Realism, Naturalism, and Novels of Manner

     Historically, from the late 19 th century due to two main events industrialization and World Wars –the progress of American society started decreasing rapidly. Such a radical change going on in the society of America was captured by the novelist of the 20 th century. These novelists, who had moved away from the Romantic masters of the 19 th century, were either realists or naturalists and some where even the novelists of manners. These novelists have their own new styles to capture the changing society in their novels. The American fiction got accelerated as American society was attacked by society economic problems. On the one hand, economically the American society was divided in to majority and minority groups. While on the other hand, socially the Americans society was divided in to conservatisms and liberalists. Due to such divisions, counter culture developed in American society, so various writers stared to portray this society in various ways. The novels of realism represented life as it really is with life like characters and very much possible events. Realistic fiction is often opposed to romantic fiction. The romance is said to represent life more fantastically, adventurously, picturesquely or heroic than actuality. Realism on the other hand, is said to represent life as it really is.

     Naturalism is claimed to give even more accurate depiction of life than realism. In other words it is extended version of realism. But it is not special selection of subject matter; it is a mode of fiction which has a particular philosophical thesis. This thesis holds that a human being exists entirely in the order of nature. Human behavior is determined by two kinds of force- internal force like heredity and other compulsive instincts like hunger, passion , sensuality and the external forces of environment the social and economic forces in the family , the class , and the milieu. The ending of naturalistic novel is usually tragic because of the heroic but losing struggle of the individual mind and will against gods, enemies and circumstances. So if realistic portray the society the naturalistic portray the nature. Similar to the novels of realism, is the novels of manners. It also represents life as it really is, but focuses particularly on the social culture like, customs of conversations as any special type of social group (like professional and social class having different ways of thinking and valuing) In American society when culture developed, such difficulties of society were explored by the novelists of manners like Nelson Algren, Henry Millar, Norman Mailer etc. Hence, either by portraying life or by portraying nature as even by highlighting some social culture of social culture or social group, the novel of realism, naturalism and manner play an important role on the development of American fiction.

JOHN DON PASSOS (1896-1970) [Realistic]

     Passos was the person to bring social events in real sense as they occurred. He was a member of last generation of American expatriates in Paris in 1920s that included Ernest Hemingway and e.e. cummings. His focus was on social panoramas than towards personal and poetic expressions. So he was a social realist, which was a common feature among his contemporary realities. This method was typical of the fiction of 1930s. His best novels dealt with the subject matter of World War I and II. He is noted for rhetorical techniques that included prose poem, documentary collages and essays as well. In the war, he became detached observer; this means he did not participate in the war but rather observed everything as an outsides.In the later phase Passos tried to become more and more a naturalist. His intention was to expose ills and evils of contemporary American society that forced him to follow the line of crude reality. Therefore in the last phase of his writing careers he was close to naturalism. Passos was not happy with the contemporary American policy where many people were killed on the charge of being communists. Passos wanted to expose that reality. So his later phase or the journalistic phase is more important than the earlier phase of his career. The second phase of Passos is called the phase of disillusionment. Indeed Passos was fed up with American policy of treating public and injustice prevailing there. Some were killed on the charge of being communists and others without any cause the later realized that American policy, government and all the institutions, Agencies and others were not in favor of American people.Though Passos’s first novel deals with the impact of Europe and First World War an America, his later fiction reflects his dissatisfaction about the individual freedom being suppressed. Passos established his reputation with such novels as
Three soldiers (1921), Manhattan Transfer (1925), The Trilogy U.S.A (1936), Mid Century (1961)

JAMES T. FARRELL (1904-1979)

     The novels of Farrell give the sense that they are the product of depression, frustration and despair. Subject of his novels are catholic working class and lower middle class of Chicago that existed before World War II. He shows complexities of the time through the complex aspect of the character. His characters are frustrated and unhappy since they are trapped in difficult situation and frustration. War basically creates depression, sense of helplessness, frustration, despair, economic crisis and sometimes leads to the state of suicide. Farrell shows the painful condition of catholic working class and lower middle class which was the exact picture of contemporary American especially 1930s scenario of depression. Farrell developed the stories in series because he was so careful about detailed description where his characters grew gradually. This is the reason he used the trilogy or tetra-logy format in his works. Farwell used the language of working class people hence his characters are also uneducated people. The language used by Farwell was male language working class language and language of sports. He delivered language in clipped, direct, bleak style that made his style similar to that of Hemingway. It is to be noted that Passos wrote about war whereas Farrell wrote about the psychological aspect of war.
His novels are:
Study Lonigan: A Trilogy (1935), Young Lonigan: A Boy hood in Chicago Street (1932)
The young manhood of studs Lonigan (1934), Judgment Day (1935)

JOHN STEINBECK (1902-1968) [Naturalism]

     Like Passos and Farrell, Steinbeck is also angry about the loss of peace and softness-taken away by war industrialization and many more events. But unlike Passos and Farrell, the theme of frustration and bitterness in his fiction is not as intense as in Farrell and Passos fiction. His writing are set in northern California were the occupations are agriculture and fishing. The world depression of 1930s made him to see people loosing their agriculture land for industrialization and misery of farmer’s life. That compelled people to migrate from one place to another, generally from Midwest to California. He deals with such migration problems in his novels. Steinbeck is not critical; to historical time only but to the cycle of nature. So he does not separate politics and nature. He left them go hand in hand and rarely separated the politics from the nature. Steinbeck deals with nature yet he is not a naturalistic writer because the feeling of despair is not so insisted in his fiction rather insist is up on will and power to change one’s destiny. Unbridled (uncontrolled) assertion of power on the past of person brings hopelessness and despair in other persons so he is always suspicious of power. John Steinbeck was very much closer to nature and his writings have reached variety of observed details, in this sense he seems more realistic. But sometimes the detail is infused with almost symbolic significance. He presents reality in poetic sense, so his stories are also like myth and fables. He also presents the relation of characters in allegorical sense, which makes him different from Passos and Farrell. He was awarded by Nobel Prize in 1962. The significant novels of Steinbeck are:
In Dubious Battle (1936), The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Sweet Thursday (1954)
Of Mice and Men (1937), The Moon is Down (1942)

EARNEST HEMINGWAY (1899-1961) [Naturalist]    Hemingway’s novels are about war, death and lost generation since he himself was a member of lost generation. Read More...