Introduction of the period of realism and naturalism
Welcome to the period in writing that started the phrase "get real!" The writings from this period take a definite opposite path of the "Romantic" period of the 1800's. This Realism and Naturalism period of writing is a direct result of a strong rejection of heroes and made-up adventure. This period of writing came along shortly after the Civil War and stressed the harsh reality of life as opposed to fantasy and happy endings. The harsh reality of the war and the hard times that befell those who were discovering a new frontier was at the forefront of most writing of this period. These realities shattered the nations view of idealism. One might ask how such a dismal view of life through writing could prevail. The answer to this musing lies in the ideals and realities of the Industrial Revolution. The economic, social and political changes that plagued our country during the Industrial Revolution is what lead writers and readers to this idea of "being real."
Some characteristics of Realism include objective writing, the fact that the character is more important than the action or plot and the fact that "class" is very important. The character's definition is quite defined and many times the characters have many layers of distinction. In the writings of Realism and Naturalism the diction is in a natural vernacular. The tone will be of a satirical nature or will be very matter of fact. The purpose of the writing is always to "instruct and entertain" with the heaviest emphasis on instruction. The settings will be most likely be settings that are familiar to the author and the plots will have a heavy emphasis on normal daily experiences. The writers of this period had a knack for making routine and everyday events exciting.
Some characteristics of Naturalism include characters that are usually ill-fated and lower class and are usually criminals, the fallen and the down and out. The themes are centered around survival, determinism and violence.
In conclusion, the Realism and Naturalism style of writing is not for the faint of heart or one who looks for happy endings or gold at the end of the rainbow. Be advised that this style of writing, while informative and real, often leads to a less than happy ending.
Some characteristics of Realism include objective writing, the fact that the character is more important than the action or plot and the fact that "class" is very important. The character's definition is quite defined and many times the characters have many layers of distinction. In the writings of Realism and Naturalism the diction is in a natural vernacular. The tone will be of a satirical nature or will be very matter of fact. The purpose of the writing is always to "instruct and entertain" with the heaviest emphasis on instruction. The settings will be most likely be settings that are familiar to the author and the plots will have a heavy emphasis on normal daily experiences. The writers of this period had a knack for making routine and everyday events exciting.
Some characteristics of Naturalism include characters that are usually ill-fated and lower class and are usually criminals, the fallen and the down and out. The themes are centered around survival, determinism and violence.
In conclusion, the Realism and Naturalism style of writing is not for the faint of heart or one who looks for happy endings or gold at the end of the rainbow. Be advised that this style of writing, while informative and real, often leads to a less than happy ending.
Literary themes
The overriding literary theme of the Realism and Naturalism period can be defined as the faithful representation of reality. In particular, every day reality. This objective reality focused on showing everyday, quotidian activities and lifestyles that were lived by the lower class without any romantic theme at all. Naturalism is actually considered even more pessimistic than Realism. The authors of these periods believe that the forces at work within nature for mankind include nature, fate and heredity. The emphasis is on reality as opposed to the supernatural. Authors of this period included Mark Twain, John DeForest and Rebecca Harding Davis.
MArk twain
Ernest Hemingway once stated, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called “Huckleberry Finn.” All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.” William Faulkner described Twain as, “The first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs.” It is no wonder that Twain has become one of America’s best known authors.
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835. Born in Florida, Missouri, Samuel was the sixth child of John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. When Samuel was four years-old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was a port city on the Mississippi River.
The Clemens family lived in a two-story home, built by John Marshal Clemens. At thirteen, Samuel took a job as a printer’s apprentice. By the age of fifteen, Samuel was employed as a printer and assistant editor. Like Walt Whitman and Benjamin Franklin, Samuel developed a love of writing while working as a printer. When Samuel was seventeen, he left Hannibal to become a printer in St. Louis.
Samuel Clemens worked as a pilot’s assistant on a riverboat for five years before becoming a licensed river pilot. Samuel Clemens took his pseudonym from his experiences on the river. In shallow water, the pilot assistant would call out to the captain as he tested the depth of the water by dipping a tall pole down to find the bottom. He would call out “Mark Twain” at twelve feet in depth, which meant that it was safe to proceed.
When the Civil War closed river trade on the Mississippi, Clemens returned to writing and worked as a newspaper reporter in papers all across the country. He travelled west by stagecoach to work with his brother, who had been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory. He also worked as a writer with various papers in Nevada and California. It was during this time that he first used the name, Mark Twain. His first break came as his story “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog,” was printed in papers across the country. His first book, “The Innocents Abroad,” was published in 1869 and was an instant success.
