiny. The genre of magic realism has created a ground where the qualities of the main characters and of the whole society are exposed.
Published in 1997, Tropic of Orange is the third novel of a renowned, highly acclaimed modern American writer Karen Tei Yamashita. The book embodies the reflection of modern society comprising Yamashitas original views on technological progress and ethical and moral degradation of the society, highlighting controversial issues of ethnicity, multiculturalism, globalization, problems of homeless and mentally ill, the grave influence of popular culture and social conflicts in Los Angeles. Coupled with the stylistic influence of Magical Realism and Hyperreality, the novel is a profound work that deals with the most crucial problems of todays society.
Moreover, the story not only provides an interesting, entertaining, and absorbing plot but is intended to send an explicit message that could be easily read between the lines. Tropic of Orange uses the stylistic peculiarities of Magical Realism to enhance the authors message of the destructive influence of progress and globalization over immigration, racial and social issues, a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic society.
As it has already been mentioned, Tropic of Orange comprises various techniques inherent in Magical Realism, a literary genre characterized by a clash of two conflicting opposites. Thus, the novel may be examined from two levels: the first one dealing with seven ordinary peoples stories that take place in real LA and on Mexican borders. The second level of the novel directly pertains to the notion of Magical Realism, dealing with the surrealistic world of the tropic of cancer with an orange in the center that heading northwards drags the borders of the tropic with it. As a result, geography and space cease to follow conventional laws of physics or common sense and are subject to the artificial magical reality.
The extension of borders of the tropic, the contraposition between the life in LA and the life in Mexico, the change of events is a typical technique of Magical Realism, namely, hybridity that implies extensive use of the images of borders and change. Moreover, according to the laws of this genre, magical elements are perceived as the elements of reality and dont stand apart from it, mixed with the realistic events they serve the purpose to enhance the authors initial message to the reader.
Thus, orange can hold borders of the tropic and be carried by an old man who extends the borders till the borderline. Archangel is immortal and when he does such extraordinary things as pulling the bus on his own through the border, it doesnt surprise anyone. In this case, the real border and the unreal superpowers blend, which is typical of Magical Realism. In addition, Yamashita manages to keep the narration alive and not conventional though following her style. The author intricately intertwines two cultures, American and Mexican, raising the problems of ethnicity and multiculturalism.
Another episode, when poisoned oranges kill innocent people and hold them in awe, causing a massive accident on the road leaving people stuck in their cars only proves this novel to be surrealistic. The absence of clear opinions about the authenticity and credibility of events allows the existence of magical realism in the text. Thus, the characters take everything for granted and questions nothing because otherwise, it would destroy the fragile world of magic.
Moreover, nonlinear time, the shifts in geographical borders serve to support the idea of the destructive tendency of current progress and globalization that should be improved to maintain intercontinental relations, to facilitate the process of implementing human rights: &progress and other things in which they foolishly believed& (Yamashita 56).
Whats more, Yamashita keeps an ironic distance from the surrealistic world in the text though having no doubts about the credibility of this world. In addition, the motif of apocalypse, irony, and paradox that the novel abounds in are typical features of the genre in question.
All things considered, the novel is an example of the implementation of the principles of Magical Realism that focuses on such issues as multiculturalism, ethnicity, social deprivation, migration, globalization and the problems connected with them.
Works Cited
Yamashita, Karen Tei. Tropic of Orange. US: Coffee House Press, 1997.
American realism remains an elusive field, and Eric Sunquist asserts, No genre is more difficult to define than realism, and this is particularly true of American realism. But certainly, this should not discourage scholars from beginning the process.
Rebecca Harding Davis was a strong-willed, highly intelligent young woman who emerged at the age of thirty-two as an excitingly new and innovative writer. She was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, a small community located twenty-five miles south of Pittsburgh. From the late 1860s, until her demise in 1910, Rebecca Harding Davis was one of the finest and well-known writers in America. She broke into the issue as a youthful woman in the 1860s with Life in the Iron Mills, which established her as one of the founders of American Realism. In this enlightening thesis of significant work, I seek to present a skillful investigation of Daviss literary style and of the aesthetic, philosophical, and political assumptions that fashioned it.
