RJHS
Realism



Definition
o Emphasis on the appearance of truth. Character is more important than the plot or action and
complex ethical choices are often the subject. Social structure and class is very important.
Events are plausible – diction is a natural vernacular.
Naturalism
o Focuses on how nature interacts with man. Nature is an indifferent force acting on the lives of
human beings. Nature is not necessarily going to be on your side.
Regionalism (local color fiction)
o Fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features – including characters, dialects, customs,
history, and topography – of a particular region. Since the region may be a recreation or
reflection of the author’s own there is often nostalgia and sentimentality in the writing.
Bret Harte: The Luck of Roaring Camp and Outcasts of Poker Flats
 Background
o Lived in California for the majority of his life and career. Challenged general assumptions
about the West and presented a first-hand view both realistically and romantically.
o Focused on the various character types of California – where men were accepted for what
they actually were. Lived in San Francisco.
o Known for bringing of Western subjects to readers in the East. Created the West as a place of
romance (while using his own realistic style).
 The Luck of Roaring Camp
o A prostitute, Cherokee Sal, is found to be giving birth, an entirely new concept to Roaring
Camp, which is traditionally filled with criminals and the reckless. The task of delivering is
giving to Stumpy, the surgeon.
o Cherokee Sal dies but the baby survives. Gifts given to the orphan include a tobacco box, a
navy revolver, a doubloon, and a diamond ring  variety. Kentuck forms a bond with the
child after it grabs his finger.
o The town unanimously decides to keep the child, they all love him and Stumpy is given the
task of caring for him. “Tommy Luck” is the name decided upon for the boy. He is baptized
(somewhat ironically) and a change overtook the camp. It became clean and acceptable.
Nature was the boy’s nurse and playfellow. This is referred to as the golden summer of
Roaring Camp.
o That spring, a hotel is proposed. That winter, the river jumps its bank and destroys Stumpy’s
home. Two miles down river, Kentuck is founded holding the, now dead, child in his arms.
When Kentuck is told he is dying as well, he rejoices because he will be with the child.
Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer
 Background
o Born Samuel L. Clemens. Father died when he was 12 – worked to support himself and his
family. Twain never forgot the inspiration of the Mississippi.
o He worked for newspapers in the West where he picked up the name Samuel Clemens which
means “safe water.”
o He married into a higher class and his struggle between the conventional and the disruptive
are seen in his works (especially Tom Sawyer).
o Huckleberry Finn is published in 1885; it broke literary grounds as the first novel written
entirely in the vernacular. Twain struggled with the idea of racial equality.
o


Twain was a pessimist and was disgusted with his fellow humans and found the world
intolerable.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
o Chapter XVI
 Huck and Jim are heading down to Cairo where they will catch a steamboat up north.
A current pulls the raft away while Huck is in the canoe. A massive fog comes in and
Huck is disoriented. He whoops and hears Jim whoop back so he tries to follow the
sound.
 After many fruitless attempts at this method, Huck gives up and falls asleep in the
raft. When he awakes, the fog is gone and he sees a speck in the distance – the raft.
 Once he gets there, he jumps on and lays next to the sleeping Jim. When Jim awakes
and sees Huck, he cries with joy. Huck convinces Jim that the whole thing was a
dream. When Jim realizes the trick Huck played on him, he gets upset. This guilt
crushes Huck who no longer plays mean tricks on Jim.
Movie
o Huck Finn is a darker character. Twain is heavily satirical and points out many flaws with his
contemporary society.
o Twain was born and raised in Missouri. He is scarred by feelings of guilt over slavery and
became prone to bouts of depression. The Mississippi River symbolized America and the
transformation of Huck Finn from boyhood into manhood while at the same time challenging
the status quo of the day.
Stephen Crane: The Open Boat, Maggie Girl of the Streets, and Red Badge of Courage
 Background
o Rejected religious and social traditions. Was obsessed by war and other forms of physical and
psychic violence. He became a journalist and moved to New York.
o Crane is distinctly modern in conceiving personal identity as complex and ambiguous as well
as in obliging his readers to judge for themselves the adequacy of the responses to one’s
experiences.
o His themes included the following: the physical, emotional, and intellectual responses of
people under extreme pressure, the dominant themes of nature’s indifference to humanity’s
fate, and the consequent need for compassionate collective action.
