Naturalism NATURALISM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON JOHN STEINBECK  Naturalism refers to a literary movement in American fiction that reached its peak popularity at the turn of the 20 th century.  Early naturalistic writers included Stephen Crane (“The Red Badge of Courage”) and Jack London (“The Call of the Wild”).  At the heart of this idea is something called “pessimistic determinism”: the notion that the causes of human tragedy lie beyond the powers of the individual.

Naturalism  This movement was influenced by Marxist theory (as in Karl Marx): the idea that class struggle is the central component of social change. This was coupled with economic and other problems that came from American changing from an agricultural to a more urban culture by the end of the 1800s.  This combination portrayed socio-economic forces that overwhelm individual lives.

Naturalism  Naturalists focused on the lives of lower-class characters struggling for survival in an alien and often hostile society – a society that was insensitive to their personal needs for fulfillment or self-expression.  Often, these characters are in some way grotesque, mentally retarded, or misshapen victims of genetic accident. Sometimes, they are people obsessed by greed or a compulsive plan for success that ultimately destroys them.

Naturalism  These characters’ stories are often told by an all-knowing narrator who knows about deterministic factors far beyond the knowledge of the characters affected by them.  The plots of Naturalism tend to depict the downward spiral of impending tragedy, and there is normally very little suspense about the final outcome of events.  No one emerges triumphant in a naturalistic novel, because simple survival equates to a moral victory.

Naturalism  John Steinbeck was not a dedicated student of American Naturalism, yet his themes and methods are often closely tied to this literary tendency. We will look at this as we read “Of Mice and Men.”