Realism, Naturalism & Regionalism (1865-1914) As America suffered from growing pains, this movement was marked by feelings of disillusionment. Familiar subjects included ghettos of rapidly growing cities, the Industrial Revolution, and corrupt politicians. Authors focused on painting a realistic setting of everyday life and ordinary people, including local color, while also seeking to explain human behavior. Modernism (1914-1925) Modernism began as an extension of realism, but made efforts to break with literary and poetic traditions. Authors of this era were bold and experimental in style; an example of this being the stream of consciousness. Commonly dealing with the struggles of individuals, modernist literature can seem bleak, but is characterized by the optimistic belief that people can change the world around them. After reviewing the descriptions of the literary movements above, choose two selections, one from 1865-1914 and one from 1914-1925, and explain how these works perfectly represent their respective literary movement.