Comparing The Outcast Of Poker Flat By Bret Harte And Paul Laurence Dunbar

In the 1800’s, many writers became tired of the romanticized writing that had been popular during that time. Because of the Romantic movement, many writers wanted a real view of the world, not a sugar-coated fantasy. Therefore, the Realism movement was born. Stories such as “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce and “An Episode of War” by Stephen Crane were created. These authors focused on real life and the fact that life is unfair and is to be taken seriously. The stories also use many literary techniques to show the reality of the world.

Realism best represents the literary movement that America was facing at the time because the texts’ use detail that show how things really happened, how things really sounded, how they really looked, and used this literary style to get the reader more involved to see how the text will make them react while reading instead of just focusing on the narrator and the writer. While reading The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Twain says “ He never smiled, he never frowned, and he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key” (Twain 4). Twain uses these words to show real details that the other movements would never use in their

The American realists of the late 19th century were notably adept at creating deep, memorable characters --whether virtuous or villainous-- who are continuously developed throughout the tales in which they exist. These authors often used their protagonists for a higher purpose than mere storytelling, endeavoring to construct a critique of the times by placing the characters in opposition to their respective societies. As a result, the protagonist often becomes an unassuming type of hero to the reader, by courageously (or obtusely) defying convention, and doubting the ignorant assumptions of society. Three such characters that were born of American realism are found in the novels The Adventures of

Author, Ambrose Bierce, who is considered one of the Great American authors, wrote during the realism period. Particularly, in his work titled An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, written in 1890, we can see evidence of the characteristics, themes and style identified with the realism movement which was extant in American letters between 1850 and 1900. As a representative of such a movement, Ambrose Bierce, then remains on the most identifiable and iconic writers of his time.

Intro - In The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Bret Harte creates John Oakhurst to be morally ambiguous to express that one should not judge others at first glance.

In the beginning times of American Literature, Puritan writers were prevalent which grew into the Age of Reason by way of scientists and philosophers, which eventually emerged into Romanticism and the Renaissance writers, which developed into Realism by the middle of 19th century. Throughout American Literature, religious ideologies and philosophies influenced the way that writers portrayed the time period, characters, feelings, and God.

In "Outcasts of Poker Flat", by Bret Harte, four people are exiled to improve a frontier community. One is a gambler, another accused of stealing gold, the third

Hamlet will forever be known as a classic example of a morally ambiguous character. He is to choose between avenging his father's death, or standing back and doing nothing, thus a cycle of death and questionable actions creates his moral ambiguity. Since the early writings of Hamlet, morally ambiguous characters have been a reoccurring theme in literature. In Bret Harte's "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," four criminals in the Old West are exiled from their town, and the outcasts' morals are challenged. Throughout the story, the characters change, and the reader can not decipher if they are good or evil.

The Search of America In the speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” by Fredrick Douglas, he talks of fettered liberty and a disregarded constitution. In “Songs of Myself” by Walt Whitman, one can see a young man’s journey to find a purpose within himself. In Bret Harte “The Outcast of Poker Flat”, is the story of a gambler, a duchess, a salon girl, and a drunk who become outcast.

Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism are just a few examples of the many styles of writing that exist. Each style of writing deals with a specific time period. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”, Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”, and Mary E Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother” are just a few examples of the literary works that represent these time periods. These literary works are perfect examples of the specific time periods each writing style was popular among certain authors. These stories allow readers to compare the modern times that we live in currently to the period these authors were in. They also allow the reader to branch out and be different.

The changes in social structures and classes meant that more people could be educated, thus, the audience for literature expanded. Realism often expressed the concerns of the middle class.

Everyone could relate to realism because it was more realistic. Realism lasted through the mid 19th century and included writers such as Flaubert, Zola, and Dickens.

"Authors began to focus their writing on ordinary people and their everyday lives" which caused the shift from Romanticism to Realism to begin.Many American authors were influenced by this movement ("Realism"). Realism inspired these authors to take into a deeper meaning the realties of life by further examining the obstacles and circumstances they have undergone (Marshall). The main ideas of literature shifted from giving people supernatural traits to authors portraying humans as the ordinary person ("Realism"). The major theme of this time period was to preserve the foundations that America’s forefathers laid down for the country. The Civil War was ultimately a second chance for the nation to rebuild and gain back the beneficial aspects that were overlooked in times of change. Realism began around the time of the Civil War and ended in early 1900. The changes in the writing styles shifted America’s views on the works of literature in the time period and caused a drastic change in the country (Leonard). Realists wanted to use the diction of the typical person to be able to connect to them and portray the concreteness of life

Realism came about in literary works in the 19th century, and portrayed real life unlike the previous Enlightenment and Romanticism movements prior. Writers and people were sick of the neat, happy stories and endings that were written by the two previous movements, and those people wanted something they could relate to. Because of this, Realistic writers wrote about the boring, ordinary lives that regular folks led and did not sugar-coat anything that occurred but was brutally honest. In the words of Randall Craig, “Realistic writers educate readers, not through humiliation, but by familiarizing them with a re-presented world and enabling them to discover the rules by which it works and to apply them both to the fictional and extra-fictional

Realism is the portrayal of the reality of everyday life and period of literature between 1850-1900. Realist fictions speculate myths, assumptions, social norms, sentimentality, collective wisdom, and prejudices. Realism stories are usually about the middle-class people, and it aims to show a truthful portrayal of truth. Regionalism is a class of realist literature distinguished by closeness to the habits, language, dialects, manners, history, traditions, beliefs of a particular geographical region. Regionalism manifests the characters of both realism and romanticism. Romanticism is cultural the period from 1830-1860 in America. Humankind is naturally good. The characteristics of romanticism are passion and emotion, nature over the man, spiritual, intuition, and insight. "A White Heron," by Sarah Orne Jewett, is an example of local color because of its realism. Jewett uses characteristics of regionalism like dialogue to show the contrast between the locals and outsiders, habits, their daily activities, the dress, features of a place. "Editha" by William is the story of realism which has many characteristics of realism like details about war; he uses dialect to hold out the trend of the story, using middle-class peoples character. Dean Howell uses a part of romantic style but all together its categorized as one of the