1、Puritanism: is the religious belief of the Puritans, who had intended to “purify” or simplify the religious rituals of the Church of England. They believed in the original sin and the harsh Day of Doom, although some good people --- the chosen people or “the Elect” --- may be saved.Their
2、way of life was based on their somber religion and stressed hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety. Puritans are more practical, tougher, and to be ever ready for any misfortune and tragic failure. They are optimistic.American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in A
3、merican thought and American literature. Transcendentalism:Following the rise of romanticism, Transcendentalism, which appeared after 1830, marked the maturity of American romanticism and the first renaissance in the American literary history. the term transcendentalism was derived from t
4、he Latin verb transcendere, meaning to rise above, or to pass beyond the limits. In a general sense it may be used in English to refer to any philosophy which teaches the transcendent nature of ultimate reality. Transcendentalism was a romantic idealism, or philosophical romanticism. It m
5、ay also be regarded as a considerable-scale ideological and cultural revolution after American people struggled to get free from the English colonial rule.American Naturalism:American naturalism was a new and harsher realism. The naturalists attempt to achieve extreme objectivity and fran
6、kness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by environment and heredity. It emphasized that the world was amoral, the men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in
7、life and oblivion in death. The pessimism and deterministic ideas naturalism pervaded the works of such American writers as Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser. The Gilded Age: the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United Sta
