Aaliyah Bryant

ENG 313
Midterm Exam
The story I chose for American Realism is “An Unnatural Mother” by Charlotte Perkins

Gillman. This story incorporates two traits of realism: avoidance of sentimentalism and authentic

social detail. The avoidance of sentimentalism, which is not sugarcoating life, comes in when it

mentions the death of eight children belonging to Miss Briggs. Around that time period, there

was a high mortality rate in infants and this part of the story alludes to that. It states, “And the

poor old eyes filled with tears as she thought of the eight little graves in the churchyard, which

she never failed to keep looking pretty, even now.” (104). The context of this quote is Miss

Briggs is judging the condemned heroine, Esther Greenwood, for not doing enough to make her

child look “presentable” but explained how she always made her children look “pretty” (104)

even after they died. Another trait of realism in this story is authentic social detail. The mothers

talked about their lifestyle growing up and how it has never been a problem to them. However,

they judged anyone that was different like Esther and her family. For example, Miss Jacobs says,

“‘…She followed him around everywhere. And for open lovemaking----’ They all showed deep

disapproval at this memory.” (103). The “open lovemaking” in this quote most likely refers to

public display affection (PDA). In this time period, that was seen as highly inappropriate which

is why the mothers disapproved of Esther not following their traditional ways. However, Esther

did not care and continued to break tradition in many other ways.

The poem I chose for Victorian literature is “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Victorian literature is the opposite of American Realism as it goes idealization and romanticism.

A trait of Victorian literature that this poem uses well is a poetry of mood. The mood in this

poem is thankfulness. The speaker begins the poem with, “Glory be to God for dappled things--”
(line 1). Usually when one glorifies God, they are thankful. This being the first line in the poem

highlights the importance of how thankful the narrator to the point when they praise the Lord.

Another trait in Victorian literature that this poem emphasizes is the use of pictorial imagery.

Throughout this poem, there are strong uses in imagery especially when it comes to colors.

Hence the name, “Pied Beauty” which means multicolored beauty. The lines that really highlight

this multicolored beauty say, “For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow;/ For rose-moles all in

stipple upon trout that swim;/ Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches wings;” (lines 2-4). These

three lines show the emphasis of color on this poem with it words. Brinded means streaked or

spotted, stipple means rose color dots or flecks, and line about chestnuts compares them to red

burning coal. To combine the mood and the imagery altogether in this poem, you get someone

who is thankful for the experience of colors.

The final story I chose is “A Deal in Wheat” by Frank Norris in the category of American

Naturalism. American Naturalism shows determining themes like life as a battle for survival and

nature as an indifferent force. “A Deal in Wheat” is a battle and competition to survive in the

wheat industry. A trait of Naturalism is a challenging setting. This story incorporates this trait

into the chapter of the bread line. The scene was described as “There was something ominous

and gravely impressive in this interminable line of dark figures, close-pressed, soundless; a

crowd, yet absolutely still; a close-packed, silent file, waiting, waiting in the vast deserted night-

ridden street; waiting without a word, without a movement, there under the night and under the

slow-moving mists of rain.” (7). The reason why this would be considered a challenging setting

because it’s all these people who have a hard time with finding jobs and surviving in this

industrial climate to the point where they all are packed in this line waiting for their chance to

finally get something to eat. Another trait of Naturalism that is incorporated into this story is that
the character is limited by circumstance. An example of this is how Sam Lewiston is limited to

sell his wheat at sixty-two cents a bushel. He explains, “‘That—that ruins me. I can't carry my

grain any longer—what with storage charges and—and—Bridges, I don't see just how I'm going

to make out. Sixty-two cents a bushel! Why, man, what with this and with that it's cost me nearly

a dollar a bushel to raise that wheat…’” (2). This shows that he’s limited to sell his wheat lower

cost than to raise it. It limits him because he wasn’t making enough money and was forced to get

another job.