What Are the Movements in American Literature and How Are They Represented?

Romanticism is a literary movement that occurred in the United Sates from about 1825 to 1865. According to a web site called Early American Romanticism, Romanticism can be defined as:

"Characteristics of the romantic movement in American literature are sentimentalism, primitivism and the cult of the noble savage; political liberalism; the celebration of natural beauty and the simple life; introspection; the idealization of the common man, uncorrupted by civilization; interest in the picturesque past; interest in remote places; antiquarianism; individualism; morbid melancholy; and historical romance." (Early American Romanticism).

To sum this up, the Romantics believed that people were inherently good in their individual ness and the people should be allowed to follow their own hearts. Society became the corrupting forces, and so romantics would escape to nature. Romantics were reacting against the earlier movement in which reason was so important. The Romantics very much favored imagination, creativity, intuition, and emotion over any powers of reason that humans have. Romanticism is actually the first movement in American literature where Americans begin to publish fiction. National characters are created by people like Washington Irving; Poe writes "American" gothic horror stories, and Hawthorne and Melville probe much deeper issues.

"The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne can easily be seen as a Romantic short story. Romanticism stresses belief in man's perfectibility. Parson Hooper wore the veil in order to teach a lesson about secret sin to his congregation. He believed strongly in the "goodness" of his congregation, and he wanted to help them become better people by showing them that everyone has secret sin. As Parson Hooper says on his deathbed, "I look around me, and lo! on every visage a Black Veil" (Hawthorne 251). This quest that Parson Hooper has always tells the reader that he believes in the innate goodness of his congregation. He wants to make them better but tries to do so in rather an obscure way. In other words, the congregation must figure out the message; Parson Hooper will not just hand it to them. Hawthorne was also speaking to Thoreau's idea of the nonconformist through Parson Hooper. Hawthorne wants to emphasize that while following one's one ideas is the desirable, there is also a price to pay. Parson Hooper loses his fiancée Elizabeth and becomes scary to some of his own congregation. Parson Hooper is certainly a character of emotion. He does not sit down and reason out his strategy; he does not provide reasons and proof to his congregation; he simply begins wearing the veil one day. The story begins after Parson Hooper has already put on the veil, but throughout the story, he refuses to explain why he wears it. Introspection is also a characteristic that fits Parson Hooper. Obviously he has undergone a great deal of introspection in order to put the veil on in the first place and justify the reasons why in his own mind.

There are actually three literary movements that happened about the same time, 1865-1880. Those three are realism, regionalism, and naturalism. They all sort of blend together in some ways, but Naturalism itself is by far the most pessimistic and harshest of the three. Naturalists believed that human beings really had no control over themselves, that they were ruled only be genetics, environment, instincts and passion. Attempts at any free will are beyond a human's control. Their view about everything is cold and detached. In some ways, they present "slice of life" stories, meaning they give a completely detached account of a moment or span of time in someone's life. This is where Bret Harte fits in. In "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," Harte presents a "slice of life" in the lives of John Oakhurst, Mother Shipton, and the Duchess. The reader also gets a very different "slice of life" from Tom and Piney. The story takes place in two days, and in these two days, some of the characters are kicked out of town and attempt to make their way to another town. They encounter a snowstorm, and meet Tom and Piney. John Oakhurst kills himself but this group also attempts to save Tom and Piney's lives. In this story, John Oakhurst's philosophy of life could easily be described as fatalistic. For example, he says, "He was too much of a gambler not to accept fate. With him life was at best an uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the dealer" (Harte 341). Another example of this fatalistic view can be found in the fact that John Oakhurst shoots himself rather than waiting to see how his situation plays out. He left a note to explain his viewpoint very clearly. "Beneath this tree lies the body of John Oakhurst, who struck a streak of bad luck on the 23^rd of November, 1850, and handed in his checks on the 7^th of December, 1850" (Harte 348). John Oakhurst knew they would die so rather than waiting, he took his own life. This displays his fatalistic philosophy. Of course, the ending of the story is pretty fatalistic as well, since almost everyone dies.

