Hey there, time travelers! I don't know what it's like where you are, but here we've got rain, wind,
thunder, lightning. I was originally supposed to play pickleball at the park down the road,
but once again, Mother Nature has thwarted my plans. I'm just glad I made it back inside in
time for Lesson 2 of Realism and Naturalism, Crane and London. In our last lesson,
you were introduced to two very different authors who had one big
thing in common. They were both realists. As you recall, realists believe that art should
represent real lives of real people - the way people spoke, the daily struggles they faced,
and the hypocrisy that they were up against. We also learned that naturalists were realists who
just took things a step further. Naturalists sought to examine human behavior through a
scientific lens, and explore the forces that shaped society and determined human behavior.
In this video, you'll learn a bit more about naturalism. You'll be introduced to authors
Stephen Crane and Jack London. You'll get a refresher on symbolism and conflict,
and before you go, you'll get a rundown of this week's lesson activities.
Okay folks, let's return to the very end of the 19th century,
when naturalists took us to a whole new level in their attempt to get real.
Naturalism was a movement heavily influenced by the scientific community of the time.
Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species had been published just before the Civil War,
and as the 19th century was drawing to a close, Darwin's ideas were beginning to
influence fields like psychology, sociology, and literature. Particularly his ideas about
heredity and environment. Some authors focused on the theory that a person's heredity and
environment determined their character and their actions. Think about it - you didn't
choose your genetic makeup, and you have very limited control over your environment.
I mean, can you control the weather? If you can let me know, because every time I schedule
a pickleball court at the park, it rains. Anyway, the idea of determinism - that you
are not in control of the things that happen to you, or maybe even the way you respond to them,
was strong in works of naturalism. So given this description of naturalism,
what kind of characters do you think you'll find at the center of these works? Idealistic
individuals? Inspirational leaders? Absolutely not. Usually naturalistic works focus on
characters from a lower socioeconomic status - people who don't have a lot of options.
Another common scenario is to have these characters face harsh elements
of nature - and we just have to hope that they've inherited characteristics necessary for survival.
These authors of naturalism constantly remind us that we are not in control. So what kind of
characteristics do you think you'll find in these works? As you might imagine,
themes are dark and usually involve danger, violence, poverty, or corruption. Kind of heavy,
right? But also very compelling. We're going to meet a couple of authors whose works became quite
popular in their time and have remained popular to this day. First up, we have Stephen Crane.
Stephen Crane was born in 1871 in New Jersey, and he grew up with an intense interest in the Civil
War. As a matter of fact, at one point he studied the Civil War while attending a military school.
He also went to Syracuse University for a while, but then he quit school and worked
as a reporter at a newspaper his brother owned. He started hanging out with New York artists,
most of whom lived in tenements, which were kind of like apartment houses for the urban poor.
These turn of the century tenements were often characterized as unsafe and unsanitary.
Crane published his first book in 1893, titled Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. It features a girl
who is unable to escape generational poverty, and is forced to make tough
choices in order to survive. That's some heavy determinism for you. Crane went on to publish
the classic novel The Red Badge of Courage in 1895, and it was immediately popular. Crane's
realistic depictions of Civil War battle and psychological trauma shocked a lot of readers.
His protagonist, Henry, is confronted by overwhelming forces outside of his control,
and readers have to just hope that he is strong enough to make it through.
This week, you'll read a short story called "The Open Boat". Crane places
four characters in a small boat on rough seas. And as the reader,
you watch how they react when natural forces challenge them. And then,
you're going to meet the legendary adventure writer and naturalist, Jack London, this week.
Remember how we said post-Civil War literature was branching out to include authors from places other
than the New England states? Well, Jack London is a prime example of this trend. He was born in
1876 in California. He grew up in a working class family that was always on the brink of poverty.
London quit school at age 14 to seek adventure, but he continued to read voraciously. At age 21,
Jack sailed north to seek fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush. In August 1896, gold had been
discovered near the Klondike River in Canada's Yukon territory, just east of Alaska. It's
estimated that a hundred-thousand people traveled to the cold and rugged North, hoping to find gold.
Most, including London, returned home penniless. But London had something better than gold.
He had inspiration for some great adventure stories. He went on to publish a bunch of short
stories and some 50 novels, including White Fang and The Call of the Wild, two of his most famous
works, both said amid the Klondike Gold Rush. Both of these books are classic examples of naturalism.
Natural forces are at play, and you can only hope the characters have inherited the traits needed to
survive. This week, you'll be reading the first chapter of the Call of the Wild. The protagonist
is a dog named Buck, who's removed from his domesticated life and forced to summon his primal
instincts in order to survive. Okay. In addition to a heavy dose of naturalism, you'll also get
a review of two literary devices used pretty heavily in these works: symbolism and conflict.
Symbolism, as you've learned, refers to the use of concrete objects to represent abstract ideas.
Do you remember any symbols from Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"?
Yeah, like the pink ribbons that represented Faith's innocence,
or that walking stick with the serpent on it to represent evil. You remember those?
Well, Stephen Crane uses some symbolism in "The Open Boat". One of the most obvious ones is, well,
the open boat. It's like the size of a bathtub. There's no shelter on it, and it's in the middle
of rough seas. What could it possibly represent? Well a boat could symbolize a journey, like life's
journey. It's tossed on rough seas, which could be representative of the forces that challenge us
along the journey. That fits with naturalism. Or maybe the boat represents safety or civilization,
you know, the man-made world. Or maybe the boat is life itself. There are a lot of possibilities
to consider. And there are a lot of other symbols too, like the sea, lighthouse, shark. You'll find
a lot of symbols as you read "The Open Boat", and it'll be up to you to interpret their meaning.
You'll also explore the literary device of conflict this week. Conflict is the struggle
between two opposing forces, and it's what stories are built upon. Conflicts can be internal, like
when a character is trying to make a decision, or when they're plagued by a haunting memory or by a
debilitating emotion. Or conflict can be external, like when there's a villain or arch nemesis or
even a bad storm, an injury, a disease, or an unjust society. You'll learn about four basic
types of literary conflict this week, and you'll analyze literature to identify conflict in it.
Alright, you're just about ready to journey back to the very beginning of
the 20th century. But before you go, let's be sure you know what's expected of you this week.
After today's video, you'll get started on your PDF readings and activities,
and follow that with some online practice questions. On days 2, 3, and 4, you'll
continue with the PDF and online practice. Then on day 5, your PDF has some reflection
questions and a little creative exercise. You'll write a vignette, a-la naturalism.
A vignette is a scene that describes a single moment in a character's life,
like eating breakfast or walking the dog. The thing is, you'll need to write it in
the style of naturalism. So be sure to throw some hardships at your poor character. You'll complete
this lesson on day 5, with some refresh your writing practice, and your online assessment.
Okay, well the rain has stopped, the sun is shining, and you are thoroughly prepared to get
started on this Crane and London exploration of naturalism. I think I'll see if I can get
a pickleball court. It might be a little wet now, but in a couple of hours - or maybe not!