Naturalism and muckraking

“Regional” writers began to drop their narrow provincial focus, while still using realistic descriptions of everyday life. As they concentrated increasingly upon the grimmer aspects of reality and a deterministic view of life, they were called “naturalists,” linking them to European naturalists such as French novelist Emile Zola. Again, William Dean Howells led the American realistic movement, both with his magazine criticism and with his own novels, such as “The Rise of Silas Lapham”, a probing but sympathetic portrait of an American businessman. Howells defined the aims of realism as “nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material”. He called on writers to describe the average and the ordinary in the lives of the people of America.

In 1881, Hamlin Garland (1860-1940) published “Main-Travelled Roads”, a gritty portrayal of the farming communities of the upper Midwest, where he had grown up. It went beyond regionalism to condemn the economic system that, in his opinion, kept these people poor. Stephen Crane’s (1871- 1900) “Maggie, A Girl of the Streets”, in 1893, and Theodore Dreiser’s (1871-1945) “Sister Carrie”, in 1900, were considered shocking because they described young urban women who fell into sexual sin. Crane’s next novel, ‘The Red Badge of Courage” (1895) was set during the Civil War. By limiting itself to a young soldier’s confused impressions of battle, it became the first impressionistic novel in America. Frank Norris’ (1870-1902) “McTeague” (1899) was the story of a dentist’s despairing life; Upton Sinclair’s (1878-1968) “The Jungle” (1906) exposed the horrible lives of meat-packing factory workers. Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” (1903), the tale of a sled dog, was set in the snowy wilderness of the Northwest, where the discovery of gold had caused a rush of greedy prospectors. In this novel and other celebrated tales set in Alaska and in the South Pacific, London expressed his sense that primitive urges underlie all of life, reducing even humans to the level of animals. The autobiographical novel “Martin Eden” (1909) depicts the inner stresses of the American dream as London experienced them during his meteoric rise from obscure poverty to wealth and fame. The novel looks ahead to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” in its despair amid great wealth.

While these controversial books disturbed the reading public, other writers were quietly exploring the fate of the individual. After the turn of the century, Henry James, still living in Europe, wrote three brilliant novels, “The Wings of the Dove’, “The Ambassadors” and “The Golden Bowl”, in which he plunged deep into the characters and personalities of his subjects. These were chiefly wealthy, cultured Americans living in Europe, but, like the lower-class characters of the naturalists’ novels, James’ people were trapped in their environment, struggling to find happiness. James’ interest was psychological rather than social, however. Recording the most minute details of perception, he drew his readers close to his characters’ mental and emotional processes. His writing style became increasingly complex, but this focused attention away from action and setting and onto what the characters were feeling.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was one of James’ close friends and literary followers. She came from a socially prominent New York family and had married into an equally important Boston family. This high-toned social circle disapproved of her writing, but eventually she defied her peers and produced insightful novels and stories. One of her finest books, “The House of Mirth” (1905), tells the tragic story of a fading beauty hunting desperately for a rich husband. Wharton exposed her upper-class world as only an insider could, but her characters were her main interest.

By the first decade of the 20th century, even writers of popular fiction were concentrating their attention upon the lower levels of society. One of the most successful of these writers was O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910), who churned out hundreds of clever magazine stories, usually with an ironical surprise ending. Like Mark Twain (whose work is filled with stories about how ordinary people trick experts, or how the weak succeeded in “hoaxing” the strong), he takes the side of the “little people” and the weak “under-dogs” against the strong or important.

Midwesterners Ring Lardner (“The Love Nest and Other Stories”) and Booth Tarkington (“Alice Adams” and “The Magnificent Ambersons”), were less sentimental and more satirical than O. Henry, but they too wrote humorous popular fiction about the unglamorous lives of everyday people.