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Naturalism
It does a body good.
What exactly is naturalism?

While many modern works contain
naturalistic elements, naturalism refers
specifically to a literary movement that
took place in America, England, and
France during the late 1800’s and early
1900’s, which produced a unique type of
“realistic” fiction.
How is naturalism different from realism?

Realism portrays life realistically without
“sugarcoating.”
– Realists try to “write reality”
-- records "the smaller details of everyday life, things
that are likely to happen between lunch and
supper."
-- portrays local color, attempting to accurately
portray the customs, speech, dress, and living
conditions of their chosen locale.
-- rejects the idealized presentations, imaginative
settings, the supernatural, and the improbable plot
twists of romanticism.

Naturalism is essentially realism with an
additional facet: Determinism
Determinism

Characters do not have free will; external and
internal forces control their behavior.
– This belief is called determinism. All determinists
believe in the existence of the will, but the will is
enslaved due to a multitude of reasons.
– Characters attempting to exercise free will are
hamstrung by forces beyond their control.
• Life is an inescapable trap.
Character’s as Marionettes

Naturalists view individuals as being at
the mercy of biological and
socioeconomic forces, whereas realists
hold that humans have some degree of
free will that they can exercise to affect
their situations.
– Things happen to people, as if they were
marionettes whose movements are entirely
determined by forces beyond their control.
Forces Beyond the Character’s
Control


Characters are dominated by external or internal
forces:
Environmental
– A storm, or a character lost at sea

Social conditions
– A character born into poverty.

Chance (fate)
– A character’s child is suddenly stricken with typhoid
fever.

Internal Passions
– Lust, greed, or desire for dominance or pleasure
overcome rational behavior.
“Survival of the Fittest”

Heavily influenced by emergent scientific
theories of the time:
– Darwin’s theory of evolution
• It’s corollary, “survival of the fittest.”

Fight for survival brings out the "brute
within" each individual.
• conflict is often "man against nature" or "man
against himself"
The Indifferent and Omnipotent
Power of Nature

Nature/Fate is as an indifferent force
acting upon the lives of human beings.
– Works often describe the futile attempts
of human beings to exercise free will in a
universe that ironically reveals that free
will is an illusion.
– Violence and tragedy is often the result.
Subject Matter

Generally deals with raw and unpleasant
experiences which reduce characters to
"degrading" behavior as they struggle to
survive.
– Characters are mostly from the lower-middle or
lower classes
• Generally poor, uneducated, and unsophisticated.
• “drama of the people working itself out in blood and
[filth]” (Norris).
The Milieu

The milieu is generally commonplace and
the unheroic.
– life is usually the dull struggle of daily existence.
– But, the naturalist reveals qualities in their
characters that are usually associated with the
heroic or adventurous.
• Often, acts of violence and passion lead to desperate
moments and violent death.
– Life at its lowest levels is not so simple as it seems to be.

Panoramic, “slice-of-life" drama
– often a "chronicle of despair."
Naturalism: A Scientific Study

attempts to apply the scientific principles of objectivity and
detachment to its study of human beings
– The characters are but higher-order animals “fully subject to
the forces of heredity and the environment.
• These “human beasts” studied impartially, without
moralizing about their natures
– The story is told in third person,
• The narrator is detached, objective, and unsympathetic.
– The narrator does not comment on the morality or
the fairness of the situations in which characters
find themselves
• The reader, however, is meant to empathize with the
characters.
Maintaining Dignity in Adversity

Is conditioned and controlled by
environment, social conditions, heredity,
chance (or fate), or instinct.
– But, they have compensating humanistic values
which affirm their individuality and life
• Their struggle for life becomes heroic and they
maintain human dignity despite degrading
circumstances.

Is faced with overwhelming and oppressive
material forces that control their lives.
– But, they maintain their self-worth.
Naturalistic Poem:

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."