 The Open Boat
o Four men, an oiler (Billie), a correspondent, a Captain, and a cook, are stranded at sea in a
small lifeboat after being shipwrecked. They collectively decide to try to find a House of
Refuge off of Mosquito Inlet Light. They take turns rowing, a painfully difficult tast, but wind
picks up and use a coat as a sail.
o A form of brotherhood is formed between the men, but no one speaks of it. The wind dies
away but again returns, and hopefully the men will be ashore in an hour. However, no signs of
life come from the house of refuge. They decide to go towards the shore although the boat
will be destroyed in the process and they will have to swim. They contemplate what will
happen if they die, reflecting on the indifference of nature toward humanity: “If I am going to
be drowned, why was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?”
o When the boat almost breaks, the men decide to turn around and go back to safety. They see a
man ashore and wave to him – he waves back. It turns out the refuge house was a winter
resort. The man takes his coat off and waves it around. More people come but none go to
help.
o They end up spending the night in their boat. Billie and the correspondent take turns rowing to
keep the boat from capsizing. The night is long and cold. An enormous shark begins circling

the boat, making the correspondent nervous. He again contemplates his death and the
indifference of nature. He remembers a poem about a Legion dying in the Algiers as a soldier.
It used to mean nothing to him, but now it was an actuality because he could empathize with
the hopelessness.
o Come morning, the Captain suggests the make a break for the shore since no one is coming.
They do and the water is freezing. Three of the men make it ashore safely, but Billie dies in
his attempt.
Class Notes
o Important novels – Maggie Girl of the Streets (features an anti-hero). Red Badge of Courage
is his other novel.
 Maggie: She is 15 or 16, growing up impoverished in the city, parents cant find
work, and has a bunch of younger siblings. She has to decide whether to become a
prostitute to feed her siblings.
 Red Badge – Civil War anti-hero. He is a real soldier who is caught in a situation
where he freezes and realizes he can’t kill. He abandons his troops and retreats.
o The Open Boat
 Irony – Billie is given a name, therefore humanizing him. By killing him off at the
end, Crane highlights the dark reality of Naturalism.
Jack London: To Build a Fire; The Things They Carried
 Background
o Born in San Francisco. His father abandoned his mother and London’s childhood was rough.
He became an “oyster pirate.” It is here he developed the habit of alcoholism. He marched in
Coxey’s army and became a Socialist.
o London participated in the Alaskan Klondike Gold Rush. Here he was published and married.
London combined rural and urban settings, lived as both a naturalist writer and a mass-market
phenomenon. He was the best selling author in America and is arguably the most popular
American writer.
 To Build a Fire
o A man is in the Yukon. He is a newcomer and notes that the he hasn’t seen the sun in days as
well as the fact that 3 feet of ice and 3 more of snow coat the ground. It was colder than 50
below zero b/c his spit froze before reaching the ground.
o He has lunch of bacon biscuits and is bringing a dog with him, a husky. It knows how
dangerously cold it is, 75 below zero. At 10 am he reached a creek and decided to eat lunch
at the forks he would be reaching by 12:30. He is careful as he walks along the creek.
 Hot springs below the surface hid water beneath the snow. He pushes the dog ahead,
who falls into one of these and wets its legs. The water turns to ice almost
immedietly and the dog bits it off – a matter of instinct and nature, it was “obeying
the mysterious prompting that arose from the deep crypts of its being.”
o At 12:30, he arrived at the forks and sat to ate lunch. He repeatedly comments on how quickly
he is numbing up. He had forgotten to build a fire to thaw out his beard but remembered.
Soon he has a roaring fire, eats his meal, and leaves. The dog is hesitant – as it is aware of the
intense cold.
o He accidentally steps in one of the water pools from the springs and stops to build a fire so he
can dry his feet. He repeatedly recalls the advice of an old-timer from Sulphur Creek who
warned not to travel alone past 50 below and he smirks b/c he is doing it successfully.
o Just as he begins to remove his shoes, snow falls from the branches of the tree above him and
puts out the fire (naturalist). He quickly set about making a new fire, but the numbness of his
o
o
hands make it difficult. He drops all the matches in the snow. The numbness of his fingers
makes him awkward, and he fails in his attempt to make a second flame.
Panic hits the man and he decides to kill the dog and use its heat to thaw his hands. He tries,
but realizes that he has no means of doing so since his hands are frozen. He panics again and
starts to run for camp – where the boys will be waiting for him and able to help him. He runs
but lacks the endurance and decides to rest.
 He realizes that his death is inevitable and he decides to take it with dignity. He
imagines himself with the boys, finding his body the next day. The man lay in the
snow and fell asleep.
The dog smells the man and realizes he is dead. He then leaves for camp where were the other
“food providers and fire-providers” (naturalism).
