Realism
1855-1900s
Lesson Focus
• Use inference to draw conclusions
about characters and their motives
• Determine plot action and
development in literature by
identifying the various types of
conflict and discussing how those
conflicts are resolved
• Determine period-specific vocabulary
A Changing America
• Before 1860, most Americans lived on
farms or in small villages.
• Over 23 million foreigners flowed into the
United States between 1860 and 1910.
• By 1919 half of the population
concentrated in about 12 cities; this led to
rapid urbanization
Rapid Urbanization
• Problems of urbanization and
industrialization:
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poor and overcrowded housing
unsanitary conditions
low pay (called "wage slavery")
difficult working conditions
inadequate restraints on business
Wealth and America
• In 1860, there were fewer than 100 millionaires; by
1875, there were more than 1,000.
• From 1860 to 1914, the United States was
transformed from a small, young, agricultural excolony to a huge, modern, industrial nation.
• A debtor nation in 1860, by 1914 it had become the
world's wealthiest state, with a population that had
more than doubled, rising from 31 million in 1860 to
76 million in 1900.
• By World War I, the United States had become a
major world power.
Alienation
• As industrialization grew, so did alienation.
• Characteristic American novels of the period
depict the damage of economic forces and
alienation of the weak or vulnerable individual
• Writers recognized these emotions, and a new
period of American writing was born: Realism
REALISM
• A tendency to deal with ordinary
people in ordinary situations
• Objective attempts to mirror life“telling it like it is.”
Realism
• Realism developed as a reaction against
Romanticism and stressed the real over the
fantastic
• The movement sought to treat the commonplace
truthfully and used characters from everyday life
• Writers probed the recesses of the human mind
via an exploration of the emotional landscape of
characters
• This emphasis was brought on by societal
changes sparked by The Origin of Species by
Darwin, the Higher Criticism of the Bible, and the
aftermath of the Civil War
Stephen Crane
(1871-1900)
American Realist
Early Life
• Crane was born in
Newark, New Jersey,
on November 1, 1871,
as the 14th child of a
Methodist minister
• He started to write
stories at the age of
eight, and at 16 he was
writing articles for
major newspapers
• At 14 Crane enrolled at
Pennington Seminary
in Pennington, NJ
• Crane attended several
more colleges, finally
dropping out to write
full-time for the New
York Tribune
Claverack
College
•
Crane had roots in Revolutionary War
soldiers, clergymen, sheriffs, judges, and
farmers who had lived a century earlier.
•
He was primarily a journalist who also
wrote fiction, essays, poetry, and plays;
Crane saw life at its rawest, in slums and
on battlefields
•
His short stories--in particular, “The Open
Boat,” “The Blue Hotel,” and “The Bride
Comes to Yellow Sky”--exemplified the
short story form
• After his mother's
death in 1890, Crane
moved to New York,
living a bohemian life
and working as a
free-lance writer and
journalist
• He supported himself
by his writings, living
among the poor in the
slums
• Crane witnessed two
wars as a war
correspondent; he saw
battles first hand
• His ability to write with
compassion and realism
brought a special
quality to his work
Selected Stories and Novels
• “The Bride Comes to
Yellow Sky”
• “The Open Boat”
• “Death and the Child”
• “The Blue Hotel”
• Active Service
• Maggie: A Girl of the
Streets
• The Red Badge of
Courage
The Blue
Hotel
The Red Badge of Courage
• In 1893, Crane began
writing The Red Badge
of Courage, based on
the Civil War
• Ironically, it was written
before he witnessed a
real battle
• The full version,
published in 1895,
brought him
international fame
• After the success of The Red
Badge of Courage and book
of poetry, The Black Riders,
Crane became obsessed
with war
• He was hired to go to Cuba
as a journalist to report on
the rebellion against the
Spanish.
• He was shipwrecked on the
way to the island and
originally reported dead.
• He rowed to shore in a dinghy, along
with three other men, having to
swim to shore and drop his money in
the sea to prevent
from drowning
• This experience
directly led to his
most famous short
story "The Open Boat"
(1897)
• After this experience, Crane
wrote for magazines
• While staying in Jacksonville,
Florida, he met the owner of
a brothel, Cora Taylor.
• They fell in love, and she
followed him to Greece
where he was assigned to report on
the Greco-Turkish war; she stayed
with him until his death
• In 1898, Crane settled in Sussex, England,
with Taylor
• In 1899, he returned to Cuba to cover the
Spanish-American
War.
• Due to poor health,
he was obliged to
return to England.
• Crane died at age 28 on June 5, 1900, in a
Badenweiler, Germany, sanatorium for
tuberculosis, which was worsened by a
malarial fever he had caught in Cuba.
Literary Term
• Suspense - A sense of uncertainty
or anxiety about the outcome of
events in a story or drama
The Bride Comes to Yellow
Sky, page 3
• Read section 1 in class
• View the accompanying video
• Complete reading the story
Class Work
• Construct a complete
characterization of the men in the
bar
• Use information from the text to
draw conclusions (infer) about the
motives of Potter and Scratchy
Homework
• Language Arts, pages 13-14, #s 1
and 2
• Literary Critique, page 13, #s 1-5