Jack London content introduction bob naturalism (1880s 1940s)

1.BOB Naturalism (1880s - 1940s)
1.1 History 
But naturalism is not only limited to materialistic determinism. 
Especially Donald Pizer refers to naturalism‟s “affirmative ethical 
conception of life” (1984, 12), even though he and other authors criticize 
inconsistencies of this thesis in many common naturalist works. That is 
why “one begins to wonder just where one finds the novels that define 
the form” 
(31), as June Howard said, which leads to the conclusion, that every 
naturalist author interprets naturalism in his own special way. A very 
concise definition of naturalism by Eric Sundquist can be found in the 
introduction of American Realism: New Essay: “Revelling in the 
extraordinary, the excessive, and the grotesque in order to reveal the 
immutable bestiality of Man in Nature, naturalism dramatizes the loss of 
individuality at a physiological level by making a Calvinism without 
God its determining order and violent death its utopia” (13). 
2.1 History 
The term naturalism itself was first invented by the French author Émile 
Zola, who claimed a „scientific‟ status for his studies of impoverished 
characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession and 
hereditary defects in Thérèse Raquin (1867), Germinal (1885) and many 
other novels (cf. Campbell). Naturalist fiction also aspires to a 
sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched 
investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. This 
scientifically position of Zola influenced many American naturalists 

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heavily. To this Donald Pizer notes in his book Twentieth- century 
American literary naturalism: “The work of Crane, Norris and Dreiser in 
the 1980s has many of the obvious characteristics of Zolaesque 
naturalism” (6). The American naturalism can be defined as a reaction to 
the realist fiction of the 1870s and 1880s, which was limited to middle-
class topics with taboos on violence and sexuality. Furthermore, they 
thought that realism was not able to represent the ethnic mix of the 
growing industrialized American cities and were skeptical about the 
notions of bourgeois individualism characterizing realist novels about 
middle-class life (cf. Pizer 1982, 5). Naturalism, seen in a historical 
context, was affected by the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), which 
brought demand for a „truer‟ type of literature that does not idealize 
people or places (cf. Pizer 1984, 32). The invention of photography 
during the 19th century also supported these perceptions. 
2.2 Characters and Setting 
The characters in naturalist novels are “the poor, the uneducated and the 
unsophisticated” (Pizer 1984, 11), mainly from the lower middle class or 
the lower class. Their common life consists of the dull round of daily 
existence in which naturalist authors discover qualities of man. These 
are usually associated with the heroic or adventurous and “culminate in 
desperate movements and violent death” (Pizer 1984, 11). Naturalists, 
however, discover the traits of human nature in this theme. Furthermore, 
their lives are governed and controlled by the forces of heredity, instinct 
and passion. Their attempt at exercising free will or choice fails because 
of the forces beyond their control. This determinism of the characters in 

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naturalist novels shows the influence Social Darwinism had on the 
authors and helps at the same time to explain the fates of the characters 
to the reader. The theory of Charles Darwin also illustrates the low 
standing of humans in the world and makes clear that nature does not 
care about them, which again shows the determinism of naturalist 
characters. These characters usually end up in desperation or death, but 
“they die not in bed, at home, of old age and natural causes, but in open 
boats, in Death Valley, in the electric chair […] [or] in the nowhere of 
the Yukon” (Sundquist 13). However naturalist authors describe not 
only his observations of determinism, but “create a living engagement 
between artist and subject matter which results in a fullness and 
complexity of expression rather than an emotionally sterile portrait of 
„forces at work‟” (Pizer 1982, 6). Moreover, the assumption of 
naturalists that the individual is a cipher in the world, leads the 
naturalists to find a “new basis for man‟s sense of his own dignity and 
importance” (Pizer 1984, 11). Besides the influence of this supposition 
on naturalist characters, the belief that every individual no matter how 
poor or socially disadvantaged he is, has the whole values of all life, 
including emotion and defeat can be seen as well (cf. Pizer 1984, 12). In 
the words of one of the most famous representative of American 
naturalism, Frank Norris, a “romance of the commonplace” (Pizer 1984, 
12) is generated in naturalist novels. Since the authors wanted to 
represent the new growing industrialized and multi- ethnic American 
cities with their problems, which were in their opinion not appropriate 
represented by realism authors, the setting in stories written during 
naturalism is usually urban (cf. Campbell). 

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2.3 Themes and Conflicts 
The themes of naturalist stories changed during the age of naturalism. In 
the following, the themes and conflicts of naturalism in the late 19th and 
the early 20th century will be described. At that time survival, 
determinism and violence can be identified as most common naturalist 
topics and as the “tragic themes which are the heart of American 
naturalism” (Pizer 1982, 6) as well. While the “theme of determinism, 
which is of course basic, carries the idea that natural law and 
socioeconomic influences are more powerful than the human will” 
(Walcutt 20), the theme of violence “grows with the transfer of emphasis 
from tradition to survival” (Walcutt 20). Furthermore, naturalist authors 
often deal with the dark harshness of life as poverty, racism, prejudice, 
disease, prostitution and filth in their stories. Especially “sex begins in 
their fiction to emerge as the great theme of modern art” (Pizer 1982, 7). 
Thus writers often were criticized for being too blunt and shameless. In 
addition, strong emotions such as lust, greed and pleasure as well as the 
fight for survival, are often used topics in naturalist stories. The typical 
naturalist conflicts „man against nature‟ and „man against himself‟ 
show nature as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings, 
which demonstrates the affect of the forces of heredity and environment 
on individual lives (cf. Pizer 1982, 7). Furthermore, naturalist writers 
often draw the picture of an indifferent, deterministic universe in which 
the failure of attempts of human beings to exercise free will is often 
ironically presented and so reveals free will as an illusion. Consequently, 
“the naturalistic tragic hero is a figure whose potential for growth is 
evident but who fails to develop because of the circumstances of his 

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life” (Pizer 1982, 6). This is a direct opposite of the Aristotelian hero, 
who despite being a man of worth begins to fall (cf. Pizer 1982, 7). 
Additionally, another frequent topic in naturalist fiction is the problem 
of elusive and shifting knowledge. With the decline of belief and faith in 
the 1890s, the ability of man to carry one‟s life with hands by means of 
a clear sense in a changing world got disputable. Thus the yearning for 
knowledge and values of man in an unknown and doubtful world in 
himself was picked up by naturalist authors and was presented tragically 
as well as ironically (cf. Pizer 1982, 7). 
Naturalism is a literary movement from the late 19th and early 20th 
centuries that analyzed human nature through a scientific, objective, and 
detached perspective. Despite decreasing in popularity after the early 
20th century, Naturalism is still one of the most influential literary 
movements to this day!