[EN 220] - Midterm Exam Guide - Everything you need to know! (21 pages long)
Document Summary
Characters are motivated by sexual desire, greed, and mob psychology. Details are not important in and of themselves as in realism. In naturalism the symbolism is found in large world issues. Society is divided into the have and have-nots, predator and prey. Men and women are not far removed from the animal world. Nature and fate are indifferent to humans. Words like courage and virtue have no meaning. The world is made up of random events. Everything and everyone is shaped by blind chance and environmental determinism. Many naturalist writers, such as crane, norris, london, and dreiser, began their careers as newspaper reporters, observing the world that was seemingly indifferent to human fate. As both journalists and as writers of fiction, they wrote to alert everyone to the bad conditions. Naturalists sought explanations for human behavior in natural science, and were skeptical, at least, of organised religion and beliefs in human freewill.
