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 What is American Realism?
 Definition: The literary movement that dominated
American fiction from the late 19th to the middle of the
20th century. Realist writers sought to accurately portray
life without filtering it through personal feelings,
romanticism, etc. In a nutshell, they “told it like it was.”
 What was going on?
 Realists were writing during the Civil War period and
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post war period. Honestly, there were few people
writing at the time.
America was unsettled and divided by the war.
1865: Lincoln assassinated
1876: Telephone
1886: Statue of Liberty
 Who were the writers?
 Louisa May Alcott-Little Women
 Mark Twain-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 Kate Chopin-A Pair of Silk Stockings
 Ambrose Bierce-An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
 Harriet Beecher Stowe-Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Frederick Douglass-Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass
Romantics
Realists
 Emerson
 Mark Twain
 Perceived the individual
 Perceived the individual
as a god
as simply a person
 Naturalist: human
behavior is beyond the
individual’s control-they
saw life as a grim, losing
battle
 Their subjects were drawn from the slums of the
growing cities and factories: factory workers, corrupt
politicians, prostitutes, criminals, soldiers, etc.
Instead of escaping into nature, the Realist writers
address the issues head on. They sought to explain
why ordinary people behave the way they do…they
relied on science and human behavior.
 Born: Samuel Langhorne
Clemens (Mark Twain
was his pen name)
 He uses Hannibal,
Missouri, his hometown,
for the setting of most of
his stories
 Twain worked as printer’s
apprentice , a steamboat
pilot on the Miss. River,
and served in the
military

He later became a reporter for
newspapers in Nevada and San
Francisco…this is when he became Mark
Twain
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Married: Olivia Langdon; had several
children

The family settled in Hartford,
Connecticut
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Works:
 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of
Calveras County (1867)
 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1876)
 Life on the Mississippi (1883)
 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(1885)
 Truly an American novel-could not have taken place
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anywhere else but America: dialect, location, history,
and social issues.
Dialect: Dialect is a way of speaking that is localized
geographically. Characteristics of dialect are
sound (pronunciation): cot/caught; cah/car
word formation: crick/creek
variations in syntax: on accident/by accident
word choices: soda/pop
figures of speech (idioms) “…I don’t take no stock in
dead people.”
 The Concord Library banned the book from their
shelves-Twain didn’t care-he said now people will just
have to buy it!
 Both Booker T. Washington and Ralph Ellison (African
Americans) saw the novel as dignified and human
 1995: NAACP wanted the book banned from high
school reading lists
 # 5 on the Top 100 Banned Books in America
 The value of the book lies in its ability to take people
out of their comfort zones…it pushes all the right
buttons, and that is why we must read it/teach it.
 Why is the “N” word used?
 Racism
 Culture
 Time Period
 Deception
 Trust
 Friendship
 Escape
 Persecution
 Tolerance
 Slavery/Racism
 Maturity
 Freedom
 Self-discovery
 “One of my theories is that the hearts of men are about
alike, all over the world, whatever their skin
complexions may be.”
 “Nearly all black and brown skins are beautiful, but a
beautiful white skin is rare.”
 “There are many humorous things in the world; among
them is the white man’s notion that he is less savage
than all other savages.”
 Freeing the slaves was
only the first step…then
America had to decide
how African Americans
would be treated by
society.
 If America would
progress, if it would truly
become the land of
opportunity, belief
systems would have to
change first.
 He wanted to write a
novel that would address
slavery…a novel that
would not allow us to
forget.
 This is a story of a
journey…
 From confinement to
freedom
 From ignorance to
awareness
 It is the story of a riverendlessly flowing,
changing, and always
there-no matter who or
what travels upon it