JE62 Romantics vs Realists

            During the Romantic period, writers usually wrote about stories happened in the nature. They valued intuition over logic. They believed that each person could find the Divine Soul in nature. They reject civilization and encourage people to stay true to themselves. In the Realistic period, however, the situation is totally the opposite. Writers began to realize the cruel world and valued logic and civilization. In the story, “A Mystery of Heroism”, the main character actually trusted his intuition and risked his life to get the water. As expected to get the cheer and praise from others, he spilled the water as the “heroism” was ruined. I think the writer was trying to attack the Romantic writers that their ideas would fail and being realistic is a more practical attitude of life. In the novel, “The Red Badge of Courage”, Henry Fleming believed in his intuition at first, when he signed up for the battle. However, he totally regretted afterwards and stopped trusting his instincts. He started to value himself and thought about his why his actions were taken place. Eventually, he was converted from being a Romantics to a Realist. We could tell by his growth throughout the novel and how he learned his lessons from his battle and his logic.