9.3 Naturalism in American Literature

Naturalism in literature offers a raw, unflinching look at life. It rejects romanticized views and instead shows how environment, heredity, and social forces shape people's fates. Characters in naturalist fiction typically struggle against overwhelming forces they can't control or even fully understand.

This movement grew out of Realism but pushed further, applying scientific objectivity and determinism to storytelling. Naturalist writers gravitated toward lower classes and marginalized groups, exploring poverty, survival, and social injustice through a distinctly pessimistic lens. Understanding Naturalism matters because its influence threads through later American literature, from the Lost Generation to modern neo-naturalism.

Principles and Themes of Naturalism

Key Principles of Naturalism

Scientific objectivity means the narrator observes characters the way a scientist observes subjects: with detachment and precise detail. In Crane's "The Open Boat," for example, the narrator describes the men's struggle at sea without sentimentality, letting the facts of their situation speak for themselves.

Determinism is the idea that external forces, not personal choice, shape human behavior. Characters' fates are predetermined by their circumstances. In Dreiser's Sister Carrie, Carrie Meeber's choices are driven less by free will than by economic pressure and desire for social mobility.

Pessimism and fatalism run through nearly every naturalist work. Characters are often doomed to failure or tragedy regardless of their efforts. Norris's McTeague follows a dentist whose life spirals into violence and ruin, driven by greed and forces beyond his control.

Focus on lower classes and marginalized groups sets Naturalism apart from earlier literary traditions that centered on the wealthy or heroic. Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets depicts a young woman trapped by poverty in New York's Bowery, struggling against societal forces she has no power to change.

Survival of the fittest reflects Darwin's influence on naturalist writers. Character interactions often depict a raw struggle for existence in harsh environments. London's "To Build a Fire" is a classic example: a man alone in the Yukon at seventy-five degrees below zero, pitted against nature with fatal consequences.

Influence of Environment in Naturalism

Naturalist writers treat environment and heredity as the two great forces that determine who a person becomes.

• Heredity shapes character behavior through inherited traits and genetic predispositions. Zola's Germinal (a French influence on American Naturalism) traces how inherited tendencies play out across generations of a mining family.
• Physical environment acts as a powerful, often hostile force. In Dreiser's An American Tragedy, both the natural landscape and the urban setting press on the protagonist, narrowing his options at every turn.
• Social conditions highlight class struggle, economic pressure, and the impact of industrialization. Sinclair's The Jungle exposes the brutal conditions of Chicago's meatpacking industry, showing how the system grinds down immigrant workers.
• Limited free will is a consistent result. Protagonists are portrayed as products of their circumstances, with little genuine agency. In Norris's Vandover and the Brute, the main character's decline feels inevitable, driven by forces inside and outside him.

Literary Techniques and Comparisons

Determinism and Pessimism in Literature

Naturalist plots are built on cause and effect that feels inescapable. In Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, the young soldier Henry Fleming doesn't choose his fate so much as get swept along by the chaos of war. Each event follows logically from the last, reinforcing the sense that the outcome was always inevitable.

Pessimistic themes serve a purpose beyond just being bleak. Writers like Hamlin Garland (Main-Travelled Roads) use suffering and moral decay to critique real social injustices, particularly the harsh realities of rural farm life.

Naturalist writers rely on specific narrative techniques to reinforce these ideas:

• Irony highlights characters' powerlessness. A character may believe they're making a free choice, but the reader can see the forces already steering them.
• Foreshadowing reinforces the inevitability of events. In London's The Sea-Wolf, early details signal the violence and domination that will define the story.
• Downward character arcs are the norm. Protagonists in works like Dreiser's Jennie Gerhardt don't rise triumphantly; they struggle and often fail against forces too large to overcome.

Naturalism vs. Realism

Naturalism grew directly out of Realism, so the two share a focus on everyday life and ordinary people. The key differences are in degree and outlook:

Naturalism also explicitly rejects Romanticism's idealized heroes and emotional landscapes. Compare Hawthorne's symbolic, morally complex characters with Crane's soldiers and slum dwellers, who are defined more by circumstance than by inner virtue.

One more distinction worth noting: Naturalism adopts a more clinical, detached narrative voice, while other movements (including Realism) may use more symbolic or allegorical elements. Crane's spare, observational prose reads very differently from Melville's layered symbolism.

Naturalism also helped pave the way for early Modernism. Dreiser's psychological focus on characters shaped by social forces influenced writers like Fitzgerald, who explored similar themes with more experimental techniques.

Impact of Naturalism on American Literature

Naturalism didn't end with Crane and Dreiser. Its influence runs through several major movements and genres in American writing:

• Lost Generation writers like Hemingway incorporated naturalistic themes into post-World War I literature. The Sun Also Rises captures characters adrift in a world stripped of meaning, shaped by trauma they can't escape.
• Social protest literature used naturalistic techniques to address systemic injustice. Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath follows the Joad family through poverty and exploitation, showing individuals crushed by economic forces.
• Neo-naturalism has evolved in modern American fiction. Cormac McCarthy's novels, particularly Blood Meridian and The Road, present characters in brutal environments where survival is uncertain and morality is beside the point.
• Genre fiction, especially crime and noir, integrates naturalistic elements. James M. Cain's novels (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity) feature characters driven by desire and circumstance toward inevitable destruction.
• American literary identity was shaped in part by Naturalism's gritty, unsparing portrayals. Upton Sinclair's exposés didn't just tell stories; they changed public policy, proving that naturalistic writing could have real-world consequences.