The Real Thing By William Dean Howells
Part 1: Realism and Naturalism
1A: Realism
Realism was a separation from idealism. It was focused on typical events in life that people view as uninteresting. It portrayed things about characters that also apply to regular people. William Dean Howells said this about fiction: “Let fiction cease to lie about life; let it portray men and women as they are, actuated by the motives and the passions in the measure we all know,” (pg. 1134).
A main trait of realism is how it portrays common situations and aspects of regular people. It specifically fit this time period because America was going through reform. Some of the stories from this time were about the war or its effects. Its purpose was to break away from idealism and regionalism. It connected …show more content…
to Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” because it portrayed how some people are exceedingly patient with people, or certain people in some cases. When Bartleby refused to do something, the Narrator said “with any other man I should have…,” (pg. 886), indicating that if it were someone else besides Bartleby, he would have punished that person for refusing. He also showed exceeding patience and compassion when Bartleby refused to leave the first building. Instead of taking another measure to remove Bartleby, he just moved his practice to another building. Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an example of this trait because Huck went through a mental struggle. He was conflicted about getting Jim free because he thought he was stealing Miss Watson’s “property,” and at the same time, Jim was starting to like Huck because he was helping him. “Well I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he WAS most free – and who was to blame for it? Why, ME. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way…It hadn’t ever come home to me before, what this thing was that I was doing. But now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me more and more,” (Chapter 16).
James’s “The Real Thing” also follows this trait because it portrayed how, in art, people like the illusion of real, but they do not like the real thing.
“They had accepted their failure, but they couldn’t accept their fate. They had bowed their heads, in bewilderment, to the perverse and cruel law in virtue of which the real thing could be so much less precious than the unreal; but they didn’t want to starve,” (pg. 1228). The artist knew that people had this preference, and he also had it himself. “Combined with this was another perversity – an innate preference for the represented subject over the real one. The defect of the real one was so apt to be a lack of representation. I liked things that appeared; then one was sure,” (pg. 1215).
Fitzgerald’s “The Ice Palace” is an example of this trait because it portrayed how some people who only lived in one place would want to go somewhere else until they get to that place and then end up wanting to return home. When she was asked about her possible engagement, Sally Carrol told her friends, “I want to go places and see people. I want my mind to grow. I want to live where things happen on a big scale,” (pg. 1824). After her time in the North and the Ice Palace, she “gave a long low cry. ‘Oh, I want to get out of here! I’m going back home. Take me home,’” (pg.
1839).
1B: Naturalism
Naturalism and realism are similar because they both follow what Howells said about fiction: “Let fiction cease to lie about life; let it portray men and women as they are, actuated by the motives and the passions in the measure we all know,” (pg. 1134).
The main difference between naturalism and realism is that they present the same content, common situations in life, in different ways. Realists “emphasized the role of individual choice or volition, while naturalists emphasize the ways in which human behavior is determined by biological, economic, and environmental forces, both social and natural,” (pg. 1138). Most naturalistic stories also had the setting of a city, or focused on the struggles of a character. Naturalists considered nature “as an indifferent backdrop for the struggles and strivings of human beings. Indeed, in many naturalistic works characters struggle for survival against the seemingly hostile forces of nature,” (pg. 1138).
Crane’s “Open Boat” showed nature as a backdrop because the remaining crew on the ship had to difficult conditions on their journey. They could not afford to make sudden movements, because it could cause them to drown. The captain was also injured. He also suffered mentally because he “was at this time buried in that profound dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at east, to even the bravest and most enduring, when willy nilly, the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes down,” (pg. 1343).
Bierce’s “Chickamauga” also showed nature as a backdrop because it dealt with wars: the child’s wars with the imaginary, and the wounded soldiers trying to survive and get to where they were going. It also showed the horrors and seriousness of war because the boy was just playing around as the wounded men passed until he jumped on one man’s back and got thrown off. “He rose to his knees, the child to his feet. The man shook his fist at the child; the child, terrified at last, ran to a tree near by, got upon the farther side of it and took a more serious view of the situation,” (pg. 1206).
While Chopin’s “The Storm,” was focused on the thunderstorm, it also featured nature as a backdrop for the affair between Calixta and Alcée. They probably both had mental struggles after the affair and as a result, they resisted the temptation to sleep together when the storm ended “The growl of the thunder was distant and passing away. The rain beat softly upon the shingles, inviting them to drowsiness and sleep. But they dared not yield,” (Section 2).
