Which movement focuses on the unembellished depiction of ordinary life?

• A. Romanticism
• B. Realism
• C. Modernism
• D. Dystopia

Answer: (B)

Realism centers on portraying everyday life as it is, without glamour or exaggeration. It aims for objectivity and detailed observation, focusing on ordinary people in ordinary settings and the social realities they navigate. The language tends to be clear and precise, capturing common speech and real-life situations rather than heroic or fantastical moments. This approach often highlights everyday struggles, class dynamics, and moral ambiguities, inviting readers to see life as it truly is rather than as they wish it to be. Writers such as Gustave Flaubert, Mark Twain, and Anton Chekhov exemplify this focus on the unembellished, familiar world.

Romanticism, by contrast, emphasizes emotion, imagination, and grand or exotic subjects, not the plainness of daily life. Modernism experiments with form and perspective, often disrupting traditional structures. Dystopia describes imagined, often oppressive societies, typically within speculative fiction.