1.2 Naturalism

Naturalism emerged in American literature during the late 19th century as a response to rapid industrialization and social change. It sought to portray life objectively, often focusing on harsh realities faced by individuals in an indifferent universe.

Influenced by scientific determinism, naturalism embraced the idea that human behavior results from heredity and environment, not free will. It rejected the idealized portrayals found in romantic literature, focusing instead on gritty realism and unvarnished depictions of life.

Origins of naturalism

Naturalism grew out of a period of massive transformation in American society. Between the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century, cities swelled with immigrants and factory workers, wealth gaps widened, and Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) reshaped how people thought about human nature. Writers began asking: if science can explain the natural world, can it also explain human behavior?

• Drew inspiration from Darwin's theory of evolution and its application to human society, particularly the idea that environment and heredity shape organisms
• Sought to portray life with scientific objectivity, treating characters almost like specimens under observation
• Focused on the harsh realities faced by individuals in an indifferent universe where no higher power intervenes

Influence of scientific determinism

Determinism is the philosophical idea that every event, including human action, is the inevitable result of prior causes. For naturalist writers, this meant characters don't truly choose their fates. Instead, their genetics and social conditions dictate their paths.

• Applied concepts from biology and sociology to explain human actions and social phenomena
• Viewed characters as products of their genetic makeup and social conditions, often trapped by circumstances beyond their control
• This stands in sharp contrast to earlier American literature, which tended to celebrate individual willpower and moral choice

Reaction to romanticism

Romanticism (think Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau) celebrated the individual, the spiritual, and the ideal. Naturalism pushed back hard against all of that.

• Rejected idealized portrayals of human nature and society
• Focused on the lives of the lower classes rather than noble or exceptional figures
• Challenged notions of individual heroism, emphasizing instead how collective struggles and societal forces overwhelm personal effort

European naturalist predecessors

American naturalism didn't appear out of nowhere. It built on a European tradition, especially from France.

• French author Émile Zola was the movement's intellectual godfather. His concept of the "experimental novel" argued that fiction should test hypotheses about human behavior the way a scientist tests theories in a lab
• Gustave Flaubert modeled an objective, detached narrative style that American naturalists adopted
• Russian realists like Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky also influenced the movement with their psychologically complex, socially aware fiction

Key characteristics

Naturalism aimed to depict life as it truly was, without romanticization. Characters rarely triumph through sheer will. Instead, external forces shape their destinies, and the narrative presents this without flinching.

Objectivity and detachment

Naturalist authors tried to write the way a scientist observes an experiment: carefully, precisely, and without inserting personal feelings.

• Employed third-person narration to maintain distance from characters and events
• Presented facts and observations without moral judgment or authorial commentary
• The goal was to let readers draw their own conclusions from the evidence on the page

Determinism vs. free will

This is the philosophical core of naturalism. Characters may believe they have choices, but the narrative reveals how heredity and environment have already decided the outcome.

• Characters are portrayed as products of forces they can't control
• Stories explore the tension between individual desires and overwhelming external pressures
• Characters' attempts to overcome their circumstances often end in failure, reinforcing the deterministic worldview

Focus on lower classes

Naturalist fiction centers on people that earlier literary movements largely ignored: the poor, the working class, immigrants, and the socially marginalized.

• Explored themes of poverty, exploitation, and social injustice
• Depicted the harsh realities of urban tenement life and industrial labor
• By focusing on these populations, naturalist writers exposed conditions that middle-class readers might never have witnessed firsthand

Emphasis on environment

Setting in a naturalist novel isn't just a backdrop. It's practically a character, actively shaping what happens to the people within it.

• Nature appears as an indifferent or hostile force (think the frozen Yukon in Jack London's stories)
• Urban environments are shown warping human behavior through overcrowding, poverty, and industrial exploitation
• Whether wilderness or city, the environment exerts a pressure that characters can rarely escape

Major naturalist authors

Several writers defined American naturalism, each bringing a distinct perspective shaped by personal experience and regional focus.

Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane (1871–1900) wrote The Red Badge of Courage (1895), a Civil War novel remarkable for the fact that Crane had never seen combat. He explored fear, courage, and the psychological chaos of war through an impressionistic style that put readers inside a soldier's fragmented consciousness. His novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) is often considered one of the first American naturalist works, depicting a young woman destroyed by poverty and her Bowery environment.

Frank Norris

Frank Norris (1870–1902) was one of naturalism's most vocal advocates. His novel McTeague (1899) traces a San Francisco dentist's descent into violence and ruin, driven by greed and forces beyond his understanding. Norris incorporated social Darwinism and economic determinism throughout his work, and he openly critiqued the damage that capitalism and industrialization inflicted on ordinary people.

Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945) authored Sister Carrie (1900), which follows a young woman who moves to Chicago and rises through society by leveraging relationships rather than moral virtue. The novel was so controversial for its frank treatment of sexuality and its refusal to punish its "immoral" heroine that its publisher suppressed it after the initial printing. Dreiser's work explored ambition, desire, and the hollow promises of materialism.

Jack London

Jack London (1876–1916) drew from his own grueling experiences in the Klondike Gold Rush and as a laborer. The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906) use animal protagonists to explore survival, instinct, and the thin line between civilization and savagery. London also wove socialist ideas and critiques of capitalism into much of his fiction.

Themes in naturalist literature

Naturalist writers returned to a set of interconnected themes that reflected the social upheaval and philosophical anxieties of their era.

Social and economic forces

• Examined how poverty, class struggle, and economic inequality shape individual lives
• Explored the ways social institutions (family, religion, government) constrain human behavior
• Critiqued the American Dream, suggesting that upward mobility was largely a myth for those born into disadvantage

Human as animal

One of naturalism's most provocative ideas is that humans are, at bottom, animals governed by instinct.

• Characters are driven by basic biological impulses: hunger, desire, aggression
• Stories explore the tension between civilized behavior and primal urges lurking beneath the surface
• Drew parallels between human society and the animal kingdom, emphasizing survival of the fittest

Struggle for survival

• Depicted characters fighting against overwhelming odds, whether a blizzard, a factory system, or their own biology
• Explored the psychological and physical toll of constant struggle
• Often portrayed the futility of individual efforts against larger societal or natural forces

Critique of industrialization

• Exposed the negative impacts of rapid urbanization and industrialization on individuals and communities
• Depicted the exploitation of workers and the dehumanizing effects of factory labor
• Explored environmental and social consequences of unchecked industrial growth, a concern that resonated with Progressive Era reform movements

Naturalist literary techniques

Naturalist authors developed specific techniques to achieve their goal of objective, almost scientific storytelling.

Detailed descriptions

• Employed meticulous, nearly clinical descriptions of characters, settings, and events
• Used sensory details to create vivid, immersive environments (the stench of a slaughterhouse, the cold of an Arctic trail)
• Focused on physical appearances and mannerisms to reveal character traits and social status

Journalistic style

• Adopted a detached, observational tone reminiscent of newspaper reporting
• Incorporated factual information and statistics to ground the narrative in reality
• Used straightforward, unembellished language rather than the ornate prose common in romantic fiction

Use of dialect

• Reproduced regional and class-specific speech patterns to enhance realism
• Employed slang and colloquialisms to differentiate characters and social groups
• Dialect served a dual purpose: it made characters feel authentic and it revealed their educational and social backgrounds without the author having to state them directly

Symbolic imagery

• Incorporated natural and industrial imagery to reinforce themes of determinism and struggle
• Used animal metaphors to emphasize the primal aspects of human nature (London's fiction is full of these)
• Employed recurring symbols to represent larger social and economic forces shaping characters' lives

Notable naturalist works

These novels defined the movement and remain widely taught in American literature courses.

