Naturalism

1890 to 1920
 Major Writers
Jack London
Stephen Crane

John Steinbeck (1902-1968), The Grapes of

Wrath (1939)
Kate Chopin The Awakening

Upton Sinclair

Mark Twain
Stephen Crane
November 1, 1871 June 5, 1900
Novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist.
He is recognized by modern critics as one of the
most innovative writers of his generation.
Cranes most celebrated and often misunderstood
novel is The Red Badge of Courage.
The novel was set during the Civil War, and
follows one young soldiers experience of that
war. Whats truly remarkable is that Crane wrote
with no actual experience of battle. His
descriptions and scenery were inspired by war
and history magazines, which he found dry and
too matter-of-fact. To Cranes mind, the stories
lacked any connection to the real feeling warfare,
as dates and locations of battles cannot even begin
to reproduce the essence of combat. He saw an
opportunity to craft the first novel that explored
warfare from the point of view of the psyche.
 Realism
The faithful representation of reality" or
"verisimilitude,"
Trying to accurately describe the human
condition
 What exactly is Naturalism?
Naturalism is a type of literature that
attempts to apply scientific principles of
objectivity and detachment to its study of
human beings.
Harsher version of Realism.
How is Naturalism different from
Realism?

Realism emphasizes the depiction

of life as it is lived.

Naturalism emphasizes the more

brutal aspects of existence.
 What are the characteristics of
Naturalism?
Characters - ill-educated or lower-class
governed by forces of heredity, instinct, and
passion.
Attempt to exercise free will.
 What are the major themes of
Naturalism??
Survival Violence
Determination Taboo
Nature as an indifferent Difference,
force acting in human deterministic universe
lives Forces of heredity and
The brute within- environment as they
strong emotions-- affect the individual
conflict-- man vs. nature
or man vs. himself
 Determinism
the doctrine that all Some philosophers
events, including have taken
human action, are determinism to imply
ultimately determined that individual human
by causes external to beings have no free
the will. will and cannot be
held morally
responsible for their
actions.
 Social Darwinism
thetheory that Now largely
individuals, discredited, social
Darwinism was
groups, and advocated by Herbert
peoples are Spencer and others in
subject to the the late 19th and early
20th centuries and was
same Darwinian used to justify political
laws of natural conservatism,
selection as imperialism, and
plants and racism and to
discourage
animals. intervention and
reform.
 Legacy
Naturalism was a relatively short-lived philosophical
approach to crafting novels.
Few writers of the period experienced real success in the
style, but those that did became titans of the art form.
It is difficult to gauge the total effects of Naturalism on the
path of American literature.
The fact that Social Darwinism eventually came to be seen
for the disguised racism that it is probably marred the
reputation of Naturalist writing.
However, the sheer art and craft of the literature that the
greatest novelists of the period generated overcomes such
handicaps
 The Open Boat plot

