REALism

The story of the woman, by Katie Chopin, tells of the time when she becomes free. First, from others. Then, by death. "she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature." Chopin exposes a scene of domestic uncertainty and possibly grief, but which turns into a scene of personal liberation. In the late 1800s, women were attached to men. They could not really have independent lives if/when they were young. Chopin was giving a general situation. She was showing us a known-to-be delicate woman. She was showing us worried friends and a death announcement of a husband. But this woman, "whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength," had more in her than was thought. With the death of her husband she could become a human, a woman. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life." It was her springtime then. " The delicious breath of rain was in the air." She felt grief, but rose above in her liberated mind.

Everything in this story is told with a delicate perfection. Each word simple but very representational of the emotions going on. Chopin describes the scene, "the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair," she describes the things going on in the woman's head, the look of her eyes, the rise and fall of her breathing bosom. What could draw one in more? We see natural life, (in the end) natural disappointment, natural grief and natural worry; emotions that we all experience and that we can all relate to. The Realists saw this ability to relate of their readers and decided that this was the way to go. I personally don't know. Although realism is described as being the most realistic, the most life-like, way to write, the writing doesn't even have to describe a scene to be realistic. It has to capture and copy the thoughts, the inner workings, the machines beneath the sidewalk of everyone's mind and relate them to paper. The writer must write in a way that says, "Paper, this is man -- just believe me." And that, is the most realistic realism of all. I think Katie Chopin has this.


Fredrick Douglass and his tale of amazing strife to become a man again and it being almost as good as being free: Douglass was upset about the degradation of the man as a slave, one of the worst things that can happen to men, and he wants to make people see what its like, feel how he felt, understand plantation life like he lived plantation life. "I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died." Douglass had a strong intellectual mind but with the hard work he could no longer think. He barely had time to sleep, nonetheless dream. "Work, work, work was scarcely more the order of the day than of the night." He was a man turned into "a brute".
It seems like heresy against humanity for men to be treated like this. By another man, by a system of life, by machines -- man can do so much better. People reading his words might have been able to understand what this oppression was when they had never experienced it before. The time he spent, the life he didn't have a chance to lead. "I spent this [Sunday] in a sort of beast- like stupor, between sleep and wake, under some large tree." Fredrick Douglass had a high hope for humanity; he had great respect for all people and though he felt weak, he could with an elevated sense of self become free inside, if not on the outside. "He only can understand the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who had himself repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery. I felt as I never felt before. It was a glorious resurrection from the tomb of slavery to the heaven of freedom."
Douglass presents every detail for the reader. His words are straightly set and direct. They are simple enough for any reader, and they are empowering enough, too, for the weary-eyed stranger. He tries to make everything real. Nothing is romantic in his story. He walks his seven miles and is tired at the end of it. He works his 14 hours and his is done when they are done. He sits in stupor beneath the tree like any man would, even now, even today. This is an example of a presentation of events, a plotted (though true) story, that serves as a persuasive piece of writing because of its moral. Which is how most realist writings are; they have their moral that is ingrained into the story as they are naturally ingrained in life that makes the writing seem even more realistic, because it presents one of life's secrets to us, when we've only ever heard it in our minds.


The movie Requiem for a Dream displays a certain profound realism while maintaining a beautiful filming technique, and its impressive. Requiem for a Dream has the same realist style that was above talked about; the life represented is real, but the minds represented ring true as well. It was one of the most desturbing movies I have ever seen but yet it has this truth in it that makes it enticing, alluring, and yet frightening. Movies like this present pieces of life, like the realists of a century ago, that we haven't experienced, or dreamed about living. They are like foreign lands brought much closer, because they include elements of our own lives and attach a different face.