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Realism and romanticism
Essays about the spanish american war
Essays about the spanish american war
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For many, war has quite an ugly face, yet there are those who seem to view war through rose petal spectacles, hear of its successes in lullabies and speak of its necessity with words dripping with honey. During the eighteenth century, a burgeoning art of literature took hold on the populace, it colored reality in such a manner that one would “fall in love” with it – Romanticism, a term loosely applied to literary and artistic movements of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, Romanticism is:
A literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms.
During the time period that Ambrose Bierce and William Dean Howells lived, war was a part of life. Both the US Civil War and the Spanish –American War were realities they had to deal with and as realists they set out to highlight the truths of warfare. Their disillusionment with the romanticism’s approach about war in literature was expressed in their popular works, “Chickamauga” and “Editha”. Both authors use the “strong” points of romanticism against itself, the usage of symbolism, along with the role of gender are replete throughout the two short stories.
In his book The Ethics of Moral Resistance: Ambrose Bierce and General William B. Haze; author Peter J. Marrone, states “[…] Bierce’s primary intention in compos...
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...course And Chickamauga."
Explicator 67.3 (2009): 227. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
Harris, Susan K. "Vicious Binaries: Gender And Authorial Paranoia In Dreiser's `Second
Choice,' Howells' `Editha,'.." College Literature 20.2 (1993): 70. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Johnston, Christopher F. "'A Man, So Very Nearly Perfect': William Dean Howells'
'Editha', The Spanish American War, And American Masculinity In The Late Nineteenth Century." Journal Of War & Culture Studies 5.3 (2012): 249. Supplemental Index. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
Morrone, Peter J. "The Ethics Of Moral Resistance: Ambrose Bierce And General William
B. Hazen." Midwest Quarterly 54.4 (2013): 399-413. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
"Romanticism." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
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Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. 348-350. Print.
Robbins, Sarah. "Gendering the History of the Antislavery Narrative: Juxtaposing Uncle Tom's Cabin and Benito Cereno, Beloved and Middle Passage" American Quarterly 49.3 (1997): 531-73. JSTOR. Web. 24 Nov. 2012.
Ambrose Bierce wrote short stories based on his personal experiences and observations during the American Civil War. Although it looks like Bierce’s stories are about bravery and nobility of war, in reality Bierce sends a message to his readers about the cruelty of war through different points. In each story, Bierce writes about bravery and nobility of his character but actually exposes his or her personality flaw by use of gallows humor. One of Bierce’s stories “Killed at Resaca” (Bierce 63-68) clearly shows the personality flaw, selfishness, of the main character Lieutenant Herman Brayle.
For many, saying or hearing the word romanticism evokes numerous stereotypical and prejudged definitions and emotions. The biggest reason this probably happens is because of how closely romanticism sounds like romance. The similarity of the sounds and spelling of the two words can lead to some thinking that the two words mean the same thing or are closely related. Although romanticism and romance do share some similarities in their spelling and pronunciation they couldn’t be more different. In the Merriam Webster Dictionary romance is defined as, “a love story”. The Romantic Period was not necessarily a time of true romance and love stories, although love was written about, but was instead a time of extreme emotion expressed in many different ways. One of the many ways emotion was expressed was through the use of supernatural and gothic literature and a lot of it contained horrific subject matter for the time it was written, making it anything but romantic. Expressions of thought and emotion were shown through horror and the supernatural just as much as emotion was expressed through love and romance. Many of the authors during the Romantic period submitted works, “dealing with the supernatural, the weird, and the horrible” (Britannica Online Encyclopedia). In many ways, gothic tales of horror and suspense defined the Romantic period just as much as any other type of literature at the time.
At the start of the Spanish American War, the U.S. army was strong, however, not as strong as some had hoped. By the end of the war, the army was very strong and successful due to the rise of jingoism in the American citizens. The press influenced society through its underlying message of jingoism. Many people joined the army because of their nationalism and loyalty to their country. “The Spanish American War sparked unprecedented levels of patriotism and confidence” in the American people (“The Film” par. 1). Engaging in this war resulted in a jingoistic society, which was different than years prior. This extreme patriotism united the nation and created a hunger for success as a nation. The institution of jingoism in the lives of the American people was a crucial social modification that stemmed from the Spanish American
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine, eds. The Norton Anthology: American Literature. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. Print.
