Romanticism is out, Realism is in. Over the past two weeks in our review of American Literature we have witnessed a very abrupt transition between two contrasting styles. Over a span of approximately thirty years American Literature transformed from a style that used grand alliterations and exaggeration into a style that let allowed it's authors freedom to embody the natural beauty of life just by the style of imagery they used. Realism not only yields a different style of poetic writing, but also some of the greatest names in American Literature such as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Henry James. In contrast with the Romantic era writers such as Poe, Emerson, and Thoreau, these authors glorified the natural American citizen rather than grandiose heroes of both glory and infamy. For example, Twain's Life on the Mississippi is an epic detailing a trip on a steam boat. Twain uses cultural vernacular and visual imagery to glorify a rather mundane American job where as Poe and Hawthorne were forced to imagine great heroes and villains in order to draw American's to their writings.
Realism pwns.
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Cadet Bomb-ski's post is one that takes a few reads to decipher. He is supporting realism in this post, and seems to be against romanticism. Cadet Bomb-ski supports realism because he says it "glorify[s]" regular Americans and typical American jobs. He uses the example of Twain glorifying "a rather mundane American job." However, the exact act of glorifying is considered romanticism; realism is un-glorifying, and being straight forward with literature. I do see where he is trying to come from, however I believe that there is a problem with categorizing most books as realism in general. When there is a main character, his thoughts, actions, and even the events in the story tend to put glorification on one set of ideas, events, or things, which would in turn, categorize the story as romantic. I therefore question Bomb-ski's (Stomski's) classification of realism.
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