Determine whether a story of piece of art is a realist work by analyzing its depiction and perception of the individual. Realists depict people simply as human beings, prone to error and capable of good as well as bad. In contrast, romantics often treat humans as god-like and transcendent, able to triumph over their circumstances. American realists of the 19th century believed that outside forces limited a human being's free will. In other genres, a character's will often gives him the ability to overcome outside obstacles.
Ethical dilemmas and questions often drive the character's actions in realist novels and films. Realist storytellers focus heavily on character development and motivation, often at the expense of an elaborate plot. Additionally, realist plot elements are plausible and require no or minimal suspension of disbelief. You will rarely find sensational or extremely dramatic events unfolding in a realist film or novel. Likewise, a realist painting might depict an average person performing an everyday act, rather than an extraordinary event.
Visual artwork in the realist tradition is created in a straightforward manner, with few unnecessary embellishments. Similarly, realist writers avoid using heightened language or poetic turns of phrase, instead writing in the vernacular. Their characters also tend to speak in the vernacular or in a dialect consistent with their location and social class. Narration remains simple without authorial commentary or heavy use of symbolism. Realist novels and films vary in tone, ranging from satirical to matter-of-fact.
Realist novels are particularly concerned with median socioeconomic classes, though the subject also emerges in realist artwork and film. The struggles and concerns of the emerging middle class takes center stage in many novels written at the height of American realism in the 19th century. Rather than exploring life for the drudges of society and the extreme elite, like many novels in the sentimental literary tradition, realist fiction portrays the everyday obstacles, concerns and activities of middle class individuals and families in the western world.