NATURALISM

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NATURALISM

• A Journey Through Realism
• Mr. Hrga
• English 3 American Literature

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What is Realism?

• Literary Period that started after the Civil War
• End of war had given country a sense of unity,
  but the cost of human life shattered the nations
  idealism
• Deals with the harsh realities of life coupled
  with the harshness of the frontier
• Writers wanted to portray real life with
  ordinary people

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Bit more of Realism

• Show characters and events in honest, objective ,
  and factual way
• Realist showed unflinching portrayal of
  loneliness and cultural isolation of humanity,
  especially on the frontier

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What is Naturalism?

• Naturalism a literary offshoot of Realism
• Depicted real events and real people in nature
• Believed forces larger than the individual
  controlled the world
• Nature, fate, heredity shaped individual destiny,
  society and the future

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More on Naturalism

• Idea of human endurance in the face of
  overwhelming natural forces
• Reality is one of harshness
• Saw Industrialization as force against which
  humans were powerless

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And a bit more

• Writers dealt with loss of innocence
• Shift from idealism and optimism to one of
  pragmatism and pessimism
• Humans had no control over environment, chance or
  forces they could not understand
• No way to control your destiny

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Nothing you can do!

• REALISTS / NATURALIST believed that there was
  nothing a human individual could do in the face
  of nature and reality
• Humans are utterly hopeless

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THE END