The writers of the realism genre shaped and defined the american dream by focusing on the great courage of those who sought the american dream. how is this both similar and different from how civil war-era writers shaped and defined the american dream?

the present continuous is a verb tense which is mainly used to indicates that an action is in progress at the moment of speaking.  

it is formed using: person + verb to be (am/is/are) +verb + - ing form  

example: i am studying at this moment .

in addition, the present continuous is also used in order to express things that will or will not happen in the near future.

example: i am having dinner with some friends tonight.

the speaker sometimes   uses it   to express that an action is repeated and it causes irritation on the part of the speaker

example: my sister is constantly complaining about everything.

one context clue that me find the meaning of luxuriance was that the base word of luxuriance is luxury, so i think that luxuriance means something that is luxury, or something luxurious.

i cant see the page but i am assuming as a innocent child who got tricked by an children eating old lady