preview

Literary Analysis - the Law of Life Essay

Decent Essays

Running head: LITERARY ANALYSIS

Literary Analysis
Sergio Scott
Grand Canyon University
ENG-353
American Literature II
Susan Crannell
September 28, 2011

Sergio Scott
Susan Crannell
ENG 353
September 29, 2011
Literary Analysis Naturalism was a literary movement that took place from the 1880s until the 1940s. It used realism as a mechanism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had a monumental impact in changing or defining human character. Naturalism exposes the dark areas of life and how they affected people, such as sex, violence, disease, prejudice, abandonment, disease, and even death. Naturalism, in short, is a need to return to the earth. (Williams, 571) A prime example of this literary theory …show more content…

Another characteristic of the story that allows it to be classified under the Naturalism genre is the fact that the entire story focuses around abandonment. This was established within the very first paragraph of the story, as shown in the excerpt “Sit-cum-to-ha was his daughter's daughter, but she was too busy to waste a thought upon her broken grandfather, sitting alone there in the snow, forlorn and helpless”. At first, Old Koskoosh panicked at the thought of dying alone in the freezing cold, but slowly and surely he started to realize his fate and why his family members made the decision to pursue on and leave him behind.
An aspect of the story that really made it stand out and gave it an added touch of realism was how calmly Old Koskoosh accepted his fate. Evidence of this acceptance can be seen in this excerpt: “He bowed his head in content till the last noise of the complaining snow had died away, and he knew his son was beyond recall. Then his hand crept out in haste to the wood. It alone stood between him and the eternity that yawned in upon him. At last the measure of his life was a handful of fagots. One by one they would go to feed the fire, and just so, step by step, death would creep upon him. When the last stick had surrendered up its heat, the frost would

Get Access