Realism:

Realism incorporates many aspects of life so the reader is easily able to relate
to the characters and events. Social class is very important within this period of
writing. The characters are more important than any other aspect of the story,
without a well developed and accurate character the story will fall apart.
Realism writing does not include any type of poetic vocabulary. The vocabulary
used in realism writing is "normal speech", terms that people use every day
that may not be proper English but a accepted among impersonal
conversations. During the time period that this style of writing thrived America
was growing and changing as a nation, this provided the perfect habitat for
realism writing to flourish.
Huckleberry Finn:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about a neglected young teenage boy.
His name is Huck Finn. His father is a mean drunk. The book begins in St.
Peters Missouri where his father and he both live.
Twain's literary reputation rests most particularly on The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. In its hero, a resourceful, unconventional boy with an innate
sense of human values, Twain created one of the most memorable characters
in fiction. The narrative device of a raft carrying Huck and a runaway slave
down the Mississippi enabled Twain to achieve a realistic portrait of American
life in the 19th cent. Through his use of authentic vernacular speech he
revolutionized the language of American fiction and exerted a great influence
on many subsequent American writers. In 1990 a handwritten manuscript of
the first half of the novel was discovered that includes a number of minor
changes and an episode that was left out of the original published version;
these passages were included in an edition published in 1996.
Tom Sawyer:
Twain based The Adventures of Tom Sawyer largely on his personal memories
of growing up in Hannibal in the 1840s. In his preface to the novel, he states
that most ost of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred and that
the character of Tom Sawyer has a basis in a combination of three boys whom
I knew. Indeed, nearly every figure in the novel comes from the young Twains
village experience.
The Celebrated Jumpig Frog of Calaveras County:
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is an 1865 short story
by Mark Twain. It was his first great success as a writer and brought him
national attention. The story has also been published as "Jim Smiley and His
Jumping Frog" (its original title) and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County". In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a
bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California,
about the gambler Jim Smiley.