Life in the Iron Mills
Historical, Philosophical and Cultural Forces
The extraordinary intensity and uniqueness of vision in this short story, has earned it a position as one of the revolutionary documents in American Literatures evolution from Romanticism to Realism. Two factors in Daviss personal life eternally altered her vision of what the purpose and structure of literature should be. The first factor: being brought up in a rapidly emerging mill town, and the second, Daviss experiencing at first hand the horrific realities of war.
From these experiences, Davis produced her distinctive literature of the middle to late-nineteenth century. Daviss letters to her family and friends remained an important avenue for political discussions throughout her life and sometimes even acting as an impetus for her articles and short stories. It was during their apprenticeship years that she gained first-hand knowledge of the national and local particulars of political life and consequently began to recognize her own era as one of incredible growth and equally rampant fiction. It is out of this knowledge that she shaped her literary theory of the commonplace.
Treated as a novella in the genre of local regionalism, Life in the Iron Mills begins with an epigraph from Alfred, Lord Tennysons popular poem In Memoriam A. H. H. 1850),
Is this the end?
O Life, as futile, then as frail!
What hope of answer or redress?
The basic story of Life in the Iron Mills is set thirty years in history thus permitting Davis to demystify the historical myths of that era so as to write what she believed was the crucial history: the story of today. Daviss research has centered on Life as a milestone in American literary history. Gerald Langford classifies the novella as one of the revolutionary documents in American writing and Tillie Olsen admits that the commonplace Davis chose as her topic was nowhere in books at that time. Jay martin categorizes Davis as one of the earliest and best of the American realists.
The three-level narrative structure of Life is a re-creation of the hierarchical social stratum of the mid-nineteenth century in America. The upper tier is the narrators middle-class world and her examinations structure the inner stories. Critics often believe that the voices of Davis and her narrator are exchangeable. The narrator is an essential initial channel, whose language and social status are known and comfortable to Daviss reading community. The middle stratum is Deborahs arena and belongs to both worlds. She inhabits the lowest economic stratum but has not yet been entirely dehumanized.
She has no last name. Finally at the heart of the narrative is Hugh Wolfes account, one of the most basic renderings of naturalism in American literature. Every stage of the narrative structure tackles the concern of language as an instrument of authority and each challenge submissive, conventional Christianity as a solution to the nations tribulations.
The narrator initiates with a conversational exchange with the reader that instantly addresses the truth of a mill town. The narrator asks, Do you know what that is in a town of iron works? the sky is muddy, flat, immovable. The air is thick, clammy with the breath of crowded human beings. It stifles me. Davis reveals how an economic structure terminates human potential and identifies voracious industrialization that distorts nature and defeats the human spirit.
Daviss insertion of immigrants in her portrayal of the mill town, especially Irish immigrants is a significant aspect of her realism. Between 1815 and 1865, roughly five million immigrants had entered the United States. Two million of these immigrants were Irish comprising the biggest nationality.
Rebecca Harding Davis existence in Iron Mills observes the artists social and spiritual position in a distorted marketplace. The marketplace bleeds into Davis life and controls her voice. Theodore Parker exemplifies the marketplace of 1842 as having a basis of selfishness; a society wherein there is a preference of the mighty, and a postponement of the righteous, where power is worshipped and justice little honored (407). Since then, until 1861, when Davis text surfaced, conditions grew worse. The site is devoid of the carnival signs of the conventional folk market. A certain tradition of ethics is missing, therefore the distortion. Underneath a lens of historical alteration, the continuation of an industrialized structure did nothing to arrest the suffering in America.
