The correct answer is B. The beautiful and harsh realities of life
Explanation:
In literature, the word "realism" refers to an artistic movement that aims at representing life, events, and reality as they are, especially those that are undesirable. In the case of the excerpt from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman, realism occurs as the author describes a corpse as "good manure" probably to shows how a corpse really looks and smells and then uses realism to describe the smell of roses " I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing", this shows the author is trying to depict both the beauty of life expressed in the smell of roses and the harsh moments in life expressed in the corpse. Thus, the theme or idea of realism in this excerpt is the beautiful and harsh realities of life.