Regionalism better describes Bret Harte, as he is concerned with writing about a particular "region" of the country; his is the Wild West with dialect included. His desire is to preserve the climate of the Wild West, which would soon be lost due to industrialization. "Unlike realism, which focuses on literary technique, naturalism implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts," characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings." The characters in this story can be seen as beasts, as a secret committee has been formed to rid the town of improper influences.

From the research I did, it sounds like "To Build a Fire" by Jack London would be an even better story to present Naturalism. It is about a guy who sets off by himself in Alaska to get to camp. The man's life is controlled by forces outside his control, like Nature. He is inexperienced and just has everything working against him. Eventually he makes a mistake by not starting a fire right away when he sits down for lunch. By the time he tries to start it, he is too cold. And nature ends up ruining him as he slowly dies of hypothermia. Nature is a fatalistic force in the young man's life.

Modern literature is defined by Ezra Pound's statement "Make it new" as a response to the social breakdown that began to occur after World War I. Literature begins to become fragmented, just like life. These authors write in a very detached fashion about alienation and loneliness and the inability to act. The structure is more undefined than previous literary movements and many of these pieces are told in flashbacks. Plot is de-emphasized, but psychology is much emphasized. In many cases, the reader tries to get into the character's brain. There are no real answers or morals provided in the literature, but characters are asking themselves these questions. Ultimately, the question is "Who Am I?" in the modern world.

Fitzgerald's "The Baby Party" is a great example of modern literature in that it describes the inability of humans to function together or get along. "There's the door, get out-I never want to see you in our house again. You or your brat either" (555). These are the words spoken between adults at this children's' party. Fitzgerald also makes use of the technique of flashback, which is popular in Modern Literature. Sanford Pinsker in Explicator calls these parents "baby-adults" (Pinsker 53). Pinsker goes on to talk about the materialistic, bad behavior shown by the adults. "It is hardly surprising that mother and daughter share the same name or that the baby party itself is portrayed as a thinly disguised narcissistic war" (Pinsker 53). Modern literature, many times, shows the carelessness of people with wealth flaunting their money and the superficiality of the modern society. These characteristics can easily be seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Baby Party."

Obviously all of these are examples of movements that occurred in American literature and are reactions to the time periods that these authors were living in. They are reactions for or against something. In the case of Romanticism, the Romantics reacted against the previous Age of Reason. They reacted against authors like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson who believed that everything could be reasoned or thought out. The Romantics believed that our hearts or emotions should be the most important thing in guiding our lives. They believed in individual free spirit and the power of Nature. In the case of naturalism, these authors reacted against the Romantics. They also reacted to the scientific ideas of social Darwinism, and the fact that America was becoming larger and larger. In big cities, people were getting more and more disconnected. According to the naturalists, it was foolish to believe that we have control over our lives; we might as well just admit that there is no free will. Our lives are solely controlled by forces outside our control Now, in modernism, authors were really reacting to the increase in population and the terrifying changes that were taking place-the growth of cities, the two world wars, the Great Depression, the problems in race relations (like the Jim Crow laws of the South). They were disillusioned with the state of modern life and wanted to rely on the past not at all. Their motto became "Make it new." They began to create a new literature reflecting the society that they saw. They believed we are all disconnected and alienated from one another. Their characters reflect this in their alienation from each other. Plot becomes less important, but dialogue becomes very important. They basically show us the sad state of the world we live in. All of these authors believed very strongly in what American literature should be; they just had many different ideas.

In conclusion, all of these movements contributed to the field of American literature as well as these authors. Studying the literary movements helps the reader to understand the story and put it within the context it was written. It is interesting to understand these movements and try to figure out where we are today, or if people will be analyzing our stories one-hundred years from now. I'm not sure we have the kind of characteristics that are easily identified like generations past did. All three stories are very different and yet contribute greatly to American literature. Personally, I like Bret Harte the best as he seems the most straightforward without much to analyze.

Works Cited

Early American Romanticism. http://www.honors.uiuc.edu/eng255/lectures/12-13.html

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "The Baby Party." Adventures in American Literature. New York:

Harcourt, 1968.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Adventures in American Literature.

New York: Harcourt, 1968.

Harte, Bret. "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." Adventures in American Literature. New

York: Harcourt, 1968.

Pinsker, Sanford. Fitzgerald's The Baby Party. Explicator 45. (1987): 52-55.

Naturalism in American Literature http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.htm