Differences and Similarities
Between Realism and
Naturalism in American
Literature
崔璨
Outline
• General Knowledge
• Differences & Similarities
• Reflection on Novels
• Relation
Realism in American Literature
• American Realism was a literary
movement happened between 1860s and
1910s.
• It stresses truthful treatment of
material and commonness of the lives
of the common people.
• Mark Twain ,William Dean Howells
Henry James
Naturalism in American Literature
• Naturalism dominated American
literature from 1890s to
1920s.
• The Naturalism tends to
describe the reality and depict
the dark side of the society.
• Theodore Dreiser, Jack London,
Stephen Crane, Frank Norris
Differences & Similarities
Background
R
Chase of
wealth
and fame
Business
conquering
the world
N
Zola
Booming of
economy
Darwin
Science &
technology
Civil War
War
WWI
Differences & Similarities
Writing features
• Character
R: middle class, facing moral
or ethical choices,a ordinary
person, one key character
N: low class,under the will of
forces, a helpless object, more
the one key character
Differences & Similarities
Writing features
• Plot
R:in real world, facts, daily
routines
N:realistic picture of events,
hopeless situation, miserable
Differences & Similarities
Writing features
• Style
R:describing things as they
exist in reality, dialects
N:convey a character, setting
or thing so that the mood or
atmosphere appears irreversibly
doomed, dialects
Differences & Similarities
Theme
• R:reveal the real world
precisely, ordinary struggles of
the common man
N:struggles in real world, the
indifference and determinism of
the universe; cruelty of the
natural world
Your
Topic on
Goes
Here
Reflection
Novels
• Your subtopics go here
Your
Topic on
Goes
Here
Reflection
Novels
Lapham:
Sister Carrie:
•Silas
Your
subtopics go here
a middle class man,
has his own business
from poor to rich
faced with the moral
choice
follows his
conscience,
business fails
rises to a higher
moral level
a country girl, has
nothing but the
beauty(heredity)
struggles for better
life and success at
any cost(survival of
the fittest)
gets material success
but lost her family
and innocence
Relation
Your Subtitle Goes Here
Realism
Naturalism
Your Topic Goes Here
• Your subtopics go here