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Realism was popular from 1880-1914. During this time, the Progressive Movement was attempting to improve American politics, business, and community life through social and political reform. Realistic authors emphasized ordinary characters and events to reflect life as it truly was. They also shared the common theme of regionalism, which highlighted a specific geographic setting. A third characteristic they shared was their reliance on the new sciences of biology, psychology, and sociology,

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Rapid industrial development brought unprecedented wealth and power to the United States, but also came with numerous social problems. To adequately describe these issues, writers shifted from Romanticism to Realism in order to reflect the impoverished conditions many Americans were living in.

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Similar to the Industrial Revolution, the problems of the bloodiest war in U.S. history were simply too horrible to be described with Romanticism. This led to the rise of Realistic literature to call attention to everyday life and normal human behavior.

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A common trend with these historical events is that the problems faced by everyday Americans would be inadequately described through Romanticism. The progressive era was no different, hence the popularity of Realism boomed. The progressive era saw numerous attempts at social and political reform, such as suffrage, labor unions, etc.

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Perhaps the most famous Realistic writer, Twain is well-known as the author of the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book juxtaposes a vivid portrait of the American landscape with a harsh picture of the social injustices of the Civil War.

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Gilman was a Realist who focused on the thoughts and behavior of people in her works. This is evident in "The Yellow Wallpaper", which follows a young mother's descent into madness. The story highlighted the mundane and domestic life that so many women lived in.

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Norris was not only a Naturalist (realists who also relied on the new sciences), but a muckraker as well. Muckrakers were reform minded journalists in the the Progressive Era that exposed corruption in society. For example, his novel The Octopus: A Story of California describes the devastating effect that the railroad had on farmers and their livelihood.

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Since regionalism focuses on specific features of a particular region, regionalism helps to give that accurate portrayal of actual life. Regionalist writers focuses on texts that concentrate heavily on specific, unique features of a certain region including dialect, customs, tradition, topography, history, and characters.

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Naturalism is the idea or belief that only laws of nature and forces operate the world. It portrayed how environment, heredity, and social conditions control the human being. In naturalism they focus on nature and their outside surroundings. In realism they look for the accurate representation of life and nature is included in life. Naturalism can be used to see if nature and people surrounding environment does affect life. The Naturalist writers believed that larger forces were at work.

Writing was inspired by hardships, whether it was war, the frontier, or urbanization.

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Realism views the world based on scientific knowledge while romanticism views the world using emotion
Realism focuses on portraying the most accurate picture of life while romanticism focuses on people’s emotion or how they feel about life

Realism focuses and tells stories based on real-life situations while romanticism focuses on supernatural or imaginary worlds

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Both realism and romanticism talk about events that may or may have not happened in life. They both talk about serious issues using stories.
Both movements expressed their beliefs using different types of art. Such as paintings or forms of media back in the 19th century.
Both realism and romanticism looked at life itself. Even though one might be more imaginary or real, both movements observed life in their own ways.

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Elements of Literature, edited by Kylene Beers, Carol Jago,

Deborah Appleman, Leila Christenbury, Sara Kajder, Linda Reif, Holt, 2009, pp. 610-611

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Zee, Vander. "Realism, Naturalism, Regionalism, Romanticism." American Literature Education, Word Press, 16 March 2017,
http://blogs.cofc.edu/american-survey/2017/03/16/realism-naturalism-regionalism-romanticism/

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Elements of Literature, edited by Kylene Beers, Carol Jago,

Deborah Appleman, Leila Christenbury, Sara Kajder, Linda Reif, Holt, 2009, pp. 610-612

# data[].attributes.body
Elements of Literature, edited by Kylene Beers, Carol Jago,

Deborah Appleman, Leila Christenbury, Sara Kajder, Linda Reif, Holt, 2009, pp. 609-613