Critics often label Hamlin Garland's early literature as consistently condemnatory towards farm and farm life, with recurring themes of monotony, ugliness, bestiality, and hopelessness. Moreover, a host of critics believe that Garland suddenly abandoned the early realistic style he critically extolled in Crumbling Idols to write Rocky Mountain romances. This thesis examines several key texts from Garland's early short stories and novels in order to show how they reveal a writer defying this typecast. Contrary to the notion that Garland suddenly “changed camps,” along with the assertion that his early style can be neatly categorized, this thesis shows that Garland's writings—and especially those concerning farming and farm life—embodied both realistic and romantic themes even during his earliest, supposedly most realistic period when he wrote his classic, Main-Travelled Roads.
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