American Realism
Themes
hardly uses an omniscient narrator
realistic, unpersonal diction
written for the growing middle class
emphasis on verisimilitude
Authors
Stephan Crane
The Open Boat
Red Badge of Courage
war correspondent
eastern writer
Ambrose Bierce
An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge
wrote nonfiction essays and war literature
colonel in union army
Mark Twain
Books
Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
sorrows in life produce humor
first to use colloquialism
father of American novel
Causes
rejection of romantisism
western frontier had been conquered
civil war opened eyes to true cruelty
wanted to record everyday humans to capture the essence standardization was destroying
changes to the landscape caused by the industrial revolution
fast immagration to crowded cities by Europeans