Ambrose Bierce: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge; Devil’s Dictionary; Battle of Chickamauga
 Background
o Unhappy childhood life – cut away from religious family. Fascination with the supernatural is
an attempt to escape ordinary human society he detested.
o Had only one year of official schooling and fought in the Union army  strong source of
inspiration for him. Became a satirist of elegance. Wrote Devil’s Dictionary.
o Personal life is a series of disasters. In 1913, he went to Mexico and disappeared without a
trace.
 “Gallows humor.” Bierce converted the disordered experience of war into resonant
and dramatic fictional revelations with strong moral and ethical messages.
 An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
o Part I
 Northern Alabama – sentinels guard the bridge where a man is to be hanged. His
features are good and he has a kindly inflection. His gaze wanders to the water below
him on the Bridge. He hears the sound of his clock and it hurts his ear “like the thrust
of a knife.” He thinks of his family, and the floor is released from beneath him.
o Part II
 Peyton Farquhar – southerner devoted to the Southern cause. He was unable to join
the army. One day, a soldier comes up to their farm and asks for a drink. Farquhar
asks for news of the frontier. Says the Union took over Owl Creek Bridge and that
any civilians tampering with the railroad or its bridges will be hanged. He decides to
try and burn the bridge.
o Part III
 He fell down through the bridge and is awakened later by the sharp pain on his neck.
He knew the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. He swims hard while
being shot at, and manages to free his hands. He pays attention to all the details,
especially of the forest. He is being bombarded with bullets and canons, but manages
to escape to the shore.
 He digs his hands into the sand and weeps out of joy, then bounds up into
the forest.
 The forest seemed interminable and by nightfall he was fatigued. He must have
traveled the entire night before he sees a flutter of female garments, his wife. He runs
to her with extended arms and as he is about to clasp her, he feels a stunning blow
upon the back of the neck.
 Peyton Farquhar swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the
Owl Creek Bridge.
 Class Notes
o
Surreal: distant, seems almost like a dream. Focus on details  major aspect of Farquhar’s
experience. Focused on the details an inexplicable amount. Talks about the gray eye of the
sharpshooter, the bugs on the plants, the blades of grass, the feelings, the forest.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper
 Biographical Info
o Rejected traditional view of women economically and socially. Had a detached childhood and
grew up emotionally disengaged. Reluctantly entered a marriage and had one child. After
suffering postpartum depression, she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Her marriage ended and
she became a prominent feminist writer and lecturer. She married a second time but her
husband died. She moved in with her daughter, but knowing her productive stage of life had
ended, she committed suicide.
o She became known for her feminist movements and writings in economics, politics, and
social injustices.
 Class Notes
o Role of Women in the Late 19th Century
 Cult of Domesticity (Upper Class): God given task was to attend to the home, wife
and mother, and guardian of the moral purity, and the home was a place of refuge for
men from the harsh world.
 Women were fragile. Fashion was very particular – figure was required; hourglass.
Gait was very important – must be modest.
 Have lots of babies.
o Semi-autobiographical
 Many of her writings reflect her own depression that affected her over the course of
her entire life.
o Gothic Horror
 Her writings have a dark view of life and of the word. Reflected her own depression.
 The Yellow Wallpaper
o Husband and brother are physicians – say nothing is wrong with her but slight depression. She
is forbidden to work.
o She talks about the house – garden. It’s ghastly. He is very caring for her. Her room – the
paper is terrible, judges it was probably a play place for kids. The wallpaper is yellow. She
isn’t allowed to write in front of her husband, John.
 She has postpartum depression; she talks of how difficult small tasks are.
 She talks of how she likes her big, airy room but hates the wallpaper. She talks
repeatedly of how tiring writing is for her. She is very imaginative.
o John’s sister is the housekeeper and hates the narrator writes.
o They have company over for the 4th of July. She didn’t help set up at all and she says she cries
a lot over nothing. She tries to occupy herself by following the pattern on the walls and make
sense of them, but it tires her. She wants to visit her family, but John won’t let her.
o She says she is happy the baby doesn’t have to use the room. She wishes John would take her
away.
o She mentions the figure of a woman behind the pattern on the wallpaper that seems to get
clearer everyday. John tells her she is getting better, but she says she feels worse.
 She keeps talking about the wallpaper – it changes as the light changes. She notices
John and Jennie (his sister) both also have been looking at the wallpaper because it is
so strange. She says she must be the first to figure out its pattern.
o She is feeling much better, she is determined to figure out the pattern of the wallpaper – the
purpose makes her happier. She says the odor is haunting and hovering – it smells like yellow.

