Question

The Civil War was a traumatic and destructive conflict that remains the bloodiest war in US history. Realism began around the end of the war in 1865. Rejecting romantic-era ideals that focused on allegorical characters, symbolic settings, and dramatic subjects, realism depicted ordinary people in everyday situations.
What aspects of the Civil War might have caused this dramatic shift in style, form, and thematic discourse in American literature?

Answer 1

The American Civil War greatly caused a dramatic shift in style, form, and thematic discourse in American literature because it affected the people in a way that they question its morality and reality. The works after the Civil War were mainly focused on how they experienced the war and its effects. It also sparked some antiwar works and some focused more on patriotism. 

Answer 2

During the American Civil War, the people of the country had many experiences that are quite unpleasant and these made many of them to ask questions that no one has answers to. The war had negative effects on everyone including writers. By the end of the war, authors generally began to put their war experience into writing and these radically change the style, form and the thematic discourse that were the characteristics of American literature.