Ap English Literature Realism Essay

All forms of literature betrays life or nature in a particular matter or form. Realism is one form of literature that presents life objectively and honestly without sentimentality or idealism that had colored earlier literature. In realism as well as many others, the setting is developed in great detail. Realism was first developed in France in the mid-19th century and then spread into the new world. Realism was first born as a reaction of romanticism; as the realist movement spawned from naturalism and regionalism. Realism is the products of a changing society in the United States due to the Industrial Revolution and Era of Good Feelings. One may think, realism is most important in literature since it presents life honestly, objectively

An example of regionalism is Jim 's speech in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. An excerpt from the novel “de bes ' way to res ' easy en let de ole man take his own way.” Jim 's speech is and exact representation of how a slave would speak during a specific time period and in the south. Throughout the novel, numerous of Jim 's words are misspelled and misused representing that African Americans especially slaves received no education and lacked proper grammar and speech skills. A second example of regionalism is can be viewed in A Matter of Prejudice by Kate Chopin. Madam Carambeaua was a very prejudice French women who did not like children, hated pets, white servants, Americans and other races and everyone of different faiths. At the point of the story, two young children were chasing each other when a young American girl ran into Carambeaua 's lap. When this happened, Madam began greatly annoyed but discovered the young girl had a high temperature and would nurse the girl back to health. As she would nurse the girl back to health, she would blame the sickness on her American parents. When the young girl became healthy she would kiss Carambeaua on the forehead and the kiss would change Carambeaua 's outlook on life. Carambeaua would then learn to accept other races and learn English. This is a great example of Regionalism since it shows how the habits of a

Naturalism emphasizes how instinct and the environment can affect human behavior. This form was influenced by Darwin and other naturalist whom believed that fate is determined by forces out of human control. An example of naturalism would be in The Open Boat. In The Open Boat, passengers try to reach a life saving station. However they are prevented from reaching their goal because of nature, specifically by ocean waves/currents and the storm. One of the passenger on the boat would state “If I am going to be drowned, why in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea was I allowed to come thus far?” Through their struggle, they would end of having to swim to shore because of the potential that the boat could swamp. As a result of swimming, one of the characters would die. In the beginning of story, a flashback is used that explains how the captain was also injured due to a boat that would sink. A second example of Naturalism could be seen in To Build a Fire by Jack London by Jack London. In the story, a man is traveling to Henderson Creek in Alaska. The man is traveling through the arctic cold of Alaska who and does not seem to care about the extreme temperatures. Along with the man is a husky and shortly afterward they approach misfortune by the arctic weather. After numerous attempts to build a fire, he would be unsuccessful. Because of nature itself and the want for survival he would then think about killing the husky to warm his hands inside the husky 's