o
o
She decides the front pattern of the wallpaper does move and the woman behind it
shakes it. She says she sees the woman walking around their house during the
daytime.
This time she says John pretends to love her. That night John is in town so she is sleeping
along. She awakes and pulls down the hideous wallpaper. That morning, Jennie comes in and
laughs at the room with her.
The narrator goes insane, thinking she was the woman behind the wallpaper all along and that
by tearing it down, she has freed herself. She then creeps around the room repeatedly crawling
over John who passed out upon seeing her insane state.
Willa Cather: Sculptor’s Funeral and My Antonia
 Biographical Information
o Born in Virginia. Studied in Nebraska and became an editor of a women’s magazine. Wrote
many successful novels focusing on western heroines.
o Suffered from poor health and the mass-produced and mechanized quality of human life.
o Her work is “intentionally unfurnished.”
 Sculptor’s Funeral
o Townspeople stand by a train station waiting. The train arrives and they remove a casket. The
bring it to a house where a hysterical woman comes out weeping. Steavens, the dead
sculptor’s student, is overcome by the power of the woman  she “filled the room.”
o Harvey Merrick is the name of the dead sculptor, and a lawyer is named Jim Laird.
o The lawyer comments that it is amazing that Harvey was so sweet having come from such a
“dung heap.” Steavens goes into the funeral and listens to the men speak  they all are
saying bad things about Harvey. Steavens remembers Harvey saying that he wishes he were
better so he could contribute to the world that is “doing and bettering.”
o The lawyer comes into the funeral room angry. He claims the men of Sand City “drummed
nothing but money and knavery into their ears” since they were young and that is why there
are so few moral men. He speaks of his own experience with the corruption of business and
mechanization. He is really angry they are bad-mouthing Harvey, whose soul “couldn’t [be]
dirt[ied].”
 The Sculptor’s Funeral
Conflicts
East vs. West
Irony –
became rich
by not
wanting to do
so.
Towns People
Don’t like the
East.
Poor
Steavens
Sculptor’s
Apprentice.
Travels with
Harvey’s
corpse.
Mrs. Merrick
Cries over
son’s death.
Abuses the
help. Very
powerful.
Harvey Merrick
Dead. Raised in
a bad
environment.
Sculptor. Left
the town.
Martin Merrick
Old and weak.
Gave his son
money for
school. Chews
tobacco.
Jim Laird
Drunk - went
to school with
Harvey.
Lawyer.
Attached to
Harvey.
Kate Chopin: The Awakening, Story of an Hour, and The Storm
 Biographical Information
o Born in a well-off family. Women were strong, independent. She was very well educated and
read much literature. Married Oscar Chopin. He died and she moved to St. Louis. She had six
children. Wrote using regionalism. Strong feminist.
 The Storm
o Structure: Broken up into 5 parts. Each gives off more about each character. Shocks everyone
by ending it with happily  at the time, they should have felt terrible guilt, but it ended well.
Upton Sinclair: The Jungle
 Wrote The Jungle, very important book politically – led to passage of the Meat Inspection Act and
other legislation regarding sanitary food preparation.
Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
 Harlem, NY.
o Jazz – evolution from the blues. Cotton Club (place where this was played and appreciated by
both whites and blacks alike).
o Celebration of African American culture
o Literature, music, art.
 The Roaring Twenties – Jazz Age
o Migrated from the South
o Jobs
Langston Hughes: I, Too; The Weary Blues
 Born in Missouri. Introduced to poetry (Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman). Graduated from High
School and went on to Columbia University  only stayed one year.
 Moved to Paris in 1924 to focus on his writing. Used jazz rhythms and dialect to illustrate the Harlem
Renaissance.
Claude McKay: If We Must Die
 If We Must Die
o Strict sonnet structure – iambic pentameter and a Shakespearean Sonnet.
o Tone: Angry, passionate.
Zora Neale Hurston: How It Feels to Be Colored Me
 Biography
o She was very close to her mother, but her mom died when Zora was 11. She didn’t encounter
racism in her childhood b/c she didn’t encounter white people. She went to and graduated
from Howard University.
o Wrote for the Harlem Renaissance – Hurston was not embarrassed to present her characters as
mixtures of good and bad.
 How It Feels to Be Colored Me
o She wasn’t colored until she was 13. Her hometown, she was kind to the whites and they to
her because the whites only passed through as tourists. But when she left, she became a “little
colored girl.”
o “I am not tragically colored.” It isn’t a good thing or a bad thing, it’s just a thing. Sometimes
she feels discriminated, but it doesn’t anger her, it astonishes her, “How can anyone deny
themselves the pleasure of my company?”