Juliana Barr’s book, Peace Came in the Form of a Women: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. Dr. Barr, professor of history at Duke University-specializes in women’s role in American history. Peace Came in the Form of A Women, is an examination on the role of gender and kinship in the Texas territory during the colonial period. An important part of her book is Spanish settlers and slavery in their relationship with Natives in the region. Even though her book clearly places political, economic, and military power in the hands of Natives in the Texas borderland, her book details Spanish attempts to wrestle that power away from indigenous people through forced captivity of native women. For example, Dr, Barr wrote, “In varying diplomatic strategies, women were sometimes pawns, sometimes agents.” To put it another way, women were an important part of Apache, Wichita, and Comanche culture and Spanish settlers attempted to exploit
Romanticism was an artistic and philosophical time period that occurred in Europe during the late 18th century. Many forms of art were introduced at this time, as were forms of poetry and unorthodox ideals coming from the creators of these pieces. The poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, and Keats all shared aspects of nature and their personal emotions displayed through literary allusions. They break away from social norms, and even artistic norms, which was the aim of the artists during this part of literary history.
Romanticism was a movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in revolt against the Neoclassicism of the previous centuries. The romanticism movement in literature consists of a few of the following characteristics: intuition over fact, imagination over fact, and the stretch and alteration of the truth. The death of a protagonist may be prolonged and/or exaggerated, but the main point was to signify the struggle of the individual trying to break free, which was shown in “The Fall of the House Usher” (Prentice Hall Literature 322).
Hopkins, Ernest Jerome. The complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce. Nebraska: University of Nebraska, 1970. 305-319. Print.
William Dean Howells' opinion of romanticism is his novel "Editha" by having the character of Editha symbolize his views on romanticism. When George announces that there is war, Editha surprises her lover and audience by saying "how glorious." She romanticizes the war by calling "any war glorious that is for the liberation of the people who have been struggling for years against the cruelest oppression." It's hard to figure out if Editha truly loves George, or if she is overtaken by the thought of having someone heroic to love. One of the ways Editha views life is that to have good things one must prove himself or herself worthy of it, for instance her love. In the story when she's thinking about George, she says George, "had simply asked for her love... and she gave her love... but if he could do something worthy to have her, be her hero- it would be grander." What better way to prove his love to Editha by doing something he was not favorable towards for Editha's sake and allowing himself named captain of Company A for her amusement. Her true feelings for George come to light when she writes him a goodbye letter saying why she was breaking her engagement with him since the man she marries "must love his country first." She wrote that letter as soon as he left, it's quite unfair and she even realizes it yet still writes it to satisfy herself. Even when he enlisted, she knew that he was not for him but for her. Editha noticed he became a different person after enlisting, " he made her feel as if she had lost her old lover and found a stranger in his place," if she had truly loved him she would not have felt giddy at the thought of kissing a stranger after losing her true love.
William Dean Howells was an advocate of realism in writing; he believed that literary art should reflect the reality of the common man and demonstrate the truth of everyday current issues. He believed in truthful writing and he accepted very little at face value. He practiced this belief in his own writing, and his story called “Editha” is a good example of this. In this ironic tragedy, W.D. Howells shows the truth and nature of war. He uses a combination of metaphoric characters, irony, and the pathos appeal to create an almost grotesque parody of the reality of war. In final analysis, Howells is successful in highlighting the consequences of war and inspiring the audience to question the wisdom of those who advocate armed conflict.
Romanticism is basically an ideal world of freedom and a revolt against the reason, judgment, and ideals imposed on one by society. It is a “philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world” (“Romanticism”). The origins of Romanticism date back to the late 1700s. During
Romanticism does not mean laying dreamy-eyed in a field graced with flowers bathed in sunlight. It doesn’t actually refer to romance at it. The movement was about intense personal expression. It signifies a staunch individualist, conveying deep and often uplifting emotions, such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony that marked the start of the Romantic era in music (Wilder). Penetrating boundaries was an honorable ambition shared by the inventor...