In 1870, Samuel married Olivia Langdon. They had four children but only one of their children lived past the age of thirty. Samuel and Clara moved to Hartford, Connecticut. In the next twenty years, he would write his most famous works that included, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court", and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
By 1891, bad investments forced Clemens to embark on a worldwide speaking tour to earn money. After nine years abroad, Samuel and Olivia moved back to Connecticut. Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910.
Clemens had a gift for viewing the world with the curiosity of a child, then writing in a style that was understood by everyone. Often, the main characters of his books were young people. Therefore, readers were able to live the experiences through the eyes of youth. It is appropriate that one of his most famous quotes reads, “Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.”
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835. Born in Florida, Missouri, Samuel was the sixth child of John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. When Samuel was four years-old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was a port city on the Mississippi River.
The Clemens family lived in a two-story home, built by John Marshal Clemens. At thirteen, Samuel took a job as a printer’s apprentice. By the age of fifteen, Samuel was employed as a printer and assistant editor. Like Walt Whitman and Benjamin Franklin, Samuel developed a love of writing while working as a printer. When Samuel was seventeen, he left Hannibal to become a printer in St. Louis.
Samuel Clemens worked as a pilot’s assistant on a riverboat for five years before becoming a licensed river pilot. Samuel Clemens took his pseudonym from his experiences on the river. In shallow water, the pilot assistant would call out to the captain as he tested the depth of the water by dipping a tall pole down to find the bottom. He would call out “Mark Twain” at twelve feet in depth, which meant that it was safe to proceed.
When the Civil War closed river trade on the Mississippi, Clemens returned to writing and worked as a newspaper reporter in papers all across the country. He travelled west by stagecoach to work with his brother, who had been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory. He also worked as a writer with various papers in Nevada and California. It was during this time that he first used the name, Mark Twain. His first break came as his story “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog,” was printed in papers across the country. His first book, “The Innocents Abroad,” was published in 1869 and was an instant success.
In 1870, Samuel married Olivia Langdon. They had four children but only one of their children lived past the age of thirty. Samuel and Clara moved to Hartford, Connecticut. In the next twenty years, he would write his most famous works that included, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court", and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
By 1891, bad investments forced Clemens to embark on a worldwide speaking tour to earn money. After nine years abroad, Samuel and Olivia moved back to Connecticut. Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910.
Clemens had a gift for viewing the world with the curiosity of a child, then writing in a style that was understood by everyone. Often, the main characters of his books were young people. Therefore, readers were able to live the experiences through the eyes of youth. It is appropriate that one of his most famous quotes reads, “Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.”
Biography of Mark Twain (3:20)
timeline
1850 - China - Taiping rebellion begins against the authority of the Qing government
1856 - France - Gustave Flaubert publishes Madame Bavary, a classic novel of realism
1857 - Dred Scott decision by the US Supreme Court rules that people of African descent cannot become US citizens
1859 - John Brown, an abolitionist, leads a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia; he is hanged for treason
1859 - England - Charles Darwin introduces theory of evolution in The Origin of the Species
1860 - Abraham Lincoln is elected US president
1861 - Civil War begins in April with firing on Fort Sumter
1862 - France - Louis Pasteur proposes modern germ theory of disease
1862 - Emily Dickinson’s poem "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" is published in the Massachusetts newspaper The Republican
1863 - Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment, outlawing slavery, is added the the US Constitution
1865 - President Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
1865 - England - Lewis Carroll completes Alice Adventures in Wonderland
1867 - The US buys the state of Alaska
1869 - Russia - Leo Tolstoy publishes War and Peace
1874 - France - Claude Monet gathers Impressionist painters for first exhibition
1876 - Baseball’s National League is founded
1877 - Thomas Edison patents the phonograph
1877 - France - First tennis championship held at Wimbledon
1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge is opened
1883 - Railroads adopt standard time zones
1884 - Mark Twain publishes "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
1886 - Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York Harbor
1888 - Great mid-March blizzard in eastern US piles 30-foot drifts in NY’s Herald Square
1889 - France - Eiffel Tower is completed in Paris becoming the world’s tallest structure
1890 - Last major battle between US troops and Native Americans fought at Wounded Knee, South Dakota
1891 - England - Thomas Hardy publishes Tess of the D’Urbervilles
1892 - Ellis Island opens as a receiving center for immigrants
1894 - Korea - Sino-Japanese War begins; Japanese army defeats Chinese
1895 - Wilhelm Roentgen discovers X-rays
1895 - First professional football game played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
1896 - "The Country of the Pointed First", Sarah Orne Jewett’s masterpiece is published
1898 - France - Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium and polonium
1901 - Italy - First transatlantic radio telegraphic message is sent by Marconi
1903 - Jack London publishes Call of the Wild
1903 - Wright Brothers fly 852 feet in their airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1903 - Spain - Pablo Picasso paints the Old Guitarist
1903 - W.E.B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of essay
1904 - Russo-Japanese War begins
1905 - Germany - Albert Einstein proposes his relativity theory
1906 - The San Francisco earthquake results in the deaths of at least 3,000 people
1906 - Finland - Women’s suffrage is granted
1907 - Frank Lloyd Wright hosts his first solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
1908 - Henry Ford builds the first Model T.