Social and Political factors
As a sensitive analyst of the sociopolitical apprehension that had been emergent in the nation since the 1830s, Davis comprehends that progressively stratifying class divisions were discouraging the actual conception of democracy in American life. By highlighting the working class citizens and daily events, Davis desired to expose industrial capitalisms deformation of human lives as well as its destruction of nature. America was to Daviss mind, a tragedy more real & than any other in life. For intentions, unknown Davis selects a Welshman as our central character. She communicates the racial diversity casually, as a crowd of drunken Irishmen (11), a tall mulatto woman near the end, and the different physicality of the Welsh. They are a trifle more filthy; their muscles are not so brawny; they stoop more (15). The variety adds a dimension to the marketplace.
The ruling body and American capital interests which often seem identical factions do not need artisans from their functioning class. Art, in many cases similar to the newly arrived employees, was traded in from Europe, merely produced by the upper class or not appreciated. Davis makes use of the mystery of an artists spiritual state as a cry to live the life God meant him to live (45) in this relatively fresh cultural setting. This cry is similar to the workers cry for social mobility, explicating the reality of soul starvation in a world went wrong (23, 30).
The Christian Allusion
The most important significant mission of this story has been to solve what scholars have generally found& difficult to reconcile (Hughes 114) the political significance in addition to the Christian allusion. The tale is based on the allegory of Lazarus found in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 16 (Hughes 116). The allegory is a story of Inversion in which a prosperous man and Lazarus die at the same instance, the rich to hell pleading for pardon while Lazarus is next to Abraham, which acts to arouse shock and response from her [Davis] readers (117). This dissertation emphasizes the key argument that indistinct spirituality and political restoration, are not functioning to supersede one another. On the contrary, they merge successfully.
Davis labors on the principle that social wrongs can be corrected by the men causing them (Parker 407). She incorporates patient Christ-love as one of the possessions needed to make helpful and hopeful this impure body and soul (63), implying Debs curing from the trial. Obviously, for Davis, chaste Christian spirituality is a prerequisite for social development. Given the Puritanical paradigm of America regarding religion, at the heart of divine madness, is a different spiritual sense essential for Davis political change. It is the madness that underlies all revolution, all progress, and all fall (Davis 46).
These themes co-exist parallel to each other. They adjoin sociopolitical entailments and an arguably spiritual festive ideal inside our chief character, a Welshman with the name Hugh Wolfe. Wolfe becomes detached from Christianity and embraces a different religious form. The emptiness of festive themes in his life makes him hungry, only to be converted very late by the Quakers Christian solace that of the natural surroundings and Gods promise of the dawn (65) not a carnival form and possibly an extension of the tainted marketplace philosophy, even though not the perverted marketplace way of life.
Wolfe is an unskilled manual worker and sculptor of the iron mills byproduct korl and is at fault because he is born underprivileged, weak, dissimilar from the others, and an artist, defined here merely as one who creates art. He has a somewhat cultured and genderless look, the taint of school-learning on him and his meek womans face , respectively (10,11). In the mill, he was known as one of the girl-men: Molly Wolfe was his sobriquet (24).
Absence of Feminism?
The men have a dominant position in Wolfes consciousness and are preoccupied with wealth, becoming influenced by the philosophy of the marketplace. Mitchell, the chief avatar of Wolfe, a Man all-knowing, all-seeing, crowned by Nature, reigning , perhaps most represents the perverted marketplace philosophy (40). He ends the communication abruptly and with a cold conclusion. Mitchell uses the philosophy of psychological self-indulgence.
Psychological hedonism elucidates all actions and emotions as essentially self-centered. For example, a saint is not motivated by selflessness. They are motivated by how their actions will make them understanding sensitively, the achievement of a place in Heaven. It is the converse of Christianity, debasing the very act of self-sacrifice with the blow of self-interest. Mitchells mirth is from a platform of contempt where pragmatism is unconcealed by religious conviction and possibly most significantly for Hugh Wolfe; it is a terminal feature of the marketplace.
Possibly, here Davis presents her solution when according to Mitchell the natural order has set the classes apart and the cycles of history bring them together every now and then.
