Naturalism Practice Questions

Correct answer: Émile Zola

Émile Zola articulated the principles of Naturalism in his essay 'The Experimental Novel', arguing that literature should function like a scientific laboratory. While Balzac was a pioneer of Realism, it was Zola who specifically developed the deterministic framework of Naturalism.

Correct answer: Heredity and environmental determinism

Naturalists believed that human character and fate were determined by the twin forces of heredity and environment, a view heavily influenced by contemporary evolutionary science. Freud's psychoanalysis emerged slightly later and focused more on the unconscious mind rather than purely biological/environmental determinism.

Correct answer: To trace heredity's physiological and social influence on one family

The entire 20-novel series was designed as a controlled scientific study of how a family's genetic makeup and social environment dictate the life paths of its members. While industrial urban isolation is a recurring theme in several of the novels, it is subordinate to the overarching focus on heredity.

Correct answer: Clinical objectivity

Naturalist writers aimed to maintain the 'clinical objectivity' of a scientist, documenting the 'symptoms' of their characters' lives without offering explicit moral guidance. This differs from satire, which inherently carries a moral or corrective judgment.

Correct answer: Urban environments characterized by poverty and decay

Naturalism focuses on the harsh realities of the working class and the squalor of urban environments to demonstrate the crushing force of environment. Pastoral settings are more associated with Romanticism or earlier, more idealized forms of literature.

Correct answer: The idea that humans are powerless against biological and social forces

Naturalism emphasizes determinism, asserting that characters are essentially trapped by forces beyond their control. The idea of willpower is usually portrayed as an illusion in Naturalist texts.

Correct answer: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is a seminal Naturalist work that depicts the inevitable tragic descent of an impoverished girl in New York City. While Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser is another classic of the movement, it was published later.

Correct answer: Presenting a raw, unedited, and often mundane segment of existence

Naturalists sought to capture the 'slice of life' by representing the unvarnished, often bleak realities of human experience, even those traditionally considered too mundane for literature. It rejects the artificial smoothing over of reality typical of older narrative traditions.

Correct answer: Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann was a pivotal figure in German Naturalism, particularly through his play 'The Weavers', which focuses on the economic and social struggles of laborers. Goethe and Heine belong to much earlier literary eras, and Thomas Mann's later work is largely focused on modernist themes.

Correct answer: As an active force that limits and shapes the characters' destinies

In Naturalism, the environment (the 'milieu') is a central antagonist that actively restricts the characters, making it impossible for them to rise above their social class. This environmental determinism is the core of the Naturalist 'experiment'.

Correct answer: Meticulous, gritty, unflinching detail about the physical world

Naturalist writers were famous for their 'gritty' realism, including descriptions of disease, poverty, and bodily functions that were previously taboo in literature. They wanted to prove that no aspect of reality was beneath the writer's gaze.

Correct answer: It results from the clash between the individual and crushing circumstance

Tragedy in Naturalism is not moral or cosmic; it is systemic and inevitable, occurring when the character's desires clash with the unyielding reality of their class or biological limitations. The character's moral worth is irrelevant to the outcome, which marks a major departure from classical tragedy.

Correct answer: The theory of evolution by natural selection

Darwin's work provided the intellectual foundation for the idea that human beings are animals struggling for survival in a natural environment. Naturalists took these biological concepts and extrapolated them into the social sphere.

Correct answer: August Strindberg

August Strindberg, particularly in plays like 'Miss Julie', applied Naturalist principles to the stage, using settings and character psychologies that reflected biological and social determinism. Ibsen is often linked to the movement, but Strindberg is more explicitly associated with the 'Naturalist' label in its purest theoretical form.

Correct answer: It borrows Realism's methods but adds deterministic pessimism

Naturalism builds on Realism's commitment to recording the details of everyday life, but it pushes that record into a more rigid, scientifically-inspired framework of doom and determinism. Realism aims to record life, while Naturalism aims to explain it through external forces.

Correct answer: As biological or chemical urges the individual cannot suppress

Naturalists strip human emotion of its romantic, transcendent quality, viewing impulses like lust, anger, or greed as predictable biological drives. The character may struggle, but their failure is framed as an inevitable failure of their biological wiring.

Correct answer: Sister Carrie

Sister Carrie explores the rise and fall of a young woman in the urban jungle, highlighting how chance and socioeconomic forces dictate her fate. The other books belong to different eras or movements, such as the Jazz Age or literary regionalism.

Correct answer: Extensive research into the setting and the social conditions of the characters

Naturalists were famous for the sheer amount of research they did—Zola, for instance, would spend days in mines or factories to describe them with 'scientific' accuracy. This commitment to primary source observation is what lent their fiction its aura of 'truth'.

Correct answer: It depicts it as nearly impossible or ultimately meaningless

Naturalist novels rarely feature a 'rags-to-riches' story without a dark, deterministic twist, because their philosophy suggests that one cannot escape their hereditary or class-based destiny. Even if a character appears to rise, they are usually shown to be trapped by their origin or circumstances.

Correct answer: Its focus on taboo subjects and a bleak, materialistic worldview

The public and critics were often shocked by the Naturalists' focus on the 'dregs' of society, sexuality, and the absence of a moral or redemptive dimension in their plots. This pessimistic focus was viewed by many as an attack on the healthy, moral foundations of literature.