American Realism and Naturalism

American Realism and Naturalism

• Naturalism portrays life as governed by uncontrollable forces like nature and fate.
• Regionalism focuses on specific geographic regions, emphasizing local customs, dialect, and beliefs.
• Darwinism is a theory of evolution suggesting survival of the fittest.
• Realism portrays everyday life with honesty and accuracy.

Key Terms

• Local color is realistic details for decoration rather than deeper exploration.
• Short story became popular due to its brevity and accessibility.
• Industrialization and urbanization reshaped American communities and worldviews.
• The Social Gospel movement emphasized societal reform but lacked Gospel presentation.
• Writers moved away from romanticism, toward more practical portrayals.

Characteristics

• Naturalism includes life controlled by forces beyond individual control.
• Realism emphasizes scientific objectivity and factual detail.
• Mark Twain is considered a regionalist because his works are rooted in the Mississippi River.

Realists and Naturalists

• Realism portrays life as accurately as possible without romanticizing.
• Master realists include William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Mark Twain.
• Naturalism suggests humans are driven by instincts.
• Deterministic thesis suggests an individual's fate is determined by their environment and heredity.
• Themes of Naturalism include the cosmic chill, man as animal, and the trap of social circumstances.

Naturalism

• Naturalism views the universe as a chaotic and indifferent place.
• Emile Zola emphasized the deterministic thesis.
• Cosmic chill, also known as atheistic evolution, views the universe as a chaotic place in which man’s survival is accidental.
• Another theme is man as animal, which is viewing man as no different from animals and picturing man as a mere animal.
• Trap of social circumstances is the belief that you are how you are because of where you come from, viewing man as entangled in an inescapable web of social circumstances.
• Jack London incorporated the theme of the frontier spirit.

Emily Dickinson

• Emily Dickinson spent most of her life in seclusion.
• Common Meter is poetic meter with alternating lines of iambic tetrameter (8 syllables) and iambic trimeter (6 syllables).
• Short Meter is a variation of common meter, with the pattern 6-6-8-6 (two lines of iambic trimeter, one line of iambic tetrameter, followed by one more line of trimeter).
• Supercilious means behaving as if you are better than other people.
• Traverse means to go or travel across or over.
• Ply means to use diligently.
• Docile means easy to control.
• Prodigious means extremely impressive.
• To be "discerning" is having good judgement.
• "Stark" means harsh and bare in appearance.
• A person who is "impetuous" is likely to act quickly without thinking.
• "Tulle" is most commonly associated with a lightweight, fine netting fabric.
• Someone experiencing "melancholy" is feeling sad and thoughtful.
• "Cat" and "Hat" is an example of perfect rhyme.
• Slant rhyme differs from perfect rhyme, the consonant sounds match, but the vowel sounds differ.
• A rhyme scheme is typically identified in poetry by assigning letters to matching end rhymes.
• "Meter" in poetry refers to the rhythmic structure of stressed and unstressed syllables.
• The line that most appeals to the sense of sound using imagery is "The bells clanged loudly, echoing through the narrow streets."

Poem Analysis

• 'This Is My Letter to the World' is in common meter (8686).
• Examples of perfect rhyme from the poem: me/majesty, see/me
• Examples of slant rhyme from the poem: World/told
• 'The Bustle in a House' is in short meter (6686).
• Examples of slant rhyme in the poem: Away/ eternity, Death/ Earth

Poems Subjects

• She Sweeps with Many-Colored Brooms main topic is the Sunset.
  • "Oh Housewife in the Evening West - Come back, and dust the Pond!"
• A Narrow Fellow in the Grass main topic is a snake.

Faith POV

• In her poems, Emily Dickinson does not explicitly describe human existence after death.
• She talks about death as if we are not going to be in eternity.
• According to John 11:25-26, Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die."

Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn

• An abolitionist works to end slavery and promote equal rights.
• To civilize someone is to make them more refined and cultured.
• Conscience helps distinguish right from wrong.
• A cynical person views the world with suspicion and doubt.
• A gully is a deep ditch or channel.
• Hypocrisy involves pretending to have beliefs that one does not hold.
• Ingenuity is the ability to invent or create with skill and imagination.
• An ornery person is easily angered and difficult to deal with.
• To rack someone is to cause them physical or mental stress.
• Superstition is beliefs based on fear, ignorance, or the unknown.
• Mark Twain was a realist writer.
• Twain used the colloquial speech of the frontier in his novel.
• Huck Finn is not content with living a civilized life with Widow Douglas.
• Huck views Jim as a friend and equal over time.
• The Mississippi River symbolizes both freedom and danger for Huck and Jim.
• Mark Twain uses satire to mock the hypocrisy of people who claim to be religious yet support slavery.
• Huck feels guilty about helping Jim escape, raised to believe slavery is right.
• Irony is used when characters say one thing but mean the opposite, or when events turn out differently than expected.

Vocabulary

• DISCERNING: Showing good judgement (perceptive)
• STARK: complete, sheer.
• TRAVERSE: To go or travel across or over (cross)
• PRODIGIOUS: Extremely impressive (amazing)
• SUPERCILIOUS: Behaving as if you are better than other people (arrogant)
• DOCILE: Easy to control (obedient)
• PLY: To use diligently (follow, active)
• IMPETUOUS: To act quickly and without thinking (impulsive)
• TULLE: A soft nylon or silk cloth similar to net
• MELANCHOLY: A feeling of pensive sadness typically with no obvious cause (depression)
• Abolitionist (n): A person who supported the abolition (end) of slavery in the U.S.
• Civilize (v): To bring out of a savage, uneducated, or rude state. Synonym -> humanize, enlighten
• Conscience (n): The inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives. Synonym -> inner voice
• Cynical (adj): Believing that people are motivated purely by self-interest
• Gully (n): A small valley or ravine originally worn away by running water as a drainageway.
• Hypocrisy (n): Having a virtuous character that one does not really possess. Synonym -> false virtue
• Ingenuity (n): Quality of being cleverly inventive. Synonym -> creativity
• Ornery (adj): Ugly and unpleasant, or temper
• Rack (tr.r): Framework of bars, wires, on which articles are arranged or deposited. Synonym -> hurtful
• Superstition (n): A belief not based on reason or knowledge. Synonym -> magic, unfounded belief