four men are in a dinghy. The ship

on which they were sailing sank
overnight, and they are the only
survivors, left to bob up and down
in the waves until their bathtub-
sized boat capsizes and they too
drown. They do not have a
moments peace.
 The ocean is so rough that one
indelicate move will upset the
dinghy and send them into the
winter waters. Each man, despite
not having slept for two days,
works tirelessly to keep the boat
afloat. The correspondent and the
oiler share the work of rowing,
while the cook huddles on the floor
of the dinghy, bailing water.
 These men take their direction
from the captain, who was
injured during the shipwreck
and sits grimly in the bow, the
memory still fresh of his ship
engulfed in the sea and the
crews dead faces in the water.
 As day breaks and the cook and
correspondent bicker about being rescued, the
men begin to make progress toward the shore.
Fighting hopelessness, they row silently.
Gulls fly overhead and perch on the water.
The gulls are at ease on the ocean, so much so
that one lands on the captains head. The men
see this as a sinister, insulting gesture, but the
captain cannot swat the bird off because the
sudden movement would likely topple the
boat.
 Eventually, the captain shoos the bird
away, and they go on rowing until the
captain sees a lighthouse in the distance.
Although the cook expresses reservation
that the nearby lifesaving station has been
abandoned for more than a year, the crew
heartens at approaching land, almost
taking pleasure in the brotherhood that
they have formed and in attending to the
business of the sea. The correspondent
even finds four dry cigars in a pocket,
which he shares with the others.
 During the night, the men forget about
being saved and attend to the business
of the boat. The correspondent and
oiler, exhausted from rowing, plan to
alternate throughout the night. But they
get tired in the early hours of the
morning, and the cook helps out. For
the most part, the correspondent rows
alone, wondering how he can have
come so far if he is only going to
drown.
 Rowing through phosphorescence and
alongside a monstrous shark, the
correspondent thinks of a poem he
learned in childhood about a soldier
dying in a distant land, never to return
home.
When morning comes, the captain
suggests that they try to run the surf
while they still have enough energy.
They take the boat shoreward until it
capsizes, and then they all make a
break for it in the icy water.
 The oiler leads the group, while
the cook and correspondent
swim more slowly and the
captain holds onto the keel of
the overturned dinghy. With the
help of a life preserver, the
correspondent makes good
progress, until he is caught in a
current that forces him to back
to the boat.
 Before he can reach the dinghy, a wave
hurls him to shallower water, where he is
saved by a man who has appeared on shore
and plunged into the sea to save the crew.
On land, the correspondent drifts in and out
of consciousness, but as he regains his
senses, he sees a large number of people on
the shore with rescue gear. He learns that
the captain and cook have been saved but
the oiler has died.
The Commodore
Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse/ Dingy
 Nature vs. Civilization
About the indifference of nature and the
necessity for each person to confront that
indifference independently
About the ability of people to work together
to make meaning (be civilized) despite
natures indifference
 Perception
None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes
glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that
swept toward them
In the wan light, the faces of the men must have been
gray. Their eyes must have glinted in strange ways as
they gazed steadily astern. Viewed from a balcony, the
whole thing would doubtlessly have been weirdly
picturesque. But the men in the boat had no time to
see it
 Simile & Metaphor
Many a man ought to have a bath-tub larger than the
boat which here rode upon the sea (728)
A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a
bucking broncho, and, by the same token, a broncho is
not much smaller (728)
Cook: Wouldn't have a show without on-shore wind
(729)
they now rode this wild colt of a dingey like circus
men (732)
Cook with arm around oilers shoulders: they were
the babes of the sea, a grotesque rendering of the old
babes in the wood (735)
 Characters
Cook: fat; a talker: Gawd!; looks at sea (728)
Cheerful (730)
Irrelevant talk: what kind of pie (735)
Oiler: more physical, agile; a worker; quiet
Rows more than anyone else: And the oiler rowed, and then
the correspondent rowed. Then the oiler rowed (733)
Focuses on work; sees least: all but the oarsman watched
the shore grow (731)
 Characters

Captain: mind . . . rooted deep in the timbers of

sunken ship (728)
impression of a scene (7 facesthe 7 men who died)
Becomes the captain of the dingystill commands respect
Correspondent: wondered why he was there: an
outsider, a thinker (728)
based on Crane himself; the main center of consciousness
cynical of men (730); sarcastic and cursing
 Characters
See conversation at end of section 1 (729):
"Houses of refuge don't have crews,"
said the correspondent. "As I understand
them, they are only places where clothes
and grub are stored for the benefit of
shipwrecked people. They don't carry
crews."
"Oh, yes, they do," said the cook.
"No, they don't," said the correspondent.
"Well, we're not there yet, anyhow," said
the oiler, in the stern.
 Language: Spare & Detached

They rowed and they rowed (730)

