"Letter To His Family"

The General of the Confederate Army in the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, is the author of what we call "Letter to his Family". Even though a lot people today see Lee as being the enemy because of his role in the Civil War, he was actually quite a respectable name, and was also rather intelligent as well. A part of Realism is realizing the "American Dream" and trying to carry it out as realistically as is possible. In his letter, Robert E. Lee sees what is happening the country and is very upset about what was going on. The division of the country was a very large emotional burden as well as a physical one, and many people had to carry that burden. Robert E. Lee was just like any other person in the sense that he too was shaken by the division of the country even though he was on the side that left the union (Lee). Because this letter was written before the Civil War, Robert E. Lee obviously did not know the outcome, but he still thought that the most important thing was the American Dream, and a part of that was for the country to be united (Lee).

Like many of the stories, speeches, and songs we have read for this project, there were subtle connections to Naturalism, Realism, and Regionalism in the letter written by Robert E. Lee to his family. First off, the letter had evidence of Naturalism because of the implications Lee makes about human nature and how he thought that the inevitable (war) would happen no matter (Campbell "Naturalism"). And although there is some mention of religion, it was definitely not a large part of the letter and did not have a lot of emphasis so that did not really impact the Naturalism aspect of the Robert E. Lee's letter. There was also not any actual nature mention, but that is not really to be expected in a letter, especially a letter a man is sending home to his family.

Regionalism was a part of the letter to Lee's family as well because he talks about his "native state" and how he will return to it no matter what (Lee). This depiction of an area gives further connection the genre and shows his dedication to the Confederacy, and there is also common speech in this because Lee is simply writing a letter to his family and is not very concerned with things like having common speech or not (Campbell "Regionalism").

A large amount of Realism is also evident in the letter from Lee to his family. Since this a letter written by Robert E. Lee himself, it is obviously pretty realistic and accurate because he was a very prominent political figure with the possibility of a bright future ahead of him. This means that the things he talked about in his letter were real issues that were of interest to him, making it extremely relevant to Realism (Campbell "Realism"). Although he would be a leader of the Confederate Army and would be a hero for awhile, Lee was also a very real person who cared about his family, their safety, and what happened in the world (Lee).

Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature. " Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web. 11 Feb 2011.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.htm

Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web 21 March 2010.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm

Campbell, Donna M. "Regionalism and Local Color Fiction, 1865-1895." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web. Feb 10 2011.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/lcolor.html

Lee, Robert E. "Letter to his Son." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Colombus: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 385. Print.