Naturalism 1880 1940 Colten Leonard Noah Smith Ryan

Naturalism 1880 -1940 Colten Leonard, Noah Smith, Ryan Townsend, Matthew Southerland

Dark view of the world Unpredictable universe Free will is an illusion Characters' lives shaped by forces they can't control ( Nature) • Dominant themes: survival, fate, violence, nature as an indifferent force • Influenced by Darwin & Marx (Survival of the Fittest &Money/Class) • Civil War brings “truer literature” • •

Question & Answer Q: Naturalism is an offshoot of what literary period? A: It is an extension of the Realism Period.

What did the naturalists seek to explain? Naturalists wanted to explain the underlying forces of nature that influence our decisions and actions as human beings.

“None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks. Many a man ought to have a bath-tub larger than the boat which here rode upon the sea. These waves were most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall, and each froth-top was a problem in small-boat navigation. ” -Stephen Crane, excerpt from “The Open Boat” C R A N E

Response: • This excerpt is relative to the period because the writer’s of this period liked to focus on the nature and how it had dominance over man. Stephen Crane used imagery to make nature look even that much more menacing. This excerpt uses such imagery to make the waves and rocks more treacherous than if he just said the waves and rocks were dangerous.

Focus of Crane’s Work • Extreme experiences that are confronted by ordinary people • looks in without knowing the outcome of the novel. • The works contain vivid imagery. • Nature possesses dominance over man

Origin • Begins getting popular around 1890 and stays popular for about 20 years. • Its most famous & influential authors include: Stephen Crane (The Red Badge of Courage; 1895), Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie; 1900), & Upton Sinclair (The Jungle; 1906).

“When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterized her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother's farewell kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken. ” -Theodore Dreiser

Response: • It basically talks about how her memories and home have been “irretrievably broken”. • It mentions how the realism of life is not what people always expect. • The pain is natural all throughout the writing of this period.

Upton Sinclair • Exposed possible or real corruption • Social Activist • Essayist • Won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Jungle” They put him in a place where the snow could not beat in, where the cold could not eat through his bones; they brought him food and drink—why, in the name of heaven, if they must punish him, did they not put his family in jail and leave him outside —why could they find no better way to punish him than to leave three weak women and six helpless children to starve and freeze?

Response: • Exposed corruption in the meat packing industry. • Corruption is present in our world (Government) • Alters the view of America and damages • Impacted political/social the American Spirit reforms • Life doesn’t always live • Public uproar up to what you expect. • Contributed to 1906 Food and Drug Act & the Meat Inspection Act