Humor the central theme
Humor is the central theme. God is humorless in the Puritan paradigm. Ideally, it is not humor like Mitchell or Wolfes, hidden and personal. Traditional carnival humor is a humor of the people, for all people. It is the laughter of the marketplace, closer to the tall mulatto woman Wolfe spies from his cell. The reader is asked to create an environment where laughter can regain its healing power. Deb, the Quaker, as well as the narrator, do not laugh for adult laughter in the perverted marketplace takes the form of Mitchells educated pedestal. It is the distorted laugh of a desperate and suicidal Wolfe.
Irony and Symbolism
In Life the naturalistic symbol is iron. Pfizer continues, A major characteristic of each of these symbols is that it functions ironically within the structure of the novel. Fro Davis, the ironic symbol is iron itself. Hugh has completely assimilated the values of the iron mill owners; he carries those values with him throughout the core narrative and literally employs iron to hone the piece of tin with which he kills himself.
The Final Question (Or Answer?)
Hidden behind a curtain is the Karl woman statue, now in the possession of the narrator. Her arm reaches out beseechingly and her pale lips appear to question, Is this the end? (p. 64). The Karl womans question, ( What shall we do to be saved? ) is drawn from scripture, which leads us to the final inclusive theme of Daviss realism. maybe this question is answered when the narrator becomes aware of a cool gray light pointing to the Far East, the East serves as a symbol for Christ, where God has set the promise of the Dawn (p. 65).
The narrator reveals another art object in her room, a little broken figure of an angel pointing upward from the mantel-shelf; but even its wings are covered with smoke, clotted and black (p. 12). Hence, although the angel has not attained victory over desolation, maybe the Karl woman, representative of working-class souls, will be rewarded salvation. The korl womans wild gesture of warning (p. 31) could moreover forecast a potential revolution by the working classes, as signified by Hughs statement that the money was his by rights, and that all the world had gone wrong (p. 51).
References
Davis, Rebecca Harding. Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories. New York: The Feminist Press. 1985.
Harris, Sharon M. Rebecca Harding Davis and American Literary Realism.> Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1991.
Hughes, Sheila Hassell. Between Bodies of Knowledge there is a Great Gulf Fixed: A Liberationist Reading of Class and Gender in Life in the Iron Mills. American Quarterly. 49.1. (1997): 113-135.
Morrison, Lucy. The Search for the Artist in Man and Fulfillment in Life Rebecca Harding Daviss Life in the Iron Mills. Studies in Short Fiction. 33.2. (1996): 245-253.
Parker, Theodore. The Perishing Classes in Boston. The American Mind. New York: American Book Company. 1963. 407.
Rose, Jane Atteridge. Rebecca Harding Davis. New York: Twayne Publishers. 1993.
In the years after the civil war, Americans experienced remarkable changes in their daily lives. Realism and Naturalism, as artistic styles, found their logical outgrowth in American literature after the Civil War. Realism is the first artistic device that came out first chronologically and it attempts to narrate a story without adding emotions to color the topic. Therefore, realism relies on a truthful piece of literature (Perkins 23). On the other hand, naturalism depends on realism, but they have a slight distinction, as realism does not focus on individuality. Realism and naturalism movements in American literature got representation by individual authors like Walt Whitman.
Naturalism sought to expand and became more explanatory by providing underlying causes of human beliefs and actions. It also provided a dimension that predetermined fate that caused the will of man to be ultimately powerless (Perkins 25). After the civil war, there were unique concerns in American history, such as, class divisions and other social concerns that strongly influenced American literature. Hence, realism and naturalism took their places as important American literary movements after the civil war. The fact is that there is no literature that exists independently of social, economic, as well as, historical variables. Thus, it is crucial to understand the works of writers like Whitman and Dickinson on how social and historical experiences occurred. These attributes influenced their works. In the earlier decades, realism was not the dominant literary style in the US but became more influential and important to a famous novelist in the US. This literary style presents earth in its real form. Realism refers to truthful or realistic literature by providing a plain and sensible account material it describes. Realists did their works with details obtained from everyday experiences of life and facts. These are facts about nature, history, or geographical places.
