American Realism arose as simply a rejection of Romantic literature due to its unrealistic emphasis on emotion, imagination, and the individual. The movement got its initial start as early as the 1800's but reached its popularity peak towards the end of the Civil War and continued until around the end of the 19th century. The movement attempted to center itself around realistic themes that portrayed harsh literary themes that had not been previously approached by writers. The realist writers consume themselves with dealing with everyday events and people that were not typically portrayed in romantic literature. The American Civil War and general westward expansion created a multitude of changes in politics and culture which led many writers …show more content…
After the Civil War, the writers and their critical audiences started to feel interested in an exclusively American culture which would show the ways of life that were native entities rather than false and simplistic products (Taghizadeh). Post-Civil War ideas were centered around scientific discovery and nationalism. This set the grounds for the emerging genre of American realism. In the infamous novel written by realist author, Mark Twain, irony is clearly apparent as a critical tool in realistic literature. Although Twain does not focus on outright verbal irony, he makes careful use of the advantages of situational irony to represent the common man as a mixture of good and bad. At the end of the novel, when we realize that although Jim is black in skin, he is "white inside," (Twain) the readers can begin understand why Mark Twain has accepted to look at man through the innocent eyes of a young child during this era. Realism comes into play through this piece of literature due to the fact that Twain decides to portray his novel through a young and unprejudiced child who views the current world differently than those around him. This opens up the readers to the reality of the current social and urban situation from a slightly subjective viewpoint. Huckleberry Finn is “a realist text centered on a central character’s conflict between his own moral center and social dictates (Smith).” The novel remains a general critique of racism and due to the inclusion of the word “nigger,” it emphasizes and showcases the realistic language of the time period. This technique is also reflected in the main character Huck who “maintains [his] racist mentalities (Smith) despite his many decisions throughout the novel to assist the escaped slave Jim. Twain’s