American Naturalism (1890s)

Historical Background

The spread of industrialization created extremes of wealth and poverty. Slums areas like Bowery, New York appeared where poor people lived and where there were crimes, murder, diseases, violence and all the worst things in the world. Life became a struggle for survival.

Farmers were still going westward, but frontiers were about the close. People were doomed to have no more land. They had to depend on the transcontinental railway to transport their products, therefore, railway became their master. Farmers were caught in the grip of the railway company.

The spread of Darwin's theory of evolution changed people's ideology "the theories of 'survival by social selection' and 'survival of the fittest'". Living in an indifferent, cold and Godless world, man was no longer free. People's outlook toward life became pessimistic.

 

American Naturalism

Naturalism was a new and harsher realism. It developed on the basis of realism but went a step further than it in portraying social reality.

Thematically, naturalistic writers

  • wrote detailed descriptions of the lives of the downtrodden and of the abnormal
  • had frank treatment of human passion and sexuality
  • were concerned about how men and women were overwhelmed by the forces of environment and by the forces of heredity

Technically, naturalistic writers

  • made detailed documentation of life: nothing but the truth, more naked and wicked than realis
  • created gloomy and pessimistic atmosphere

American Naturalism first came into existence in Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, then had its manifesto in McTeague by Frank Norris, and later came to its maturity in Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.

 

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

The Red Badge of Courage (1895), bringing him to an international acclaim. War ceased to be a symbol of courage and heroism, instead, it turned out to be a slaughter house, a ruthless machine.

Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (1893), the first naturalistic novel by an American, based on the writer¡¯s observation of the Bowery life. Environment is a tremendous thing for an insignificant human being to battle against.

 

Frank Norris (1870-1902)

McTeague (1899), a textbook and manifesto of American naturalism, the forces of environment controlling the destiny of human beings

A trilogy, comprising of The Octopus (1901), The Pit (1903) and The Wolf (never written), is about the fate of the American farmers.

Norris exerted general influences on such later writers as Faulkner and Steinbeck, but he is not much read today for his excessive sentiment and philosophical inconsistencies.

 

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

He was the ninth child of a family of 13 children, his parents being German immigrants. Living in great poverty and misery and being humiliated by the misbehavior of his brothers and sisters, Dreiser fled to Chicago at the age of 15, where he began a series of menial jobs. Finally he got a job on a newspaper and began a career as a free-lance journalist and a magazine editor.

Dreiser was left-oriented. He visited Russia and had a strong sympathy for communism, for those people haunted by poverty, for the weak and the oppressed. He joined the American Communist Party before he died.

He believed that "man was merely a mechanism moved by chemical and physical forces beyond his control", that man was "merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence".

Dreiser was the greatest literary naturalist. His works are powerful in the portrayal of the American life, but the style is crude with inexact expressions and cliches. Nevertheless, it is in Dreiser's works that American naturalism is said to have come of age.

  • His Works:
    • Sister Carrie (1900), first rejected by publishers for its honesty in depicting American society, but enjoyed fame later on. He was so depressed by the rejection that he walked by the East River, seriously contemplating death.
    • An American Tragedy (1925), autobiographical
    • Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928)
    • "Old Rogaum and His Theresa":
      • theme: generation gap: the severe control and strict demand of the parents vs. the rebellion and asking for freedom of the child
      • social problem: juvenile delinquency, prostitutes and problems concerning foreign immigrants
      • writing technique: detailed descriptions of the streets, shops, houses and so on, together with the psychological analysis
      • In a metropolis like New York, a girl like Theresa is very easy to fall. The forces of environment are in effect here.

O. Henry (1862-1910, William Sidney Porter)

He was born in North Carolina where he had but a brief schooling. He was put into prison for alleged embezzlement of funds at the bank for which he worked, a technical mismanagement in fact. He might have been acquitted had he not fled to Honduras. This began his career as a writer. He had a fine sense of humour and was adept at depicting social life, especially of ironic circumstances. His characters were often plain and simple and the plots usually depend on the surprise ending.

His Works:

  • "The Gift of the Magi"
  • "The Whirligig of Life"

 

Jack London

He was born as illegitimate son and wandered and roamed around the country when he grew up, but he managed to read extensively. Writing more than 50 books and earning a million dollars, he was never satisfied, indulging himself in alcoholism and mental disintegration. He used to work 19 hours a day, but he spent the money as quickly as he earned it. He finally committed suicide.

His Works:

  • The Sea Wolf (1904), super man image, influence of Nietzche
  • Martin Eden (1909), autobiographical

 

Text Study: Jack London's "The Law of Life "