Naturalism and Realism in Crane, Steinbeck, and Twain

Defining Naturalism and Realism in American Literature

Naturalism and Realism are two movements of American literature that explore the human experience. Naturalist literature is often slightly darker in nature than Realist literature, though the two share much in common. Both movements attempt to examine the human experience authentically, but in the Naturalist world, people are often controlled by their environment and become victims of circumstance. From this perspective, free will does not play a significant role in the characters' lives. Characters are neither simplified nor exaggerated, and social conditions are important aspects of both Naturalist and Realist literature.

Realism focuses on characters and their experience, keeping that experience as close to the character's actual reality as possible. The characters in Realist literature are more important than the plot; however, the plot generally serves as a solid backdrop for the human experience. Realistic characters are generally not perceived as purely good or evil, but rather as human. Celebrated authors who examine the human condition through the Naturalistic and Realistic literary movements include Stephen Crane, John Steinbeck, and Mark Twain. Each author explores characters in their natural environment and allows readers to understand life on a deeper level. Crane, Steinbeck, and Twain illustrate through their writing what the Naturalistic and Realistic movements represent: that life is not always easy.

Stephen Crane and the Naturalist Vision

Stephen Crane was a maverick in the Naturalist movement. He portrays characters that become victims of circumstance because they cannot control their immediate environments. When reading Crane, one should keep in mind that his protagonists can only be held partially responsible for their actions because their free will has no direct bearing on the immediate situation. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets demonstrates Crane's ability to delve into the raw experience of a young girl who becomes a victim of circumstance. Maggie struggles with her environment throughout the entire story. Crane provides rich detail about Maggie's life, including the violence and negativity that plague her. He sets the tone of the novel in the first scene with shabby young men fighting and cursing in the streets. "On their small, convulsed faces there shone grins of true assassins," Crane writes (Crane, Maggie 3). We also see Jimmie at the hand of his abusive father in the first few pages of the novel. As the two walk into the tenement, they pass infants that "fought with other infants" and women "screaming in quarrels" (6). Jimmie is also abusive to Maggie — an angry habit that even his father cannot control. With these opening scenes, Crane reveals the uncontrollable aspects of Maggie's environment.

Violence is an integral aspect of Naturalistic literature, and it is often the end of it as well. In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Crane allows Maggie to feel love, but only briefly. Her life and her circumstances are beyond what she can fix or even control, and the unfortunate ending of the novel reflects the dark view that Naturalism often conveys.

Crane's most celebrated work, The Red Badge of Courage, is another novel that delves deeply into the human experience. The setting of war is the obvious environment by which the protagonist Henry becomes a victim. He can no more control his surroundings than he can wish himself out of them. The backdrop of war allows Crane to immerse himself completely in Henry's world. Henry witnesses death, and this experience turns him to "stone" (Crane, Red Badge of Courage 54). His encounter with a dead man represents the most primal aspect of nature that a man can witness — vile and disturbing — and it changes Henry forever. Henry cannot act with courage, and this allows us to see him in a wholly real environment. Crane maintains a pessimistic focus throughout the novel, evident even in its title: the badge Henry earns is not the kind associated with heroism in the traditional sense. Henry's experience is raw, and he becomes a victim of the war in which he served. He does eventually experience "a quiet manhood, non-assertive but of sturdy and strong blood... He had been in touch with the great death... He was a man" (154), but he is not whole by any means. Having survived war, he cannot return to who he was before, and this is deeply troubling. The novel allows readers to sink into the setting of war and experience what it means to encounter death and then attempt to return to life.

John Steinbeck's Naturalism: Environment and Desperation

Another prolific writer of the Naturalist movement is John Steinbeck. His novel Of Mice and Men explores the fate of George and Lennie, two men controlled by their environment and chance. Their struggle to achieve the American Dream results in a life of endless movement, never putting down roots. They have no place to call home, and their lower-class status becomes a force that controls them. George and Lennie face additional obstacles as well. Lennie's innocent but destructive habit of doing "bad things" (Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men 11) is constantly setting them back. To escape the repercussions of Lennie's behavior, the two resort to hiding in an "irrigation ditch all day" (11). Lennie is a burden, and George resents this at times. He feels as though he could break free and have a real chance on his own: "If I was alone I could live so easy. I could get a job an' work, an' no trouble" (11). George is placed in a situation that is almost impossible — his existence is constrained, and he longs for more. Ultimately, his act of violence leads to the death of an innocent man. Of Mice and Men captures Naturalist principles precisely because it demonstrates the utter lack of control people have over their environment.

Another significant example of Steinbeck's contribution to the Naturalistic movement is his celebrated novel The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck presents a vivid picture of the desperation that farmers faced during their migration to California. The setting is central to the novel's Naturalist themes and provides an excellent example of how environment controls the individual. Families suffer losses of various kinds, and relief never seems within reach. "The dawn came, but no day. In the grey sky a red sun appeared, a dim red circle that gave little light, little dusk; and as that day advanced, the dusk slipped back toward darkness, and the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn" (Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath 5). The novel also focuses on the dire realities of this setting. Families sold everything they owned in an effort to seek fortune in California, but the dream proved more devastating than they could have imagined. Farmers who had sold all their belongings would return to their anxious families with "hands in their pockets, hats pulled down... They walked back to the farms, hands in pockets and heads down, shoes kicking the red dust up" (113).

Steinbeck draws on experiences of loss to convey the utter hopelessness these people felt — stranded with nowhere to go. He emphasizes this heavy burden by showing families experiencing desolation together. The Joads and the Wilsons, for example, are "lonely and perplexed, because they had all come from a place of sadness and defeat, and because they were all going to a mysterious place, they huddled together; they talked together; they shared their lives, their food, and the things they hoped for in the new country" (249). These images present the absolute desolation every family faced, fully reinforcing the Naturalistic worldview.

Conclusion: Human Experience Across Both Movements

Naturalism and Realism are two closely related literary movements that focus on the unique human experience. They share many qualities, with the major exception that Naturalism is more pessimistic in its outlook. Naturalistic thought holds that individuals are not in control of their environment, and this idea is embedded in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, The Red Badge of Courage, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath. While each of these novels tells its own story, the notion that a person cannot control his or her fate runs through each one. Each story features characters who become victims of circumstance, and their outcomes are dark and often tragic. Free will may exist as an idea, but it remains only an idea in these stories, as the protagonists must accept their fates and do the best they can with what life has given them. Maggie, Henry, George, Lennie, and the Joads must all confront the unpleasantries of life, and their struggles for individuality make them heroes of a sort.