William Dean Farewell's Use Of Realism And Naturalism

The reader can interpret Realism and Naturalism differently. Each person has their own different perspective as how they see and think about Editha. Realism and Naturalism shows the social class, ethics of people and their motives of nature. This lets the character express their feelings over something produced by a real life representation of their natural surroundings and even the atmosphere. Naturalism is a “ version of realism, or as an alternative. Humans beings defined themselves within a recognizable setting, wrote about human life shaped by forces beyond human control.” (Baym and Levine 1272) Within this story you are able to perceive how it takes into action within each character. In William Dean Howell’s short story, the very first sentence would capture a reader’s attention… “The air was thick with the war feeling, like the electricity of a storm which has not yet burst,” vividly showing an image about with the war would have probably felt like. The main character in this story is Editha, Editha has been drawn into the war due to the yellow journalism that has been going on. Editha is a

Editha “had the fever that she expected of herself, but she did not die in it…and it did not last long” (Baym and Levine 1499) She made a promise to George before he left, and now she has turned her focus into doing so. The naturalism shows us the behavior of the character. It now vividly shows us Editha’s feelings about what happened. “Very sick.”, Editha said with self-pity” (Baym and Levine) It now turns the attention to Georges mom as she scolds Editha by saying “No, girls don’t; women don’t, when they give up their men up to their country. They think they’ll come marching back, somehow,”” No, you didn’t expect him to get killed,” (Baym and Levine) As she is leaving, “ The lady who was passing the summer near Balcom’s Works was sketching Editha’s beaut, which lent itself wonderfully to the effects of a