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

The Function of Naturalist Works 
The function of naturalism is to present the world as it is—without 
embellishment, idealization, or romance—and illustrate the dominance 
of environmental conditions in human life and on individual characters. 
This perspective allows the author to comment on the darker sides of 
human nature. 
Subjects like poverty, disease, racism, and prostitution often make their 
way into literary naturalism. The gritty vantage point on the human 
experience can sometimes be bleak, but authors write this way in 
service of a higher purpose. They aim to improve the condition of the 
world by highlighting the dire, uncontrollable circumstances with 
which everyday people typically live. 
Naturalism vs. Realism 
Naturalism is an outgrowth of realism. The latter is a literary technique 
in which an author describes the way things are, but naturalism 
significantly expands upon this idea by delving into how the way things 
are influences a character‟s behavior and nature. 

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The characters in realist works have more agency. While they‟re 
products of their environments, they have the freedom to counter their 
environments and influence their own futures. This differs significantly 
from naturalist works, where characters enjoy no such autonomy from 
their circumstances. The hard reality of their lives, defined by genetics, 
nature, or just the cruel hand of fate, is the sole deciding factor in what 
happens to the characters. 
There is also a scientific component to naturalism. The movement 
coincided with the first publication of many of Charles Darwin‟s 
theories, which may explain the movement‟s tendency to portray a 
survival-of-the-fittest mindset and a lack of personal, independent 
choice in one‟s fate. Hand in hand with this idea is the presence of the 
more primitive or animalistic emotions in many naturalist characters. 
Naturalism is innately more socially conscious and political than 
realism. Characters usually live in hardscrabble conditions or face 
serious life-or-death decisions as a result of external factors rooted in 
society or circumstance. These conditions are essentially larger than the 
characters themselves, conditions with which many readers—
sometimes, whole communities—can identify. So, on a fundamental 
level, naturalism deals with more socially relevant issues and bigger-
picture perspectives than realism.