Following the Civil War, American Literature entered into the Realistic Period

. 1865-1900 The major form of literature produced in this era was realistic fiction. Unlike
romantic fiction, realistic fiction aims to represent life as it really is and make the reader
believe that the characters actually might exist and the situations might actually happen. In
order to have this effect on the reader, realistic fiction focuses on the ordinary and
commonplace. The major writers of the Realistic Period include Mark Twain, Henry James,
Bret Harte, and Kate Chopin.
Mark Twain (1835–1910) Mark Twain is known as one of America’s leading realists, native humorists, and
local colorists. He was a master in the use of folklore, psychological realism, and dialects. Born Samuel
Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, he died of heart disease in the city he had
long made his home, Hartford, Connecticut, on April 21, 1910. Twain produced not one but several classics,
including what some
believe to be the greatest American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), a picaresque and
satirical Bildungsroman. Probably more than any other writer, Mark Twain provided a uniquely American,
and usually comic,
portrayal of the Bildungsroman hero. Sadly, Twain’s satire became bitter as his personal tragedies and
financial reverses led to the disillusionment and depression that cloud his later writings.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was
published in 1884 in England and Canada and in the United States a few months later, in 1885. Like the
Bildungsroman hero,
Huck leaves home to find an independent life, has a surrogate father in Jim, is in conflict with his society,
and reaches maturity when he repents his treatment of Jim and puts fairness and friendship over expected
behavior. Though considered by some to be a masterpiece of American literature, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn initially scandalized reviewers and parents who thought it would corrupt young children
with its depiction of a hero who lies, steals, and uses coarse language. In the last half of the twentieth
century, the condemnation of the book continued on the grounds that its portrayal of Jim and use of the word
‘‘nigger’’ are racist. While some justify the book as a documentation of the racial notions prevalent at the
time of its writing, the novel continues to appear on some lists of books banned in schools across the United
States.