Naturalism Literary Period

Naturalism is a complex literary movement which infiltrated many books in the 1800s. One book in particular best shows the themes of Naturalism. The book, Ethan Frome, displays a multitude of motifs which further the main ideas and themes of the story. Motifs are used to highlight the theme. Due to the complex nature of the book, Ethan Frome written by Edith Wharton, motifs are used to further the ideas and themes presented in this tale.

The relevant outgrowth of American realism, another relatable writing tendency derived in 1880s. Similar as the purport of realism, Naturalism detailed theto suggest that social heredity and the environment had an inevitable effect in shaping human characteristic (Elliot 497). It opposed to literacy movements in the early period, such as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects receive highly symbolic, idealistic disposition. However, naturalism contained relatively passive and obscure view of the world. Unlike the realism, it focuses more on literary technique, which insinuated a philosophical position: the human beings are considered as "human beasts" (Elliot 502). By utilizing a version of the scientific method to illustrate the surrounding, naturalism writers construct the laws behind the forces that govern human lives, which could be studied and understood by the audience. From the naturalism literature, nature was sculptured as an indifferent force acting in the lives of human beings (Elliot 507). The universe, typically, has been described as

Naturalist writing is also characterized by the apathetic tone that writers use to describe their characters with. Naturalist writers treat their characters as subjects of a scientific project, and therefore write with a strictly observational voice. For example, Crane describes

Ever since the invention of language, humans have been obsessed and intrigued with the aspect of storytelling. Each story, whether written or spoken, holds an important theme within its creative words and exciting plot. While each story is special and unique, over the course of history, different periods of literature have formed where authors tend to focus on similar themes and messages. One of which was the American Romantic era, where authors used their stories to challenge the boundaries of society, and delve deeper into what makes people inherently human, both the flaws and perfections. Some of America’s greatest works of literature were born in this period, like those of Poe, and Hawthorne. A very common literary theme during the romantic period was that of good versus evil, in both individual characters and society as a whole; this theme is especially evident in works such as The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven, and Young Goodman Brown.

Naturalism began as a literary movement in the early 1890’s all throughout 1915. Naturalism is meant to imply a philosophical position. For writers, characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. Naturalists believed that human beings are meant to be studied like they were just “products”, that are to be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures. Ethan Frome was first published in 1911.

Naturalism is a literary movement that encapsulates the struggles of the common population. Hamlin Garland presents an excellent example of Naturalist literature in his short story “Under the Lion’s Paw”, published in 1889. In this short story, many of Dr. Stephen doCarmo’s characteristics of Naturalism are visible. Dr. doCarmo describes three broad characteristics of Naturalism: individuals are subjected to larger uncontainable forces, political undertones are prevalent within the work, and the subject matter of the work appeals to the middle-class. “Under the Lion’s Paw” possesses all three of these characteristics and radiates naturalism.

In the beginning of the 20th century, it was a new era for everything, especially literature. Two new and unique literary movements began; Local Color and Naturalism. Local Color with its distinct character tone and Naturalism with its weak main character was knowingly cherished by readers. As a response to Darwinism and the inequality in America, Naturalism opened Americans' eyes of the individual being defeated by society. Local Color freed the minds of the readers as well as the writers by putting the tone of the actual character, not everyone being sophisticated and educated. Despite the fact that Naturalism and Local Color was love, there were two notorious books of each kind; The Awakening, Naturalism, and Their Eyes were

    Challenging the strict deterministic confines of literary naturalism, which hold that "the human being is merely one phenomenon in a universe of material phenomena" (Gerard 418), Edith Wharton creates in The House of Mirth a novel which irrefutably presents the human creature as being subject to a naturalistic fate but which conveys a looming sense of hope that one may triumph over environment and circumstance if one possesses a certain strength of will or a simple faith in human possibility.

14. What is meant by the term “naturalism”? Describe the use of “naturalism” in literature. “Naturalism” can be thought of as a form of realism, or as an alternate to it. In literature “Naturalism”, unlike the realists for whom human beings distinct themselves within familiar settings, wrote about human life as it was formed by forces beyond human control (Baym

In American Literature many authors write about nature and how nature affects man's lives. In life, nature is an important part of people. Many people live, work, or partake in revelry in nature. Nature has received attention from authors spanning several centuries. Their attitudes vary over time and also reflect the different outlooks of the authors who chose to discuss this important historical movement. A further examination of this movement, reveals prevalence of nature's influence on man and how it affects their lives.

Beginning in the late 19th century, two separate movements spread across America know as realism and naturalism. While the two were very similar in their beliefs and ideals there were still many apparent distinctions to differentiate the two. Realism and naturalism showed themselves in many aspects of life, from art and sciences to new math techniques and even religion. However, above all else these movements may have been most evident in the literature of this time. Reading through American literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it becomes perceptible which short stories portray realism and which represent nationalism.

Realism is the portrayal of the reality of everyday life and period of literature between 1850-1900. Realist fictions speculate myths, assumptions, social norms, sentimentality, collective wisdom, and prejudices. Realism stories are usually about the middle-class people, and it aims to show a truthful portrayal of truth. Regionalism is a class of realist literature distinguished by closeness to the habits, language, dialects, manners, history, traditions, beliefs of a particular geographical region. Regionalism manifests the characters of both realism and romanticism. Romanticism is cultural the period from 1830-1860 in America. Humankind is naturally good. The characteristics of romanticism are passion and emotion, nature over the man, spiritual, intuition, and insight. "A White Heron," by Sarah Orne Jewett, is an example of local color because of its realism. Jewett uses characteristics of regionalism like dialogue to show the contrast between the locals and outsiders, habits, their daily activities, the dress, features of a place. "Editha" by William is the story of realism which has many characteristics of realism like details about war; he uses dialect to hold out the trend of the story, using middle-class peoples character. Dean Howell uses a part of romantic style but all together its categorized as one of the

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

In North America, the classic voice of the colonizing person’s connectedness to nature and a has been the romantic individualist writing of wilderness.

Naturalism is a philosophy which emphasizes “the effect of heredity and environment on human nature and action” (Zhang) and incorporates realism to “suggest that social conditions… and environment [have] inescapable force in shaping human character” (Zhang). Furthermore, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Natural Philosophy explains that to Naturalists, “reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing ‘supernatural’, and that the scientific method should be used to investigate all areas of reality” (Papineau). Naturalism (in literature) is an idea that suggests everything about humanity is measurable, detectable, manipulatable, and traceable to a cause, and therefore the characters of Naturalist literature would be illustrated as simply the products of their environments; vessels devoid of spiritual guidance or fate that are subject only to their environments. An example of a Naturalistic novel is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton; a novel set in late 19th century New York that follows Lily Bart: a young woman who was born rich but is slowly losing both her societal status and her money whilst she repeatedly avoids marriage, her only option to escape her fate: a life of poverty. With this in mind, The House of Mirth is an exemplary example of a Naturalistic novel because of its portrayal of characters as the product of their environments.