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William Dean Howells Literary Realism

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The Literary Realism of William Dean Howells and Mark Twain

The Civil War was an eventful time for the World, and the root for many transitions in the Unites States. Not only were new innovations like weapon machinery, and movements such as Women’s Suffrage, and Prohibition causing American conversation, but the literary realism of writers such as Mark Twain and William Dean Howells. With similar backgrounds and realistic views on the post civil war these two notable writers made readers feel like their stories were relatable and personable. Literary Realism is stories that were created to assimilate to the American way of life post civil war. “ The term realism refers to a movement in English gathered from the 1830’s to the end of the century”. …show more content…

He believes the war brings pain, death, and stress on family. He believes that no positive notion is gained from being in the war because of personal family experiences. George’s father lost his arm during the war ands this molded his mind into entering the war. His mother felt that women give up their spouses to war expecting them to return unharmed, but in here defense, that wasn’t always the case. "Kill someone else kill the sons of those miserable mothers and husbands of those girls”. George realism is symbolized by his death and his family views. Editha, was selfish in a sense and cared about herself. She thought about choices that could fulfill her own happiness. In the story of Editha, Howells shed a huge light on post and pre war realism. He connected with families of this time period by connecting the fear of loss, romanticism of relationships, and personal family experiences.

Moreover, in the article, “ What happened to civil war solders after the war”? The author stated that most soldiers tried to gather pieces of their family that was broken going in to the war. Some solder’s didn’t have families or lovers to come back to because they simply moved on. James S. Dupray served honorably with the 12th Iowa Volunteer Regiment, he returned home to “find neither wife or children to greet me.” Also, some soldiers were almost unrecognizable coming back from war. The reason for that was because boys were inducted into the civil war and came back

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While the overuse of satire took away from the realism Howells was trying to show through George, Howells used Editha's character as a satire of romanticism because he did not like the American Romanticism movement. Editha and George show the differences between realism and romanticism, and satire made us look for more romantic details through Editha's

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