Romantic, Realist, or Naturalist?

Mark Twain’s description of Huckleberry Finn’s drunken and violent father suffering with delirium tremens

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s claim that nature is a path to perfection

Stephen Crane’s claim that the universe is indifferent to the sufferings of mankind--and that individuals are powerless creatures ultimately controlled by fate.

William Wordsworth’s description of nature as “never did betray the heart that loves her”

Theodore Dreiser’s story about George Eastman, a man who attempts to gain money and power, only to suffer a tragic downfall as a result of circumstances

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

“Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; / And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.”

“Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.”

“If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men’s fortunes.”

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

“I took the ax and smashed in the door. I beat it and hacked it considerable a-doing it. I fetched the pig in, and took him back nearly to the table and hacked into his throat with the ax, and laid him down on the ground to bleed . . . .”

“Naw, Ah ain’t no young gal no mo’ but den Ah ain’t no old woman neither. Ah reckon Ah looks mah age too. But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me.”

“The pistol snapped once. Instinctively Janie’s hand flew behind her on the rifle and brought it around. Most likely this would scare him off . . . She broke the rifle deftly and shoved in the shell as the second click told her that Tea Cake’s suffering brain was urging him on to kill.”

“The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”