Ad the passage. The American Romantics v. the American Realists

There are many strong examples of the effect that history has had upon culture, and 19th-century America ranks high on that list.

At the beginning of the 1800s, the new country began to explore its vast resources. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase added almost 830,000 square miles, nearly doubling the size of the United States. This launched a period known as the Westward Expansion as pioneers moved into new territories. By 1870, what we now refer to as the continental United States was largely settled (barring the Great Plains). It was a time of great promise and optimism. This was echoed in the works of American Romanticism and Transcendentalism. These movements include writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendall Holmes, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson.

The poetry of the time is also optimistic. Whitman self-published Leaves of Grass, a collection of twelve poems in which he celebrates American individualism. This sentiment is echoed in Dickinson’s “Some keep the Sabbath going to church—.” In this poem, she praises a personal relationship with the divine. Longfellow’s “The Children’s Hour” is a beautiful and heartfelt poem in which he describes his love for his daughters. After reading Holmes’s “Old Ironsides,” Americans demanded that the U. S.S. Constitution be salvaged from the scrap yard. The era’s idealism can even be seen in Poe’s and Melville’s darker works.

However, the celebration of the individual and focus on idealism was not favored by all writers of the 19th century. Born from the rejection of Romanticism, the American Realists aimed to represent real life in their works. Realists saw changes in society brought about by the Industrial Revolution and advances in science. Although the movement saw its beginnings in the 1830s, it reached its peak after the Civil War and continued into the early 20th century.

The works of the American Realists concentrated on fiction—especially novels. Mark Twain, Henry James, Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Ambrose Bierce are representative writers of the movement.

In his novels, Twain depicted everyday life through his characters and settings. By using dialects and entwining regional landmarks, such as the Mississippi River into The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain shared realistic life in Missouri with his readers.

Henry James did not wish to give his readers a happy ending; instead, he thought that a “good” novel represented society realistically. Many of his works focused on the theme of American innocence corrupted by European aristocratic culture.

The female writers of the time, Chopin and Gilman, produced stories that portray what life was like for women during the 19th century. Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, follows Edna Pontellier as she tries to live an extraordinary life free of the stifling societal expectations for women. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a strange, slightly comedic, but ultimately very serious tale, changed the way physicians treat female patients. Both Chopin and Gilman are now seen as precursors to 20th-century feminism.

While Romanticism and Realism can be described as distinct literary movements, both reflected society and the historical events of the era. Romanticism focused on an idealistic view glamorized by the venture westward. Realism focused on the nitty-gritty details of real life—on class differences brought about by science and technology. Both movements inspired people to think carefully about the world around them.

What are central ideas in "The American Romantics v. the American Realists"?

Select the two correct answers.

American Realists continued the themes of the Romantics but expanded those themes to include women and minorities in works such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

American Realists rejected embellished portrayals of exploration and sought to reveal the terrible effect westward expansion had on the country.

American Realists were inspired by the scientific advancements of the day and wrote about what life was actually like in a time of societal changes.

American Realists rejected the Romantics' focus on feelings and instead wrote about the details of daily life as they truly were.