The Rise Of Silas Lapham Analysis

How does William Dean Howells convey his work as an American Realist writer? American realism writers demonstrated realism in a variety of ways; by the life experiences they had and how they dealt with current social, personal, and economic issues. William Dean Howells was an American Realist writer that wrote about plausible problems that reflected actual issues that occurred at the present time. Labor problems, such as the Haymarket Incident: the wrongful persecution of radicals in 1887, were pivotal roles that gradually characterized Howells realism as well as economic issues. Another factor that affected the economy, which brought about the author’s evidence of realism, was the post-Civil War. Howells wanted to show a “clear vision of joys

Furthermore, reactions between people and society were being explored and seen in this novel, which involved the life of a family and the long-established role of women. Characteristics of realism also appear, since the characters are the focal point and with greater attention rather than action and plot. “There is only one Bartley Hubbard, and he appears…in the pages of a remarkable novel that opened the way to Dreiser and to all those other realists” (Wright, 182). Howells’s best-known work, The Rise of Silas Lapham, showed a realism characteristic that upheld the anti-romantic stance that Howells presented. This passage “does not preclude realistic presentation…but implies the extent to which Howells’s Realism was not only the exemplification of a mode, but also an obvious and conscious protest” (Foster, 168). As shown, the novel’s character expresses romanticism, through a novel that they had read and how she experienced a “romantic crisis function” but the character still maintained their realist perception. According to Georg Arms, the author gives the readers more insight on the character than offering “something that will more seriously occupy