Use of Naturalism Term Paper

Naturalism

Richard Wright's novel "Native Son" is one of the best descriptions of black people's life back in 1930 ies. The author has made an outstanding literature work revealing to the reader the racist persecutions of blacks with the help of naturalism. Naturalism in this book is seen through showing the reality just as it is, without any "embellishments." The reader sees the truth of the character's life "nude," without any covers on it, he can smell the dirt and feel the hopeless poverty. From the very beginning the influence of naturalism on this book can be easily observed. The author does not give the reader even a tiny hope that he will get an "illusion" of happiness he so much had used to. The novel consists of three parts: "Fear," "Fight," and "Fate." This structure, used by Wright, is very suitable for the use of naturalism in his novel. As it is known, naturalism examines the world around as a formation that does not care for people and everything that they might need in their lives. It functions like a machine by a certain algorithm.It has no other goal but functioning as it anyways influence the lives, because there is nothing they can do about it. It is important to draw a parallel between this machine-like functioning and the scheme into which Wright put his novel. It also appears to be an algorithm, but it is an algorithm of life a black man back then. This scheme is used to intensify the influence of the indifferent environment on the life of a man. One first fears the environment, then tries to fight it and then still he comes to his fate, predetermined by the power that environment has over people. At the beginning of the novel we see how he kills a rat that he got scared of. This rat as if it were a man that has no choice would finally accept its death, as it has nowhere to run away. It is a very naturalistic description that has a very deep meaning concerning Bigger's life. This H. fears grew up with him in the image of white people, something he could never be and all….....