The description of the everyday world is an important element in realistic work. Realists often speak about plain and normal daily materials using trials of everyday plain travails of a normal daily life. In realist literature, a reader might be left concluding that a character describes a real folk doing a daily chore. On the other hand, realists often write specifically about places they experienced. For instance, the calamus, which celebrated a love of man for man to be the heart of democracy originated like a free-verse sonnet derived from an original manuscript I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing which was the key poem, having a sequence containing narratives of human relationships. However, homoeroticism indicates a mans feeling of loneliness, as well as, alienation in society.
Realist writers, such as Mark Twain, who was very famous for realist works in American literature, wrote about people, places, and other materials in their real existence or everyday life. They used American dialects when setting their literary pieces in places. American realists had excellent ears when making their characters portray sounds like real Americans (Killingsworth 18). Through the representation of different American dialects, realists genuinely assisted in creating a real American body of literature referring to a set of literature that is distinguishable from literature from other regions such as Europe after the Civil War. Consequently, realism celebrates individuals since they mostly deal with central characters obliged to deal with some moral struggle in order to realize something or achieve victory. Realist writers put their characters to experience some normal everyday world (Killingsworth 17). This combines with some interesting external experiences that are not happening. However, most realist writers develop an interest in an individual through the love of the notion that man must learn and grow through the experiences of the changes in his life. Realism literature is always plot-driven. Thus, realism revolves around an occurrence of a conflict, which the audience wants to get resolved. In Realism literature, a writer must use at least a protagonist and an antagonist that will be showing opposing forces within an episode. This makes the audience be anxious to experience the sequence of events that prevail. Realism possesses these attributes which prevail in all standard works of literature, but its significance in realism is that it leads to a more fragmented or conscious style.
Naturalism also remained famous in American literature after the Civil War. This is an outgrowth of the realism style in American literature. Naturalism relates to realism in the sense that it represents an accurate version of reality in everyday life. Naturalism has facts, as well as, details of everyday experiences of the world and how ordinary human beings experience it. Furthermore, there is a similarity with the real American dialect spoken by the characters. In his work, Whitman wrote about the American people, geography, and landscape in a free verse form (Donna 43). On the other hand, Dickinson used tones and poetic styles that were much more measured and compact. Their works evolved in a unique American manner that uniquely portrayed the everyday American life. However, naturalist writers show no interest in individuality. They do not believe that individuals have a place to make changes in the everyday life in the world. Hence, any moral struggle by their protagonists does not add up to any little change in the setting of the literary works.
According to naturalist writers, the central belief focuses on the dependence of man to be at the mercy of certain mightier forces in control over nature. Some of these forces include the need for basic needs and social dominance. In a broader perspective, these external forces may include both physical and natural surroundings. The whole point of naturalism is its inevitability. Naturalist writers tend to be more political, for instance, they tend to describe the plight of the working class in society. Hence, they expose the cruelty of a larger external force, such as describing a sense that money could be used to crush the plight of the poor in society. To some extent, this notion is true; hence, the readers should not ignore it. Consequently, realism requires that readers should view a bigger picture than an individuals political movements that may be crucial to counter the exploitation of the working poor by the capitalists. Therefore, naturalism deals mostly with the extraordinary subject matter in the quest to describe how external forces control and manipulate individuals lives. Thus, naturalism supports the notion that free will is capable enough to enact real change in life situations (Donna 56).
In conclusion, American writers sought to have their own voice after the civil war; hence, realism took the first stage then followed suit by naturalism. Realism expounded the virtues of the common person who differed from the capitalist economy. However, most experts in literature argued that naturalism was a pessimistic view of realist, but an independent style of literary writing (Killingsworth 21).
Works cited
Donna, M. Campbell. Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890. Literary Movements. Washington State University. 2010. Print.
Donna, M. Campbell. Some information adapted from Resisting Regionalism: Gender and Naturalism in American Fiction, 1885-1915. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009. Print.
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. The Growth of Leaves of Grass: The Organic Tradition in Whitman Studies. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 2007.
Perkins, Charlotte. American Literature from the Civil War to Present. McGraw hill. 2011. Print.