2A: Interior lives Psychology played a bigger role in the stories of this movement. The characters were still in common situations, but the situations evolved into bigger conflicts and required harder decisions to be made. In Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” Mr. Harris was described by Sarty as “his father’s enemy (our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He’s my father!)” (pg. 1855). He knew his father was expecting Sarty to defend him, but he also knew it was against what is right. He “resolved” his conflict in the case by saying nothing. This revealed that his “inner life” was filled with this confliction: either defending his father’s wrongs or doing what was right, and it still was not resolved after his father’s death. “Father. My father, he thought. ‘He was brave!’ he cried suddenly, aloud but not loud, no more than a whisper: ‘He was! He was in the war! He was in Colonel Sartoris’ cav’ry!’” (pg. 1867). Abner’s way of dealing with his landowners was by burning their barns. He had this anger towards people in general, probably as a result of the war. Abner “had gone to that war a private in the fine old European sense, wearing no uniform, admitting the authority of and giving fidelity to no man or army or flag, going to war as Malbrouck himself did: for booty – it meant nothing and less than nothing to him if it were enemy booty or his own,” (pg. 1867). It also shows that his “inner life” was about only doing things that would benefit him. In Wright’s “Almos’ a Man,” Dave “inner life” was simply that he wanted to be treated like a man. The thing he held closest to him throughout the story, was the gun. He lied to his parents and hid it from them on various occasions. Finally, he went on a train “away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man…,” (pg. 1914).
2B: Realism
Another trait of modernism is how realism is followed and portrayed in some modern works. Realism and naturalism were both from around the same time period. Modernism was like their successor because it came in a later period, and in some modernist works, followed either realism, naturalism, or both.
Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” followed realism because like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, its main character went through a mental struggle. It portrays a situation for some people where they have to choose sides between what is right, or defending the wrongs of someone that is close to them. In the first court case, Sarty was conflicted because his father “aims for me to lie, he thought, again with that frantic grief and despair. And I will have to do hit,” (pg. 1856). His father later told him that he was growing up and he had to learn to “stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you,” (pg. 1858), making his struggle more complicated.
Wright’s “Almos’ a Man” followed realism because it portrayed a situation where some people almost at adulthood want to be treated like adults. Dave was seventeen and he wanted to be treated like a man. The gun represented his hope for that, as he decided it was the best means for achieving that recognition. “One of these days he was going to get a gun and practice shooting, then they can’t talk to him as though he were a little boy,” (pg. 1905). Throughout the story, he lied about things concerning the gun until the end when he went on a train “away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man…,” (pg. 1914).
1A: Realism
Realism was a separation from idealism. It was focused on typical events in life that people view as uninteresting. It portrayed things about characters that also apply to regular people. William Dean Howells said this about fiction: “Let fiction cease to lie about life; let it portray men and women as they are, actuated by the motives and the passions in the measure we all know,” (pg. 1134).
A main trait of realism is how it portrays common situations and aspects of regular people. It specifically fit this time period because America was going through reform. Some of the stories from this time were about the war or its effects. Its purpose was to break away from idealism and regionalism. It connected …show more content…
to Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” because it portrayed how some people are exceedingly patient with people, or certain people in some cases. When Bartleby refused to do something, the Narrator said “with any other man I should have…,” (pg. 886), indicating that if it were someone else besides Bartleby, he would have punished that person for refusing. He also showed exceeding patience and compassion when Bartleby refused to leave the first building. Instead of taking another measure to remove Bartleby, he just moved his practice to another building. Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an example of this trait because Huck went through a mental struggle. He was conflicted about getting Jim free because he thought he was stealing Miss Watson’s “property,” and at the same time, Jim was starting to like Huck because he was helping him. “Well I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he WAS most free – and who was to blame for it? Why, ME. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way…It hadn’t ever come home to me before, what this thing was that I was doing. But now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me more and more,” (Chapter 16).
James’s “The Real Thing” also follows this trait because it portrayed how, in art, people like the illusion of real, but they do not like the real thing.
“They had accepted their failure, but they couldn’t accept their fate. They had bowed their heads, in bewilderment, to the perverse and cruel law in virtue of which the real thing could be so much less precious than the unreal; but they didn’t want to starve,” (pg. 1228). The artist knew that people had this preference, and he also had it himself. “Combined with this was another perversity – an innate preference for the represented subject over the real one. The defect of the real one was so apt to be a lack of representation. I liked things that appeared; then one was sure,” (pg. 1215).
Fitzgerald’s “The Ice Palace” is an example of this trait because it portrayed how some people who only lived in one place would want to go somewhere else until they get to that place and then end up wanting to return home. When she was asked about her possible engagement, Sally Carrol told her friends, “I want to go places and see people. I want my mind to grow. I want to live where things happen on a big scale,” (pg. 1824). After her time in the North and the Ice Palace, she “gave a long low cry. ‘Oh, I want to get out of here! I’m going back home. Take me home,’” (pg.
