Realanticism

The thing I love most about blogging is it allows me to be myself. I can be honest, and I can write how I want to write. I like to think of myself as a simple person; I am someone who likes to keep things in perspective. Realist writing is very similar to that. I think that is why I relate so easily to it. I like things to be spelled out plain and simple; realist writing definitely follows that format. Realism literature is often compared to photography. When you take a picture you are capturing what is in that moment. It is real life. I think that is what writers who wrote in a realism perspective tried to capture; that essence of this is exactly what it is. There is no flowery way to describe it. It is what it is. 

The thing that becomes interesting with this style of writing is you wouldn't think to pair it with the exact opposite and expect it to work. You'll soon discover you actually can't have one without the other. In Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" we're are thrown into this man's life as he "escapes" his brutal death. The way Bierce captures the middle of a catastrophe for this man is very realist. There is little background about him, and the background is introduced after readers see that picture. The opening statement from Bierce's writing is this "A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below" (1). I have no idea who this man is, why he is looking down to his death, or even what he is doing in northern Alabama, and it doesn't matter. The picture that Bierce took with his opening statement tells me what he sees, and with that what he wants others to see. This picture that Bierce is taking for me allows me into a shot of reality. 

Throughout the rest of the story Bierce transitions into a very flowery or romanticist style of writing. We really get to know the history of this man on Owl Creek Bridge. We really become invested in the story and learn sometimes even more than we want to; however, Bierce's closing statement follows the exact same style as his opening. Bierce writes, "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge" (6). Again, a picture was taken for us. We know more of who this man is because of what we read in the meat of the story. His name is Peyton Farquhar, and we know he is dead. With the first sentence and the last sentence we know all we need to know about the plot of this story. We have a character who goes through a trying time and ends up being unsuccessful in an attempt to save his life.  

This idea that realism captures a picture is something Bierce effectively does. It is a powerful tool. This idea that stating a simple sentence that includes hardly any detail and yet we know all we need to know. That is realism; it is seeing things for what they are. 

In one of our class lectures my professor, Brother Cameron, showed us this picture with this quote by William Dean Howells 

"Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material." 

What does that mean to you? It is a quote that is simple to understand yet you know there is so much more behind it. To me it means that realism writing is real. Make sense? Haha didn't think so! What does it mean to be real? People use the word as if it encompasses every attribute and quality they are or want to have. There is so much that goes into being "real" it is much more than what you portray on the outside, much like realism writing.  When we describe ourselves as being "real" we are limiting ourselves to what we really are and really want to be. 

I find it ironic that Bierce wrote the two of his most realist sentences at the beginning and end of his story, but the inside of his story follows the romanticist style so perfect. Bierce is considered a realist writer but I think he is making a strong argument for what realism actually is. A shell that hides what is really there and what is really happening. Is this a bad thing no, but I think realism and romanticism are often thought of as two separate things; however, you cannot have one without the other.