1. Realism in America

2. American Literature The Puritan Era Age of Reason Romanticism Realism
Contemporary and Post-Modern Period
The Puritan Era
Age of Reason
Romanticism
Realism
Transcendentalism
Modernism
1946 – Present

3. The Civil War A nation divided Interrupts Transcendentalism
Walt Whitman
Transition writer: late Transcendental poet, early Realist
Leaves of Grass
“O Captain, My Captain”

4. Historical Context Population of the United States is growing rapidly.
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Science, industry and transportation are expanding.
Literature also was growing, but most new writers were not Romantics or Transcendentalists. They are Realists.
The “Frontier” did not exist as before; its legacy changed and impacted Realists in its new form.
The aftermath of the Civil War meant that Americans were less certain and optimistic about the future.
The idealism of the Romantics and philosophy of Transcendentalists seemed out of date and irrelevant to many readers.

5. Realism vs. Romanticism
“The trapper was placed on a rude seat which had been made with studied care…His body was placed so as to let the light of the setting sun fall full upon the solemn features. His head was bare, the long thin locks of gray fluttering lightly in the evening breeze. ”
He was most fifty and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and you could see his eyes shining through…there warn’t no color in his face; it was white…a white to make a body sick…a tree-toad white, a fish belly white. As for his clothes, just rags, that’s all.

6. Realism in American Literature
The purpose of the writing is “to instruct and entertain”
Character is more important than plot.
Subject matter is drawn from real life experience.
The realists reject symbolism and romanticizing of subjects.
Settings are usually those familiar to the author.
Plots emphasized “the norm of daily experience”
Ordinary characters

7. Some Writers from Realism
Abraham Lincoln
The Gettysburg Address
Walt Whitman
Beat! Beat! Drums!
Emily Dickinson
Success is Counted Sweetest
Stephen Crane
War is Kind
Kate Chopin
Story of an Hour

8. Literary Style and Concerns
Uniformity and diversity
“The art of depicting nature as it is seen by toads…and a story written by a measuring worm.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
Capturing the commonplace
For Twain and other authors, narrative voice is one of division – before and after war; conventions versus personal conviction
Writing in vernacular and local dialect
Local stories
Nature again
Yes, its beauty, but also its hardship and how it wears the human spirit down

9. Other Ideologies God Government Education Man’s Purpose in Life
American Dream
Evidence of Influence

10. The Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln
The Gettysburg Address
Born 1809 in Kentucky to uneducated farmers
in a one room log cabin (making him the first President born outside of the 13 colonies)
Elected to Illinois General Assembly in 1834
Elected to US House of Representatives in 1846
Elected 16th President (first Republican) of the US in 1861

11. Other facts about ‘Ole Abe
Mother died when he was 9 years old. Became very close to step-mother.
Formal education was only 18 months. Very well read and mostly self educated.
Skilled in wrestling and using an axe.
Stood 6 ft. 4 in. tall.
Married to Mary Todd, whose family owned slaves.
Had four sons. Only one survived into adulthood, Robert Lincoln.

12. Historical Context Battle of Gettysburg
Battle was July 1-July 3, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Approximately:
163,000 soldiers fought the battle
7,500 were killed
27,000 were wounded
11,100 were captured or missing
The southern forces were defeated

13. 15,000 spectators were in attendance
The Gettysburg Address Delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania November 19, 1863
15,000 spectators were in attendance

14. Main Points
Our forefathers founded a nation in liberty on the proposition that “all men are created equal”. This war is testing the nation on its endurance of that premise.
It would be improper to dedicate and hallow these grounds to the dead. Instead, we should dedicate the living to the work of preserving the nation.
The men did not die in vain, but they died so the people could have freedom and a government that shall endure.