The Red Badge of Courage (1895)

Stephen Crane's novel follows Henry Fleming, a young Union soldier who enlists with romantic visions of glory and quickly discovers the terror and confusion of actual combat. The novel pioneered an impressionistic style of war writing, focusing on fragmented sensory experience rather than heroic narrative. Crane never fought in the Civil War himself, making the novel's psychological realism all the more striking.

McTeague (1899)

Frank Norris set this novel in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. McTeague, a simple-minded dentist, marries a woman who wins a lottery, and the couple's relationship disintegrates under the weight of greed. The novel traces their moral and physical decay as deterministic forces pull them toward a violent end in Death Valley.

Sister Carrie (1900)

Theodore Dreiser's debut follows Carrie Meeber, a young woman who leaves small-town Wisconsin for Chicago. She rises socially through relationships with men, eventually becoming a successful actress, while the men around her decline. The novel challenged conventional morality by refusing to punish Carrie for her choices, and it critiqued American materialism by showing that success brings no real fulfillment.

The Call of the Wild (1903)

Jack London's most famous novel follows Buck, a domesticated dog stolen from a California estate and sold into service as a sled dog during the Klondike Gold Rush. As Buck adapts to the brutal conditions, his buried instincts resurface. The novel explores atavism (the return to ancestral traits), the struggle for survival, and the tension between civilization and wildness.

Naturalism vs. realism

Naturalism and realism are closely related, and students often confuse them. Both movements rejected romanticism and aimed to portray life accurately, but they differ in important ways.

Level of pessimism

• Realism depicted life honestly but didn't necessarily assume the worst. Realist characters can succeed or fail based on their choices.
• Naturalism adopted a darker worldview, emphasizing the futility of human efforts against overwhelming forces. Characters are more often victims than agents.

Degree of determinism

• Realism acknowledged that circumstances matter but still allowed for meaningful individual choice.
• Naturalism embraced a much stronger determinism, viewing characters as products of heredity and environment with little genuine free will.

Focus on social issues

• Both movements addressed social concerns, but naturalism placed greater emphasis on exposing systemic injustice.
• Naturalism focused more intensely on the working class and marginalized groups, and it incorporated more explicit critiques of capitalism, industrialization, and social inequality.

Impact on American literature

Naturalism's influence extended well beyond its own era, shaping how American writers approached fiction, journalism, and social commentary throughout the 20th century.

Influence on modernism

• Contributed to the breakdown of traditional narrative structures and techniques
• Inspired modernist writers to explore new ways of representing consciousness and subjective experience
• Influenced the development of the "hard-boiled" style in detective fiction (think Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler), which inherited naturalism's tough, detached prose

Legacy in social criticism

• Established a lasting tradition of literature as a tool for social commentary and reform
• Influenced the rise of muckraking journalism in the early 1900s, where reporters like Upton Sinclair exposed corruption and exploitation
• Contributed to public awareness of labor conditions, poverty, and inequality

Evolution of the novel form

• Expanded what could be depicted in fiction, including previously taboo subjects like sexuality, addiction, and violence
• Contributed to the development of the urban novel and proletarian literature
• Influenced the emergence of regional and ethnic literary traditions in American writing

Criticism and controversies

Naturalism was never without its critics, and some of the debates it sparked remain relevant to literary studies today.

Accusations of pessimism

• Critics argued that naturalist works presented an overly bleak view of human nature and society
• Some viewed the movement's determinism as nihilistic and morally corrosive, suggesting it stripped life of meaning
• Defenders countered that naturalism's pessimism was a necessary corrective to literature that ignored real suffering

Debate over scientific accuracy

• Some critics questioned whether naturalism's deterministic worldview was truly scientific or just a philosophical stance dressed up in scientific language
• Argued that naturalist authors oversimplified complex social and psychological phenomena
• The question of whether literature can or should accurately represent scientific principles remains debated

Ethical concerns

• Naturalist works frequently faced censorship for their frank depictions of sexuality and violence (Dreiser's Sister Carrie is the most famous example)
• Critics argued that such explicit content could corrupt readers
• These controversies raised questions about artistic freedom and the responsibility of authors to their audiences