Module 7: Realism in the Family

As you have seen in this module, the Civil War, western expansion, and industrialization brought a sense of loss for many Americans. This nation lost its innocence, and a literary shift from idealism to pragmatism changed American character. Writers and the society they represented rejected Romanticism and embraced Realism. Everywhere in this nation, people struggled to find their place in life and to better it. The American dream had never been so evident before, whether it was due to gains or to loss. Society was shifting into the future, into the place that we know today. It was a new world in which new concepts like technology, psychology, and democratic capitalism colored everything.

Contemporary literature grew from the pragmatic need to express the struggles and richness of real life that was embraced in the Realistic movement. Realist writers hailed from all over this nation and from every walk of life. This same diversity is reflected in the regional styles and ordinary struggles of everyday Americans still seen in the contemporary literature of today.

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