African American Identity

African American Identity

Christopher Washington

ENG/429CA

Karina Culburtson

Introduction

The gilded age was a time of extreme change especially for those of African American decent. The gilded age took place between the years of 1865-1912 and was coined by the famous Mark Twain. Twain referred to the era as the gilded age because there were very serious social problems that were masked by thin gold gilding or coat. One of those serious problems was the racism being shown towards the newly freed African Americans. In the year of 1865 African Americans were given the freedom of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment. However just because African Americans were free of slavery does not mean they were free from racism. The African American civil rights movement took place during the gilded age and was the post-Civil war reform movement that aimed to eliminate racial discrimination, improve educational and employment opportunities, and allow African Americans to establish electoral power. It was serious issues such as this that fueled writers such as Mark Twain, Henry James, and William Dean Howells. The authors of the gilded age used styles such as realism to illustrate the social and economic issues of their time.

Identity

        Authors such as Mark Twain used their novels to illustrate society’s problems. They use a form of writing that is called Realism. Realism is tied to social reform and has an emphasis on everyday experience. Realism was the best form of writing to illustrate social issues because it deal with everyday people and focused on the characters over the plot. Novels such as The Adventures of Tom Sayer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn did a great job portraying what it was like to be a teenager and be surrounded by issues such as slavery.  These novels were impactful because the people who read them at the time were able to relate and the people who read them now get a first-hand look at the social issues of the time. Novels such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were so real that it caused a great amount of controversy. Some felt that the masses were not ready for such reality even though they were surrounded by it every day. Twain kept certain dialect in the book that was used at the time the story took place which also caused great uproar. Keeping the dialect of the era and illustrating real situations that took place upheld the integrity of the novel. The integrity being upheld was important for the identity of the novels and social issues of the era.

Realism vs. Romanticism

        Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that started towards the end of the 18th century around time of 1800-1850. This form of literary art that was more focused on nature and the authors feelings. This form of art mainly stayed away from social topics and real events. Realism as stated before focuses on the common man and social issues that are happening during the era in which the piece of literature takes place.   In romanticism characters are generally larger than life and the plot contains unusual events with a large adventure. Stories written in the form of romanticism are usual written in a formal for with inflated words and have a happy ending.  Realism stories usually contain ordinary speech or the dialect that was used in the era being written about and may have an unhappy ending. With this comparison it is easy to see why authors during the gilded age generally wrote their novels using realism to try and highlight the some of the many social and economic issues of the time. Using romanticism it would have been difficult to try and portray issues because it is such an optimistic way of writing. It was easier for authors such as Twain to present issues such as the racism that was going on that maybe some people of the time choose to ignore.