1839).
1B: Naturalism
Naturalism and realism are similar because they both follow what Howells said about fiction: “Let fiction cease to lie about life; let it portray men and women as they are, actuated by the motives and the passions in the measure we all know,” (pg. 1134).
The main difference between naturalism and realism is that they present the same content, common situations in life, in different ways. Realists “emphasized the role of individual choice or volition, while naturalists emphasize the ways in which human behavior is determined by biological, economic, and environmental forces, both social and natural,” (pg. 1138). Most naturalistic stories also had the setting of a city, or focused on the struggles of a character. Naturalists considered nature “as an indifferent backdrop for the struggles and strivings of human beings. Indeed, in many naturalistic works characters struggle for survival against the seemingly hostile forces of nature,” (pg. 1138).
Crane’s “Open Boat” showed nature as a backdrop because the remaining crew on the ship had to difficult conditions on their journey. They could not afford to make sudden movements, because it could cause them to drown. The captain was also injured. He also suffered mentally because he “was at this time buried in that profound dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at east, to even the bravest and most enduring, when willy nilly, the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes down,” (pg. 1343).
Bierce’s “Chickamauga” also showed nature as a backdrop because it dealt with wars: the child’s wars with the imaginary, and the wounded soldiers trying to survive and get to where they were going. It also showed the horrors and seriousness of war because the boy was just playing around as the wounded men passed until he jumped on one man’s back and got thrown off. “He rose to his knees, the child to his feet. The man shook his fist at the child; the child, terrified at last, ran to a tree near by, got upon the farther side of it and took a more serious view of the situation,” (pg. 1206).
While Chopin’s “The Storm,” was focused on the thunderstorm, it also featured nature as a backdrop for the affair between Calixta and Alcée. They probably both had mental struggles after the affair and as a result, they resisted the temptation to sleep together when the storm ended “The growl of the thunder was distant and passing away. The rain beat softly upon the shingles, inviting them to drowsiness and sleep. But they dared not yield,” (Section 2).
2A: Interior lives Psychology played a bigger role in the stories of this movement. The characters were still in common situations, but the situations evolved into bigger conflicts and required harder decisions to be made. In Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” Mr. Harris was described by Sarty as “his father’s enemy (our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He’s my father!)” (pg. 1855). He knew his father was expecting Sarty to defend him, but he also knew it was against what is right. He “resolved” his conflict in the case by saying nothing. This revealed that his “inner life” was filled with this confliction: either defending his father’s wrongs or doing what was right, and it still was not resolved after his father’s death. “Father. My father, he thought. ‘He was brave!’ he cried suddenly, aloud but not loud, no more than a whisper: ‘He was! He was in the war! He was in Colonel Sartoris’ cav’ry!’” (pg. 1867). Abner’s way of dealing with his landowners was by burning their barns. He had this anger towards people in general, probably as a result of the war. Abner “had gone to that war a private in the fine old European sense, wearing no uniform, admitting the authority of and giving fidelity to no man or army or flag, going to war as Malbrouck himself did: for booty – it meant nothing and less than nothing to him if it were enemy booty or his own,” (pg. 1867). It also shows that his “inner life” was about only doing things that would benefit him. In Wright’s “Almos’ a Man,” Dave “inner life” was simply that he wanted to be treated like a man. The thing he held closest to him throughout the story, was the gun. He lied to his parents and hid it from them on various occasions. Finally, he went on a train “away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man…,” (pg. 1914).
2B: Realism
Another trait of modernism is how realism is followed and portrayed in some modern works. Realism and naturalism were both from around the same time period. Modernism was like their successor because it came in a later period, and in some modernist works, followed either realism, naturalism, or both.
Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” followed realism because like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, its main character went through a mental struggle. It portrays a situation for some people where they have to choose sides between what is right, or defending the wrongs of someone that is close to them. In the first court case, Sarty was conflicted because his father “aims for me to lie, he thought, again with that frantic grief and despair. And I will have to do hit,” (pg. 1856). His father later told him that he was growing up and he had to learn to “stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you,” (pg. 1858), making his struggle more complicated.
Wright’s “Almos’ a Man” followed realism because it portrayed a situation where some people almost at adulthood want to be treated like adults. Dave was seventeen and he wanted to be treated like a man. The gun represented his hope for that, as he decided it was the best means for achieving that recognition. “One of these days he was going to get a gun and practice shooting, then they can’t talk to him as though he were a little boy,” (pg. 1905). Throughout the story, he lied about things concerning the gun until the end when he went on a train “away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man…,” (pg. 1914).