1908 - The electric washing machine is invented
1909 - A multi-racial group of activists founds the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People
1912 - Over 1,500 people die in the sinking of the Titanic
1913 - Willa Cather publishes O Pioneers!
1914 - The world’s first scheduled airline service begins taking flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa
1856 - France - Gustave Flaubert publishes Madame Bavary, a classic novel of realism
1857 - Dred Scott decision by the US Supreme Court rules that people of African descent cannot become US citizens
1859 - John Brown, an abolitionist, leads a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia; he is hanged for treason
1859 - England - Charles Darwin introduces theory of evolution in The Origin of the Species
1860 - Abraham Lincoln is elected US president
1861 - Civil War begins in April with firing on Fort Sumter
1862 - France - Louis Pasteur proposes modern germ theory of disease
1862 - Emily Dickinson’s poem "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" is published in the Massachusetts newspaper The Republican
1863 - Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment, outlawing slavery, is added the the US Constitution
1865 - President Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
1865 - England - Lewis Carroll completes Alice Adventures in Wonderland
1867 - The US buys the state of Alaska
1869 - Russia - Leo Tolstoy publishes War and Peace
1874 - France - Claude Monet gathers Impressionist painters for first exhibition
1876 - Baseball’s National League is founded
1877 - Thomas Edison patents the phonograph
1877 - France - First tennis championship held at Wimbledon
1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge is opened
1883 - Railroads adopt standard time zones
1884 - Mark Twain publishes "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
1886 - Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York Harbor
1888 - Great mid-March blizzard in eastern US piles 30-foot drifts in NY’s Herald Square
1889 - France - Eiffel Tower is completed in Paris becoming the world’s tallest structure
1890 - Last major battle between US troops and Native Americans fought at Wounded Knee, South Dakota
1891 - England - Thomas Hardy publishes Tess of the D’Urbervilles
1892 - Ellis Island opens as a receiving center for immigrants
1894 - Korea - Sino-Japanese War begins; Japanese army defeats Chinese
1895 - Wilhelm Roentgen discovers X-rays
1895 - First professional football game played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
1896 - "The Country of the Pointed First", Sarah Orne Jewett’s masterpiece is published
1898 - France - Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium and polonium
1901 - Italy - First transatlantic radio telegraphic message is sent by Marconi
1903 - Jack London publishes Call of the Wild
1903 - Wright Brothers fly 852 feet in their airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1903 - Spain - Pablo Picasso paints the Old Guitarist
1903 - W.E.B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of essay
1904 - Russo-Japanese War begins
1905 - Germany - Albert Einstein proposes his relativity theory
1906 - The San Francisco earthquake results in the deaths of at least 3,000 people
1906 - Finland - Women’s suffrage is granted
1907 - Frank Lloyd Wright hosts his first solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
1908 - Henry Ford builds the first Model T.
1908 - The electric washing machine is invented
1909 - A multi-racial group of activists founds the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People
1912 - Over 1,500 people die in the sinking of the Titanic
1913 - Willa Cather publishes O Pioneers!
1914 - The world’s first scheduled airline service begins taking flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa
Key historical and literary people
- Mark Twain (1835-1910) - author of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" & "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) - author of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
- Mary Chestnut (1823-1886) - author of "from Mary Chestnut's Civil War"
- Warren Lee Goss (1835-1925) - author of "Recollections of a Private"
- Randolph McKim (1842-1920) - author of "A Confederate Account of the Battle of Gettysburg"
- Stephen Crane (1871-1900) - author of "An Episode of War" and "The Red Badge of Courage"
- Frederick Douglas (1818-1895) - author of "From My Bondage and My Freedom"