English 11H

Name __________________________________
Date ______________
period

Review Sheet for Civil War/Realism/Naturalism

The test will be identifying the title, author and literary term (in bold print on this sheet)
associated with the passages we have read. There will be no key with names, titles and literary
terms.
Civil War Author

Walt Whitman-“The Good Gray Poet”-shows the transition in national sentiment and literature,
which occurred from 1855-1865.
 “Song of Myself” 1855-written before the Civil War-was a very Transcendental
poem, full of optimism, oneness with the Oversoul, and self-centeredness, much
praised by Emerson, a representation of “free verse”
 “Beat! Beat! Drums!”-1861-after the defeat of the Union Army at Bull Run. War
has jarred the tranquil world of Whitman, and his poem smacks of Realism.
 “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”-1865- elegy mourning the death of
Abraham Lincoln, and a symbol of the mournful tone of the Nation at the end of
the Civil War.

Negro Spirituals, which combine African tunes and Biblical themes, and were sung in the fields
at the command of the overseers, express the wish of the slaves for freedom:
 “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
 “Go Down, Moses”

Frederick Douglass: My Bondage and My Freedom, an excerpt from his autobiography, which
tells of his life as a slave boy who wants to learn to learn to read and to be free.

Mary Chestnut: Mary Chestnut’s Civil War-Journal-describing the events of the Civil War. . .in
this particular passage, the events leading up to the Battle of Fort Sumter, which sparked the
beginning of the Civil.

Abraham Lincoln:
 “The Gettysburg Address”-a short speech to dedicate the battlefield at Gettysburg
and to urge men to finish the war and win equality for all men in light of the great
sacrifices of the men who had there fallen. It followed a two-hour speech by
Edward Everett, which no one remembers.
 “Letter to Mrs. Bixby”-a personal letter to a woman who lost five sons in the Civil
War, expressing his sorrow at her loss.

Robert E. Lee: “Letter to His Son” expresses Lee’s concern for the state of the dissolving Union
as Southern states secede, and his reluctance to enter a war. Ultimately, his loyalty to Virginia
places him in the Confederate Army.

Chief Joseph: “I Will Fight No More Forever”

Mrs. DeMeritt ~ English 11H

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 English 11H
Realism

Realism sprang up after the Civil War as a revolt against Romanticism. It was characterized by
the following:
 the examination of the details of ordinary life in “a slice of life”
 a factual description of reality much like a scientific examination
 a focus on the unhappy subjects such as urban slums, unhealthy factory
conditions, bosses, politicians, gunfighters, etc.
 a vacuum where moral values ought to be. . science cannot supply these and there
is no God in this system to provide man with guiding principles.

Stephen Crane:
 “War is Kind” (verbal irony) He contrasts the views of the Romantic and the
Realist concerning war.
 “Think as I Think”-a declaration of free thought

Ambrose Bierce: “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” shows in great detail some very
unpleasant circumstances and then ends in the death of a man when the Romantic would have
delivered him home safely to his wife and children.

Kate Chopin: “The Story of an Hour”-situational irony- Mrs. Mallard grieves, rejoices and
unexpectedly dies all in the space of an hour.

Edwin Arlington Robinson:

 “Luke Havergal”
 “Richard Cory” (situational irony)
 “Miniver Cheevy”

Edgar Lee Masters: Wrote Spoon River Anthology, a series of epitaphs describing the ordinary
lives of many people in the mythical Spoon River Cemetery.
 “Lucinda Matlock” represents Master’s grandmother
 “Fiddler Jones” is a musician/farmer who is drawn by his talent to play the fiddle
and neglects his duties as a farmer.

Regionalism

Regionalism: use of regional dialect and vivid description of landscape to capture the essence of
life in various regions of the growing nation.

Mark Twain: “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”: shows the local color of the
Gold Country in California in 1865. By focusing on subjects from the West, Twain was able to
divert people’s minds from the unhappy subjects of the Civil War and promote the healing of the
Nation.

Bret Harte: “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”-gives a picture of the lawless culture in the gold towns
of California and a character sketch of the people who populated them.

Mrs. DeMeritt ~ English 11H

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 English 11H
Naturalism

Naturalism: a major literary movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
which was precipitated by Darwin’s Origin of the Species. The Naturalists believed that a
person’s fate was determined by environment, heredity and chance. Naturalistic writers often
depicted characters whose lives were shaped by the forces of nature and society.

Jack London: “To Build a Fire”: A man foolishly underestimates the power of nature and
perishes. His dog, which is a part of nature, survives.

Stephen Crane: “The Open Boat”-People are at the mercy of nature, which takes the life of the
oiler and allows the rest of the less fit men to live. Fate has her way, and no one can resist her.

Mrs. DeMeritt ~ English 11H

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