Robert Frost: Mending Wall
Modernism
Lost Generation Writers
 Authors
o F. Scott Fitzgerald
o Ernest Hemingway
o T.S. Eliot
 Why are they called “The Lost Generation?”
o They are between the World Wars. Their writing is post-WWI. They wander around all over
Europe and the US, searching for a place to belong.
 Thematic Characteristics
o Breakdown of social norms/traditions
o Sense of alienation  inability to effectively communicate
o Isolation
o Rejection of traditional religion and moral teaching
 Stylistic Characteristics
o Time for people to try a bunch of new things
o Multiple narrative/perspective writing
o Stream of consciousness
o Classic allusion
o Figurative language
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
T.S. Elliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
 Poem about love by T.S. Elliot.
Ernest Hemingway: Snows of Kilimanjaro
 Biographical Information
o Traveled all over the world – had four wives. Wrote Sun also Rises. Drove ambulance in
WWI but was very injured. After the war, he traveled all over the world since he lost touch
with what he wanted to write about.
o He committed suicide, as did his whole family. Iron deficiencies resulted in mental instability
and ultimately suicide.
o He was very much an “adventure guy.” Very heavy drinker.
Tim O’Brien: The Things They Carried
 Biography
o Born and raised in Minnesota. He was drafted into Vietnam and served for 2 years. He wasn’t
a supporter of the war,
o He write using verisimilitude – a blur between fiction and non-fiction.
 The Things They Carried
o Major Characters and Explanations
 Tim O’Brien: narrator of the stories.
 Kiowa: Was the group medic - dies in the shit field. Incredibly traumatic experience
for O’Brien.
 Curt Lemon: He is pulled out of a tree in pieces after stepping on a land mine.





Jimmy Cross: Lieutenant – the platoon leader.
Bob “Rat” Kiley: The platoon’s medic. He is greatly renowned by his platoon and is
one of the most level headed members of the platoon. He eventually succumbs to the
stress and purposefully shoots his foot.
Linda: O’Brien’s first love. She “bites the dust” in the 5th grade due to a brain tumor.
This is his first experience with death.
Norman Bowker: member of the platoon who fails to cope with the return to the
United States. He writes to Tim asking him to write about the war in a way that
Bowker can’t. He ends up killing himself slightly after.
Bobby Jorgenson: medic who is sent to work with the platoon after Kiowa dies. He
fails to properly care for Tim after Tim is shot.
John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath and Why Soldiers Won’t Talk
 Grapes of Wrath – The Dust Bowl, East of Eden, The Pearl, and Of Mice and Men.
 He also wrote and essay – “Why Soldiers Won’t Talk”
o Speaking of courage.
o Vivid imagery in “Why Soldiers Won’t Talk”
 Reticent - not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily
 The stress of explosion – the nerve ends are beaten, eyes ache, ears destroyed.
 Everything looks a little unreal. The senses are dulled – the whole world becomes
unreal. A kind man becomes capable of great cruelty.
 The system provides the shield so that it is not remembered so that one can re-enter
into the experience once more.
 The brain entirely erases a memory that is too traumatic to be coped with.
Truman Capote: In Cold Blood
 Biography
o Born in 1924 in New Orleans.
o Next-door neighbor was Harper Lee.
o Moved to New York to live with his mother.
o He wrote for school newspapers and was published in several well-known magazines.
o In Cold Blood brought him to international popularity.
 Breakdown of Major Characters
o Mr. Herbert Clutter
 Most influence. Die hard Methodist – is allowed in the upper class with the
Presbyterians but is one of the very few Methodists in the upper class distinction.
Super Conservative. Doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink coffee or tea.
Typically gets what he wants. Owns a farm. Has four children.
o Mrs. Bonnie Clutter
 Faces postnatal depression. Has four children, is facing major mental issues, is
constantly in Wichita to see a psychiatrist. Thinks she found out that it is simply a
misplaced vertebrate. Sleeps in a separate and very ordinary room. Spends tons of
time in her bed sleeping.
o Nancy Clutter
 Little Ms. Perfect. Constantly doing things for others and balancing a ridiculous
workload. She’s the busiest but always has time. Dating Bobby Rupp  the two are
different religions and so they are not allowed to stay together. Has issues connecting
with her father.
o Kenyon Clutter

Fifteen years old – enjoys tinkering in his basement but isn’t into hanging out with
girls. He likes to hunt and go out with his friend, Bob Jones. He loves his car. He had
a horse, Skeeter, but he rode it to death  he had raised it from a fowl.