Examples Of Regionalism In Willa Cather

While Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce both primarily wrote Realism, Twain's writings have a bent for Regionalism, while Bierce's short stories lean towards Naturalism. Samuel Clemens, better known as

The Romanticism period in the United States was focused mainly on nature which introduced progressiveness as one of the quintessential characteristics of America and its citizens. Romanticism was a movement in which the people believe that nature is at the epicenter of all ideas and inspirations. This sentiment of nature’s greatness only increased amongst Americans after the Louisiana Purchase and the migration of the Americans to the west that came shortly afterward. The Louisiana purchase was a deal made with the French for control over most of the mid-west and other western areas in 1803. The deal was made by Thomas Jefferson during his presidency for only 15 million dollars (May-Beaver). The Louisiana Purchase was one of Jefferson’s best decisions as president due

Naturalism began as a literary movement in the early 1890’s all throughout 1915. Naturalism is meant to imply a philosophical position. For writers, characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. Naturalists believed that human beings are meant to be studied like they were just “products”, that are to be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures. Ethan Frome was first published in 1911.

As a student I often find myself showing little interest in early American Literature vs modern United States. The text can be boring mostly because it is primarily authored by Anglo-Saxton Puritans. Once the text was read, it started to make more sense to me about the way of puritan life; as well as being more relevant on the views of America. The Puritan way of life was a man’s world. Women had separate roles in Puritan society; women served as secondary subjects their husbands. The roles were limited only to mothering and controlling household functions. Women were only able to read scriptures from the bible not publicly allowed to interpret them; although Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson did so anyway through their text and poems. On a good note there were two legal rights of Puritan women.

In the century America, there were changes in the society and politics resulting from the expansion to the westward as well as the civil wars. Artists in America turned to reality and regionalism as a way to bring their concerns during that time. Their concerns included the widening gap in social classes where there were class struggles among those of the working class as well as the middle class who were brought down socially. These artists wrote down these transfo0rmations brought out in the nation by creating removed, impartial status of everyday life. In a bid to bring readers to be fascinated by their stories and to depict their character and the reader’s setting to life, Mark Twain in the adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the awakening by Kate Chopin used regionalism and in the same way, Henry James showed the reality of life in his story Daisy Miller.

Naturalism is a very intense style of literature that an author can use. With naturalism, the author is trying to convey knowledge acquired through the senses and experiences they them selves have been through. In the novel of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, he portrays elements of naturalism through his very own sights and experiences. During the depression John Steinbeck got a first hand dose of what it meant to deal with sordid aspects of life. Just like his book, he portrays his accounts using highly realistic settings, and brutal characters with foul mouths that deal with depressing issues of life. In the real world things happen, but in the world of Mice and Men, nothing ever seems to happen the way the characters hope.

Part of human nature is believing that an individual has choice in what happens in his or her life. A literary style emerging after Romanticism, Realism, and a sub-genre of this style, Regionalism both argued that free will is existent among humans, even if this free will is limited. A literary style that was influenced by Darwinism, Naturalism, posited that choice is an illusion and an individual has no say in what happens in his or her life. Both of these styles offered an interesting view of choice and how individuals are influenced to make their choices.

Cowboys and Indians come to mind for many people when the idea of Southwestern literature is presented. The scene of a saloon shootout and John Wayne materialize. Southwestern literature is more than the O.K. Corral. Writers such as Willa Cather and Catherine Porter do not have the prototypical storyline stated above, but they are writers of Southwestern literature. In order to understand why Willa Cather and Catherine Porter should be considered a part of Southwestern literature, one must consider the difference between the American West and Southwest and understand that their writing is deeply influenced by the landscape and culture of the Southwest and centered on issues faced by inhabitants of the region.

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.

Introduction: To me, the character of Jim Burden seems to be a odd. Although he appears to be childhood friends with the narrator, there is still misunderstandings between them. For example, Jim wrote a whole book instead of just bring notes. I can infer that Jim had a deeper relation with Antonia than the narrator did. The relationship that Jim has with is wife is also strange. Genevieve appears to just be using Jim to gain the title of married. There is no reason for her to marry him, and the narrator never mentioned any love between them. However, I do admire some of Jim’s attributes. I am fond of his adventurous personality. I do find it ironic that a lawyer is a bold adventurer, for lawyer are normally boring and heavily into reading the laws. It will be interesting to see what Jim think of Antonia; since he changed the title to my Antonia like he owns her.

In the years of becoming a young adult children learn the most important life lessons. The novel My Antonia depicts the life of a boy named Jim Burden, although the story is based on him the second main character Antonia is a very significant part of the novel. Her role is very significant. The author Willa Cather portrays the life of a immigrant family who endure many issues.

Regionalism and local color writings are each specific types of Realism. They worked to record a distinctive way of life. Regionalism often showed regional dialect, food, clothing styles and customs of that time period. Naturalism, like realism, works to accurately portray its subject matter, but naturalism also works to find the scientific theory. Each of these writing styles have characteristics that make them stand out from one another but they all seem to also have a common link of showing life realistically of that time period.

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

Naturalism was a literary movement that took place from the 1880s until the 1940s. It used realism as a mechanism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had a monumental impact in changing or defining human character. Naturalism exposes the dark areas of life and how they affected people, such as sex, violence, disease, prejudice, abandonment, disease, and even death. Naturalism, in short, is a need to return to the earth. (Williams, 571) A prime example of this literary theory

Naturalism is a philosophy which emphasizes “the effect of heredity and environment on human nature and action” (Zhang) and incorporates realism to “suggest that social conditions… and environment [have] inescapable force in shaping human character” (Zhang). Furthermore, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Natural Philosophy explains that to Naturalists, “reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing ‘supernatural’, and that the scientific method should be used to investigate all areas of reality” (Papineau). Naturalism (in literature) is an idea that suggests everything about humanity is measurable, detectable, manipulatable, and traceable to a cause, and therefore the characters of Naturalist literature would be illustrated as simply the products of their environments; vessels devoid of spiritual guidance or fate that are subject only to their environments. An example of a Naturalistic novel is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton; a novel set in late 19th century New York that follows Lily Bart: a young woman who was born rich but is slowly losing both her societal status and her money whilst she repeatedly avoids marriage, her only option to escape her fate: a life of poverty. With this in mind, The House of Mirth is an exemplary example of a Naturalistic novel because of its portrayal of characters as the product of their environments.