The Influence Of The Naturalism Movement

Harriet finds Phoebe, an old friend from her years in college, interesting, because her marriage is like a dream. She has not changed a bit, and although she has children, she and her husband continue to go gallivanting about the world in search of adventure (Sayers, 14-15). Though Phoebe and her husband are not very successful parents, Phoebe’s marriage is one of the “success” stories that begin to change Harriet’s mindset about the concept of marriage from it being repulsive to it being something desirable. Marriage is works through compromise between the husband and wife; a woman who does not wish to be a housewife, but prefers to work can discuss her feelings with her husband in order to generate a resolution that leaves both the adults and the children happy with the result.

In Ethan Frome, Ethan lives in an unhappy marriage with a cruel woman, but due to his responsibilities, he cannot live with his true love, Mattie. In the Age of Innocence movie, Newland and Ellen have feelings for each other, but neither can leave their unhappy marriages without being ridiculed by society. Wharton was also in an unpleasant marriage, but she was brave enough to leave her unhappiness, even though she knew it would bring on harsh criticism from her peers. In her time, marriages were not about love at all, but were about bringing important families together. Wharton shows through her novels that when people are not happy with these marriages, they are often too afraid of becoming an outcast of society to leave their marriage and pursue true love. However, she shows through her own life that if one is brave enough to stand up and accept criticism, one can still live a happy life of true

Charles Frazier’s first novel, Cold Mountain, has earned him a great amount of notoriety. From having a film adaptation of his novel in 2003, to receiving a National Book Award in fiction in 1997. Cold Mountain opens with a quotation from a journal entry by Charles Darwin: “It is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war of organic beings, going on in the peaceful woods and smiling fields.” And indeed, Frazier’s acclaimed novel describes a war of beings built of flesh and blood–of course not only in the sense of the Civil War. While man’s lone task in war is to destroy the opposition, Frazier’s novel is also dedicated to the struggle which an individual must face in order to survive in a natural environment. From Frazier’s standpoint, the usage of this particular quotation could be a confirmation of Darwin’s influence on his literature. The term naturalism describes a category of literature that applies scientific principles of detachment and objectivity to its reading of human beings. The literary movement of naturalism got its foundation from Darwin’s theory of evolution. In his novel, Frazier makes use of real historical backgrounds and geographical locations. Combined with a style following realism, amidst extensive passages of naturalistic descriptions. There are clear similarities between Darwin’s conclusions and the plot of Cold Mountain.

Just how important is loyalty in a marriage? Set against the hollow countryside of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton sets out to answer that question. The novel is centered on a troubled, complicated man named Ethan who finds himself torn when forced to decide whether he should be loyal to his tyrannical, sickly wife Zeena, or give into his feelings for the young and attractive Mattie Silver, who is also Zeena’s younger cousin. Throughout the story, Ethan’s loyalty is tested by his growing affection towards Mattie, and eventually he is unable to control his feelings for her. Though Ethan is disloyal to his wife, the reader will find themselves sympathizing with Ethan. It’s obvious that Ethan’s loyalty to Zeena is only making him miserable, which causes one to question how positive loyalty is in some situations. Ethan gave up everything he had: his reputation, his morals, and ultimately the sanctity of his marriage because he desired to be happy. Edith Wharton makes sure to hide all these messages using various tools and nuances, creating a very thought-provoking story. In Ethan Frome, literary elements such as symbols, foil, and conflict are used to accentuate that marriages need more than loyalty to be successful.

    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.

In the short story, An Episode of War by Stephan Crane, Naturalism is exhibited in two different situations. Naturalism is described by ordinary people doing everyday things who believe that there are forces beyond their control. The first example of Naturalism appears in this story when the lieutenant was shot. He was shot while giving out coffee to the soldiers, and this incident is a form off Naturalism because he was minding his own business and did nothing to provoke it. This quote explains why it was out of his control, “During this moment the men bout him gazed statue like and silent, were not expected…” Another example of Naturalism in the story is when the lieutenant’s arm was amputated. After being shot and returned to the medical

Popularizing the claim that naturalism and evolution are mutual self-defeaters, Alvin Plantinga argues, in Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism (1993), that given unguided evolution, our beliefs have no intrinsic relation to the truth.

“…nothing in the theory or practice of religion-not ritual, not prayer, not metaphysical belief, not moral commitment- necessitates a commitment to traditional theism. In other words, one may be religious while rejecting supernaturalism.” (Cahn) Throughout Religion Reconsidered by Stephen M. Cahn, the philosophy behind naturalism is examined. Cahn describes naturalism as a religion devoid of supernaturalism, and states.

Realism, Naturalism and Regionalism characteristics are dissimilar; however the characteristics of grief and hardship tends to be a reoccuring theme. Although, the reasoning for grief or hardships vary depending on the literary style it never cease to have a powerful impact on the literary work. In The Yellow Wall-paper Gilman displayed mental health issue in women that was overlooked as simple hysteria (792). The narrator endured isolation, as well as the removal of her writing, by the hands of her controlling husband to help her recover from her overdramatic, attention seeking behavior; which led to a full blown pyschotic episode (Gilman 792-803). While, The Yellow Wall-paper displayed an excellent representation of grief and hardship of all literary works that I mentioned earlier;

Naturalism is the story that human characters struggle and experience from natural forces which are unable to control. There are four characteristics of Naturalism and those are in “The Open Boat” and “To Build a Fire”. First, Naturalism has four determinism; mechanical determinism, biological determinism, psychological determinism, and social determinism. Especially, “The Open Boat” has psychological and biological determinism and “To Build a Fire” has biological determinism. In “The Open Boat”, the captain, the cook, the oiler and the correspondent are in psychological rollercoaster.

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.

One outstanding feature of naturalism is its stress on the influence of environment upon man’s fate. According to naturalism, man is a helpless pawn, at the mercy of the surrounding. For instance, in Janie Gerhardt, a novel written in 1911 and wildly considered as the twin sister of Sister Carrie, Dreiser has his wealthy and seemingly impregnable hero—Lester declare those words, “all of us are more or less pawns. We’re moved about like chessman by circumstance over which we have no control”. [2] This famous pronouncement is often regarded as the philosophical

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.

Iris Murdoch holds a significant position in 20th century modern women writers. She is deeply keen in the moral facet of life. She is a philosopher and moralist who investigate the intricate recessive of human wits, mind and highlights the different personalities in this world. Her novels usually contrast of nature of like and unlike personalities, which are the main characters of the author’s description and examination. All the characters in her novels bring to light about the convoluted psychological aspects that is related to society, individual moral, spiritual principled and legendary. In an interview with Slaymaker, she declares

The background information of this essay will explore the need for nature in modern life. This essay will also provide a brief summary of Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild. Finally, the paper will show that Christopher McCandless lived the dream of throwing off the trappings of modern life and living off the land. His dream was to exist as one with nature but he found through his journeys that nature is a force that will test men relentlessly, especially men who are ill prepared.