Naturalism


American literature during the second half of the 19th century was influenced by some thinkers and
philosophical theories: Social Darwinism developed in the late 19th century and transposed Darwin´s
theory of the „survival of the fittest“ from nature to society. Social Darwinists believed that
people, like animals, compete for survival and, by extention, compete for success in life.
Individuals who become rich and powerful are the fittest, the lower socioeconomic classes are the
least fit. Social Darwinists came to believe that human progress depends on competition. An
elaboration of the Darwinian thesis that the survival of the fittest is a basic law of nature was
advanced by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who claimed that so called moral conduct is
necessary only for the weak. Nietzsche maintained that human behaviour is motivated by a will to
power and this drive shapes our lives. Another influential thinker was Karl Marx, German political
philosopher. He developed the theory of the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist
class, and the theory of the necessity for workers to seize the political power by armed
insurrection.


NATURALISM developed out of realism and shares some of its characteristics: it places events in
contemporary time, aims at accurate reproduction of speech, manners, landscape, and psychologically
valid motivations. Unlike realism, however, literary naturalism is conscious of its philosophical
foundations, especially Darwinism. The human person is regarded as a highly developed animal,
controlled by all the animal hungers and aiming above all at survival. The fittest survive in the
life struggle, the less fit go down. Naturalistic literature also holds to the philosophy of
determinism. It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by his social
and economic environment. Naturalism follows the biological determinism of Darwin’s theory, or the
economic determinism of Marx. Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does
not attempt to make moral judgements and tends toward pessimism. If free will does not exist,
ethical choice becomes an illusion. Behaviour cannot be judged in terms of good and evil, right or
wrong. This is the basic difference between realism and naturalism: in realistic writings
characters have free will, while in naturalistic writings characters are absolutely determined,
motifs and decisions are shaped by the environment. Characters in naturalistic literature are
helpless individuals caught in the grip of social, economic or natural forces. They are frequently
the rural poor, the working class people, or people from the underclasses of the cities. The
naturalistic world is often full of violence.

American naturalists used carefully controlled points of view. The reader is often confined inside
the mind of a single character, limited to that character’s understanding of events, with the
result that truth, or ultimate meaning, becomes relative and often problematic. This escape from
the omniscient point of view also suggests a scepticism of authority. What is conveyed is a sense
that truth, and also morality, is subjective, dependent upon particular experience.


Stephen Crane (1871-1900) introduced naturalism into American literature. He believed that
environment counts for a great deal in determining human fate. Nature is not hostile, he observes
in „The Open Boat“, only indifferent. His most famous novels are Maggie, A Girl of the Streets and
The Red Badge of Courage. Maggie is a story of almost illiterate slum girl, who is seduced and then
abandoned by her lover. She becomes a prostitute, which is, under given circumstances, her only
possibility. However, she is unable to succeed in this occupation and commits suicide.


Frank Norris (1870-1902) believed in social Darwinism. Major themes of his writings are economic
force as natural law and the destructiveness of greed. His most famous novel is The Octopus (about
the struggle between California wheat farmers and the railroad company).


Jack London (1876-1916) was a radical socialist, aware of the class struggle and economic
determination. But his commitment to the socialist ideas conflicted with his individual
temperament, and at the age of 40 he commited a suicide. London’s naturalism followed from reading
Darwin, Marx and Nietzsche. He wrote simply and chronologically in the vocabulary of common speech.
The fiction, with few exceptions, is created from his personal experience. Most famous novels: The
Call of the Wild (a story of Buck, a dog taken to the Alaskan Klondike, where he must retrieve
ancient instincts in order to survive); White Fang; Martin Eden (a semi-autobiographical novel
about the struggles of a writer)


·       Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) had German parents, suffered poverty and had a first-hand
knowledge of the lower classes. He was the purest naturalist among American writers. He was
interested in the conflicting worlds of the rich and the poor. He presented his characters as they
were, with no moral commentary, no ethical dimensions. His characters are passive puppets shaped
and influenced by the society. Their deeds are results of environmental, social and economic
factors over which weak human nature has little control. Novels: An American Tragedy, Sister Carrie