Chapter5Realism大4美国文学课件.pptVIP

Chapter 5;1. Social Background;In post-bellum America, commerce took the lead in the national economy. Increasing industrialization and mechanization of the country, now in full swing after the war, soon produced extremes of wealth and poverty. Wealth and power were more and more concentrated in the hands of the few. In the meantime, life for the millions was fast becoming a veritable struggle for survival. ;The worth of the American dream, the idealized, romantic view of man and his life in the New World, began to lose its hold on the imagination of the people. Beneath the glittering surface