Realism and Naturalism

American Realism was a literary movement around the mid to late 1800's characterized by a focus on the realities of everyday life. As opposed to depicting fanciful, unrealistic protagonists with unbelievable strengths, abilities, and situations, Realist literature focused on the relatable common man. Famous realist authors included Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Upton Sinclair, and William Dean Howells.
Naturalism was a movement that took Realism a step further. It focused on the realistic, ubiquitous aspects of life, but also suggested that these aspects exist for a greater, universal reason. In other words, hierarchy, social structure, and natural instincts all exist because of predetermined meaningful purpose. Naturalist writers included John Steinbeck, Abraham Cahan, Edith Wharton, and Jack London.

--Wald der Unklug

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story with a very interesting twist by Ambrose Bierce. The first thing one notices when reading this story is the gratuitous amount of detail devoted to describing everything from the scenery to the physical states of the characters to the actions that the characters perform. It is divided into three parts. The first part, simply a snapshot of a situation, describes a setting where a man is about to be hanged. The second part gives the back story of Peyton Farquhar and why he is being hanged. The third part is where most of the action in the story takes place and consists of Farquhar's apparent escape and journey to meet his family before it is revealed that everything just took place in his imagination. The actual events that make up the third section of the story really only take up an instant as Farquhar falls to his death. The ending where this fact is revealed hit the reader as hard as the rope hits the protagonist's neck in a cruelly ironic twist that is can even be very darkly humorous. Just as Farquhar truly learns to love and appreciate every single aspect of life, he dies. On a personal note, this is one of my favorite short stories of all time.

--Wald der Ausgeruht

"The War Prayer" and "To the Person Sitting in Darkness"

Among many other controversial views, Mark Twain is well known for holding very strong views against Western imperialism. He often expressed his contempt for such practices through satire, a tactic of which he was a master. Two of Twain's more notable works condemning imperialism are "The War Prayer" and "To the Person Sitting in Darkness." "The War Prayer" details a church service wherein the attendees pray for success in battle. As the prayer progresses, the speaker describes increasingly violent and grotesque things, all the while keeping a cheerful and pious tone. The work leads the reader to ponder the implications of asking a holy, benevolent God for aid in war. "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" is an essay that sarcastically censures America's involvement in China and the Philippines, the Boer War, and imperialism in general. The piece refers to foreign invasion as a Game, and names certain political figures such as William McKinley and Joseph Chamberlain as masters of the Game. Twain describes war crimes and atrocities in a flippant, matter-of-fact tone that leads one to reflect on how terrible our actions in less developed countries actually were.

--Wald der  Faul 

"They shut me up in Prose" - Emily Dickinson

They shut me up in Prose –

As when a little Girl

They put me in the Closet –

Because they liked me “still”   –

Still! Could themself have peeped –

And seen my Brain – go round –

They might as wise have lodged a Bird

For Treason – in the Pound –

Himself has but to will--

And easy as a Star

Look down opon Captivity –

And laugh – No more have I –

   "They shut me up in Prose" seems to provide almost something of an origin story to Emily Dickinson's poetic career. The poem itself is fairly straightforward: it describes how when Dickinson was a child, she was often put in a closet to keep her quiet, and this is what led her to start writing. Aside from the obvious though, "They shut me up in Prose" also presents the idea of physical versus metal captivity. Even though young Emily was physically locked up in a closet, her captors had no control over the freedom of her mind, which manifested itself in her "Prose." It is not unlikely even that she only came to this realization because of her time trapped in a closet, which doubtless gave her a great deal of time to think and reflect.

--Wald der Frei

The Turn of the 19th Century

The period of time in America around the late 18th century and early 19th century was one of tremendous change, in both the structure of society and the ideas of thinkers and philosophers. Much of the change was due the the Industrial Revolution, which unleashed a flood of new ideas and inventions upon the people of the United States. Suddenly, once difficult tasks and chores could be done in much less time using much less work. These technological advents allowed much more time for people to think and philosophize. Furthermore, many important and revolutionary scientific breakthroughs were made during the 19th century, arguably the most notable being Darwin's work on evolution. The publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 completely changed the way that people looked at life, religion, and nearly everything about the world around us. Secularism become more prominent as people were forced to rethink their own existence. In short, the zeitgeist of the 19th century might best be described as simply: change.

--Wald der Asiatisch

On Time Again! Amazing! (1/6/11)

In "Another View of Hester" the character of Hester Prynn in reexamined seven years after her crime is committed. At this point, almost all of the common people and many of those in positions of power have stopped hating Hester. Most of them have even forgotten what her scarlet A stands for; many have come to believe that it stands for "Able" instead of "Adulterer."
Meanwhile, Hester has undergone a total change in personality. She seems to have lost a lot of her humanity after nearly a decade of relative isolation. She is very cold, impersonal, stoic, and rational. However, despite all of the good deeds she has done, she is still plagued by guilt for continuing to withhold Roger's identity from Dimmesdale.

--Wald der Hypokoristische

The Amazing On Time Post of Forrest Baker (due and completed 1/5/11)

I did my page Chapter 10, "The Leech and His Patient." In this chapter, Dimmesdale's health continues to deteriorate under the "care" of Chillingworth. Dimmesdale becomes increasingly suspicious of Chillingworth, who relentlessly presses him about any unconfessed sins that might be contributing to his affliction. At the end of the chapter, Chillingworth sneaks up on Dimmesdale while he is asleep and looks under his shirt to see something, which remains unrevealed to the reader, on his chest.
My beautiful illustration of this chapter consists of Dimmesdale asleep on his bed with Roger Chillingworth observing something on his chest. The artistically educated viewer will notice the piece is characterized by a subtle blend of Dada and Minimalism. The colors--red, gray, black, green, and blue--represent the diverse symbolism seen throughout The Scarlet Letter. The red represents the scarlet of the title letter. The gray represents the color of the pencil I had within convenient reach. The meaning of the other colors is so deeply philosophical and symbolic, that the avant-garde concepts cannot even be expressed in mere words. Furthermore, as one observes the facial expressions of the subjects, powerful and abstruse emotions can be seen just teeming beneath the surface. Chillingworth can be seen pondering his dilemma; each masterfully placed stroke of the pencil is a separate though running through his tortured head. Dimmesdale has his eyes closed, a simply ingenious representation of him being asleep.

--Wald der Künstlerisch