James Dean

On Writing in America: The Politics, Criticism, and Fiction of William doyen Howells Upon hearing of an event which has become known as The Haymarket Incident, a violent outbreak that involved frayrs at the McCormick Harvesting appliance Comp both on May 4, 1886, William Dean Howells felt create to respond.1 Whatever personal motives this highly publicized incident sparked in Howells, who was successful novelist and influential critic of the literature and social issues of his time, the strike and subsequent executions of seven of the protesters involved had a trenchant force play on this respected man of letters. Howells illustrated his remorse for what he understood as a profound legal injustice in a letter he wrote to a friend in short in front the hanging of the Haymarket protesters: It blackens my life. I feel the horror and the outrage of the crime which the law is about to commit against justice.2 Howells assertions in regard to the case were at the time radical and non widely supported; they contradicted the views of the majority of the American media, who chose to back walloping business and to disregard details that to Howells marked the trial as corrupt.

Howells views challenged a general sentiment in the press against running(a) class protesters, who, like the workers involved in the Haymarket Incident, demanded certain rights in the workplace and proposed an eight-hour work day.3 It had become a trend in the media to back the employers rather than the employed, in the name of the free market, before the Haymarket riots. For example, several years before the incident at Haymarket, the lolly Tribune had characterized a group of railroad workers involved in a similar incident as the scum and filth of the city. triplet days later, commenting on the organizers of the same uprising, the Tribune contended that Capitalism would offer any sum to see the leaders...strung up to a telegraph pole.4 Howells was known for his radical political views, views which... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.