Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Naturalism
While we were discussing the idea of Naturalism vs Realsim last week, I began to get curious on whether there might be naturalism or realism in any of the other readings we have discussed throughout the chapter. I went back and decided to analyze "Lynch Laws," and discovered a sense of naturalism. Though Ida B. Wells-Barnett writes from the perspective of a women who is clearly affected and disturbed by lynchings, I feel the "Lynch Laws" might still be considered a naturalist piece. Wells-Barnett's intentions is to inform while also instilling a sense of logic and patriotism, therefore her mode of presentation seems detached because she is trying to present facts. Her description is also vividly detailed as to persuade her audience. Though one might say it seems that she is too affected by lynchings to call this a naturalist piece, I feel that it actually is because of the author's intention and use of logic of factual evidence that makes this piece naturalistic.
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ReplyDeleteUnder one definition of naturalism I can see where some parts of Ida B. Wells's writing could be considered naturalistic. However, in one of the short handouts that were given in class last Wednesday it tells us on page 430 that "Naturalists view all individuals as being at the mercy of biological and socioeconomic forces, whereas realists hold that humans have a certain degree of free will that they can exercise to affect their situations." This leads me to believe that to say her writing was naturalistic goes against exactly what Wells is trying to do.
ReplyDeleteIn Maggie, we see these hopeless circumstances that there seems to be no real way to get out of. Maggie is at the mercy of her environment, and Maggie as a character in a novel can't escape them. However, Wells writes about real life and realistic situations. The reason she uses logical evidence and descriptions is her way of inciting her reader to change what she sees as the crime of lynching. She does not believe lynching is just a force that no one can fight against, and it isn't just limited to the poor the way many naturalistic works focus on the poor. I would say that Wells's "Lynch Law in America" is a realistic piece and not a naturalistic one.