Realism in American Art and Literature

Realism represents a period in American literature which spanned from1865 to 1900. This period was characteristic by great turmoil in the American history. The civil war had just ended and the aftermath which was inevitable and very devastating. The period was characterized by urbanization and reconstruction, and technological advices and industrialization which made a significant impact on the American peoples psyche. Notable writers of this period represented realism in the writing in various ways. The writing was meant to present thing as they were in the society. Of these writers I am going to discuss how Mark Twain showed realism in his work "Adventures of Huckleberry", Kate Chopin in "The Awakening" and Henry James in "Daisy Miller".

Like most writers of the Realism period Twain depicted the life of American in a realistic manner. Most notable is the way he employed humorous descriptions in capturing the American colloquial voice and slang and iconoclasm in speech.  In the writing, Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest Twain's representations if realism. Huckleberry is a 13 years old boy who has been abused and neglected. His boy father who stays in St. Petersburg, Missouri is a drunk and mean. Twin's represent the world to us in Huck's view as the young boy tries the understand the world around him. Twain clearly depict the hypocrisy that was the American society which was considered to be a civilized society by exploring the social conventions.

Twain depict the slavery that existed during this time and how some people in the society were opposed to slavery. Some slave would also run away in search for freedom.  Twain employs humor through out the book to depict the American society in various instances. For instance Huck  astonish Jim with his stories Jim only knows one king, King Solomon whom he considers silly for wanting to chop the baby into two pieces (75). Twain also depicts the feuds that occurred between families through Shepherdson's and the Grangerfords. Huck asks buck to tell him about the feud and buck answers that "feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and he kills him; the other man's brother kills him; then the other brothers on both sides goes for one another; then cousins chip in-and by and by everybody is killed off (105). Later a duel brake up between these two families ad Huck leaves for Mississippi.

Through realms Twain show how the society is gullible, hypocritical, and deceitful.  He also uses dialect and slug for instance Jim speaks in slung, a clear depiction of the people and events thus realism.

Kate Chopin in "The Awakening" also expresses realism through the depiction of the American society of the time as it was. Chopin gave realism to a woman voce. Writing during the realism, she couldn't help be but be part of the revolt against Romanticism by being realistic in her depiction of circumstances and characters of her story.  Her themes mainly revolved around the role of the woman in the society, their sexual nature, marriage and their increasing independence.  The Romanism age had never had of such topics, in fact they seemed strange. Chopin initially wanted independent which was never a characteristic of women during her period. This desire is depicted in her book awakening through the character of Edna Pontellier.  Edna is trapped in a marriage that is devoid of love. Though she has children to of them that she loves, she finds her marriage and sometime the children to be a burden. She fall in love with someone else (Chopin 38) and due to the fear of the consequences she decides to leave the Grand Isle to go to Mexico. Refuses to do things that she used to do without any objection neglects her children and sleeps in the same bed as her husband.

During the writing of the awakening many women in what could be considered Victorian America were experiencing something similar to what Edna was experiences. Some were entrapped in their marriages but did not have the courage to do what Edna did and would be considered outrageous if they tried to do so. They were in the awakening stage and the awakening itself could not be realized till several decades had gone by.

Finally, Henry James being part of the literal community during the Realistic age could not avoid depicting event as they were in his writing. Such depiction or realism is evident in his story, "Daisy Miller." James use a narrator to narrate a story and give a true account of the events as they occur and further give a true setting in which these events take place. 

James uses the narrator to relate to the reader what is going on in the minds of the other characters in the story. This reduces the concentration on internal phenomena unique to the character but concentrate on those external events occurring around the characters thus depicting a realistic picture of the characters and letting readers do the moral judgments (James, 322).

The use of "I" narrator create an omniscient story teller who account is limited to what he sees. In this regard the narrator account is a realistic depiction of what he or she sees. Also buy focusing on external occurrence, James is being realistic in that, no one can really read the mind of another person. As such the reader encounters the character and has to understand them through what the do the same what it occurs in life. James refers to this as the air of reality (James, 327).

All these three writers manage to depict events as they occur in their own manner. Twain uses humor, depicting the behavior of people in society such as family feuds, positions such as slaves and slave masters, and behavior such as Huck's father's drunkenness. Further more, hypocrisy and deceit have added greatly to the element of realism. Chopin, in Awakening use the desire of a woman and the efforts to realize these desire  while James uses first person narrator to report event as the occur.

Realism in art and literature is an attempt to describe human behavior and environment or to depict figures and objects realistically as they appear in life. Trials at realism have been attempted now and then throughout history in all the arts. The term is generally restricted to a movement that started in the middle of 19th century, to counter the highly subjective approach of romanticism. Since the difference between realism and naturalism is difficult to define, the two terms are frequently used interchangeably. The difference is in the fact that realism is related directly with what the senses take. Naturalism, a term more correctly applied to literature, tries to apply scientific theories to art  (Herding, 1991).

Realist literature is defined especially as the fiction generated in Europe and the United States from around 1840 until 1890's.This is the time when realism was followed by naturalism.  type of realism originated in France in the books of Gustavo Flaubert and in the short stories of Guy de Maupassant. It was presented in the plays and short stories of Anton Chekhov. As she announced in Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot, novelist introduced realism into England fiction. Her purpose was to offer a (faithful representation of commonplace things. Realism was pioneered in the United States by Mark Twain and William Dean Howells. Henry James, one of the greatest realists of all and an Anglo-American, received a lot of inspiration from his mentors, the likes of, Eliot and Howells.

In other words, the main tenets of realism were illustrated by these writers .That writers should set down their observations objectively and not on set ethical ideals and selected facts in accordance with preconceived aesthetics. The realists actually disregarded plot in favor of character and concentrated on average class life and their occupations, avoided larger and more dramatic issues because they were concerned with the true presentation of life,that often lacked form (Clark, 1982).

In art, although a clearly defined realist school has never evolved, a realist approach has been manifested in different ways at various times. The term realist, used to describe a work of art, has often simply meant that "ugly" objects or figures are represented, as opposed to those considered "beautiful." Frequently used to describe scenes of humble life, the term implies a criticism of social conditions. Thus, some of the work of the French artists Gustave Courbet (for example, The Stonebreakers,1850), Honoré Daumier, and Jean François Millet has been described as social realism  (Nochlin, 1971).

In the United States, William Sidney Mount's quiet Long Island scene Eel Spearing at Setauket (1845) is in the realist style; the artist portrays his subjects with simplicity and respect but little elaboration. Mount diverges in style from the romanticism of his contemporaries of the Hudson River School. American realist painting also includes the honest, matter-of-fact portraits by Thomas Eakins, of his contemporaries, and the works of the American artists known collectively as the Ashcan school or The Eight, who at the beginning of the 20th century attempted to paint the American urban scene as it really was (see  American Art).