In the 1800s the purpose of realism writing was to portray real events that was happening during that time. In the story “My Bondage and My Freedom” by Frederick Douglass, Douglass talks about his life as a slave and how he was treated unfairly. In the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Dunbar talks about the life of African-Americans after slavery ended. Because of their personal experience we were able to see what they went through during this time in history.
In realistic literature during this time, authors wrote stories that dealt with their personal experience. In the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Dunbar says in his first stanza “We wear the mask that grins and lies.” Which means when slavery ended African