There was a sudden tightening of
muscles. There was some thinking
(732)
A conference was held in the boat
(738)
 Interpretation: Boat & Shore
Unbridgeable divide between the men and
the shore: men in boat misinterpret the
shore; people on shore misinterpret the men
(732-34):
"Well, I wish I could make something out of
those signals. What do you suppose he means?"
"He don't mean anything. He's just playing."
 Interpretation: Boat & Shore
Mens repeated reflection: If I am going to
be drowned -- if I am going to be drowned -
- if I am going to be drowned, why, in the
name of the seven mad gods who rule the
sea, was I allowed to come thus far and
contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought
here merely to have my nose dragged away
as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of
life? (732)
 Interpretation: Men & Nature
The correspondent finds his own visible expression
of nature in the wind-tower:
This tower was a giant, standing with its back to the
plight of the ants. It represented in a degree, to the
correspondent, the serenity of nature amid the
struggles of the individual -- nature in the wind, and
nature in the vision of men. She did not seem cruel to
him, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she
was indifferent, flatly indifferent (738)
 Subtle Brotherhood
The men form a community despite natures
indifference:
It would be difficult to describe the subtle
brotherhood of men that was here
established on the seas. No one said that it
was so. No one mentioned it. But it dwelt in
the boat, and each man felt it warm him
(730)
 Subtle Brotherhood
However, brotherhood has limits: each
character must finally face his individual
fate:
The correspondent, observing the others, knew
that they were not afraid, but the full meaning
of their glances was shrouded (738)
Perhaps an individual must consider his own
death to be the final phenomenon of nature
(739)
 Return to Land: Characters
Oiler: swimming rapidly, ahead in the
race (739)characteristic: strength
Cook: swims on backcharacteristic: size

Captain: holds onto boatcharacteristic:

control of boat
 Return to Land: Characters
Correspondent: paddled leisurely;
contemplates shorecharacteristic:
thinking, perception
The shore was set before him like a bit of
scenery on a stage, and he looked at it and
understood with his eyes each detail of it (739)
 Existentialism
As for the men, there was a great deal
of rage in them. Perchance they might
be formulated thus: If I am going to be
drownedif I am going to be
drownedif I am going to be drowned,
why, in the name of the seven mad
gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to
come thus far and contemplate sand
 andtree? Was I brought here
merely to have my nose dragged
away as I was about to nibble the
sacred cheese of life? It is
preposterous. If this old ninny-
woman, Fate, cannot do better
than this, she should be deprived of
the management of mens fortunes.
She is an old hen who knows not
her
 intention.
If she has decied to
drown me, why did she not do it in
the beginning and save me all this
trouble? The whole affair is
absurd.But no; she cannot mean
to drown me. She dare not drown
me. Not after all this work.
Afterward the man might have
had an impulse to shake his fist at
the clouds. Just you drown me,
now, and then hear what I call
you!
 Existentialism
theory or approach that emphasizes the
existence of the individual person as a free
and responsible agent determining their own
development through acts of the will.
Opposing naturalism yet connected in the
story.
The story is founded on the existence or
absence of free will.
 How the story questions
determinism
1. The constant questioning of fate and
its logic
2. The depiction of nature as a random
force rather than a sentient master of
humanity. (If nature is random how
can the future be determined?)
3. The lack of ideal values/ virtues in
the story. (Characters are not judged by
strength, wisdom or morality in nature)
 What does the story say about
nature/ existence then

1. That people attempt to moralize nature

(romantics think nature is greatest and
beautiful, naturalists think it is a chaotic
master)
2. There is no fate or master, we simply
exist and deal with the conditions around us
3. We should simply live our lives the way
we want because we are all in an open boat
drifting through the seas of existence
 Final questions
Why does the oiler not survive?
Chance?
Too weak from his self-sacrifice?
Lack of perception, imagination?
When it came night, the white waves paced to
and fro in the moonlight, and the wind brought
the sound of the great seas voice to the men on
the shore, and they felt that they could then be
interpreters How would we understand this
quote using the existentialism we just learned
Based on the difference between naturalism
and existentialism what could the shark, boat,
lighthouse, and 4 characters represent in each of