Modernism and Realism

Modernism and realism are the two theories that were intensely reflected in literature during the time the philosophies were at their maximum. The greatest significant variance in the middle of modernism and realism is that the two have dissimilar thought patterns which have clash between the deep-rooted modern standards, beliefs and the new rational, logical views. Modernism was revolutionary because it contested the subjects that hindered a person progress. Modernism challenged realism, as it focused on inner self-consciousness and the power of scientific experimentation to challenge and consequently change reality (Campbell, 2009).

Realism began in France and headed modernism with the belief that the main thought was that the reality in the ordinary life is the ultimate truth. The period 1860 - 1900 was known as the realism period in literature. In realism, that preceded modernism, the main thought was that the reality in the ordinary life is the ultimate truth. It generally allocated with ordinary lives of the average people. It emphasis on the quality of person's life, his daily tasks and that is why, in realism, the character is always more important than the plot.

In American literature, the term "realism" encompasses the period of time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, Mark Twain, and others wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts. As the United States grew rapidly after the Civil War, the increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the rapid growth in industrialism and urbanization, an expanding population base due to immigration, and a relative rise in middle-class affluence provided a fertile literary environment for readers interested in understanding these rapid shifts in culture. In drawing attention to this connection, Amy Kaplan has called realism a "strategy for imagining and managing the threats of social change,"(Campbell, 2009).

A break from Romanticism, Realism is any effort to portray life as it truly is. In the middle of the 19th century, kings and queens, warriors and knights, demonic cats, ghosts, sea creatures, and monsters gave way to farmers, merchants, lawyers, laborers, and bakers. Realism in literature was part of a wider movement in the arts to focus on ordinary people and events (Finocchio, 2004).

Modernism rejected the