Realism

1) A story of an hour responses

a. This story is very descriptive of its character's feelings and surroundings, this is obviously a hallmark of realism. the story itself is very short and only spans a period of an hour, evidenced by the title. In a description of the scenery outside of a window, the author states, " There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window." while this is a short passage it still goes into great detail about the vista outside. there are many examples of this type of writing, it really gives you a sense of being there.
b. This story really deals with the feelings of women and their relationship to their husband in a time where women weren't allowed nearly as much independence as they are now. the story speaks of the sadness of loss but the happiness that can ensue with newfound independence. the woman in the story was wrought with grief for her deceased husband, for she did love him. later she realizes that she is now free from the influencing grip of a dominant husband, letting her be free to do what she pleases. she realizes that she can be happy without a male companion, even today many people think they cannot be happy without a romantically loving companion. People aren't comfortable with themselves and they think they need someone else to validate their interests and beliefs.

2) Battle with Mr. Covey responses

a. This story is an excellent example of realism, all of the details are described without any ambiguity or frills. Frederick Douglass was a truly amazing individual, he managed to escape slavery and educate himself sufficiently to earn enough money to buy his own freedom. This story deals with his early enslavement by a man named Mr. Covey. Mr. Covey was a well known slave breaker, he would break the slave's spirit so he could control the slaves. Douglass was still young, only 16 years old, and still had a sense of self esteem. in describing his trek through the woods in order to get to Mr. Covey's superior he states, "After lying there about three quarters of an hour, I nerved myself up again, and started on my way, through bogs and briers, barefooted and bareheaded, tearing my feet sometimes at nearly every step; and after a journey of about seven miles, occupying some five hours to perform it, I arrived at master's store." you can see in his writing a general description of events without a cloud of feelings surrounding the situation so the reader can make his own judgments about things instead of having the narrator describe everything for them.

b. Frederick Douglass does an excellent job at using unambiguous language in order to get his point across, he describes a situation and lets the reader interpret it without forcing a certain view on the reader. in this story he never outright states that slavery is an awful institution that should be abolished, instead just opting to tell a story about his own experiences. I really like this story if only because of this open ended morality. it also does an excellent job of showing you the wrong things about a certain situation with factual, anecdotal, evidence.

3) the show Planet Earth is a very good example of realism, it shows many of the different ecosystems on the earth in a fantastic documentarian style, with many time lapse photography shots and very clear imagery. the show truly embraces the realistic element, also airing in high definition for an amazing picture of our earth and its inhabitants. the narrator simply explains that which is happening on screen without letting political or other tertiary intrests get in the way.