Existentialism vs. Naturalism in Native Son Essay

When I was recently suffering from the precaution sweet tooth syndrome, I hadnt the slightest mite that the result would lead to a individualistised and universal philosophical debate worthy of comparison to Richard Wrights congenital discussion. I prove a bag of descend milk deep br take ins in my cupboard, and proceeded to snack mindlessly. If you nourish ever had a Dove chocolate bar, you may know that the foil wrappers involve adorable anecdotes, encouraging you to take a hygienic-deserved bubble bath, or reminding you that when cardinal hearts race, both(prenominal) win. after merely cardinal chocolates (I swear), I came crossways a wrapper that I found slimly hysterical in nature. review your instincts, it beckoned, and I wanted to laugh mystify out loud. What did this even mean? I began to trust about the legend I was course session, indispensable Son. The main character, large Thomas, was somewhat of a slave to his instincts. besides were they eve n his? And thus, my confirm curiosity over populateential philosophy and reality began. Though Richard Wrights aboriginal Son encompasses several traditional values of existentialism, the flair and themes presented argon primarily a reflection factor of the subjectiveistic movement in school of thought and books.The philosophical studies of mankind beings, existentialism and naturalism, component part a vital amount of similarities. But the features between the two must be emphasized in order to smash comprehend which style Richard Wright employed. Upon dissecting the style, themes, speckle, and characters in Native Son, it is clear that naturalism was the predominant philosophical access code. existentialist philosophy has been defined as a philosophical movement or tendency, accentuating individual existence, repositiondom and preference.The existentialists conclude that human choice is subjective, because individuals fin every last(predicate)y must make for their own choices without help from such external standards as laws, ethical rules, or traditions. Lifes events be not predetermined, exactly kinda a be a series of atomic number 42s. world existence, then, keepnot be thought through categories take into account to things substance, event, process. There is something of an internal distinction in existence that undermines such attempts, a distinction that existential philosophers try to capture in the categories of facticity and transcendence. To be is to co-ordinate these opposed moments in some way, and who I am, my essence, is nothing but my manner of co-ordinating them, according to Existentialism as Philosophy. Because individuals make their own choices, they argon free, but because they freely choose, they are all told responsible for their choices. The existentialists emphasize that freedom is of necessity accompanied by responsibility. Furthermore, since individuals are oblige to choose for themselves, they have their freedomand because their responsibility thrust upon them.They are condemned to be free. The term naturalism describes a grammatical case of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings, says Donna M. Campbell in Naturalism in American publications. Naturalism is more of a philosophical study than literary technique. Naturalistic writers gaze human behavior as markled by instinct, emotion, or amicable and economic conditions, and reject free will, adopting instead, in large measure, the biologic determinism of Charles Darwin and the economic determinism of Karl Marx.Naturalism in literature is, in essence, an approach that proceeds from an abridgment of reality in terms of natural forces like heredity, environment, and physical drives. Naturalism has its grow in the renaissance, its backgrounds in the Middle Ages. Authors in the Naturalist movement tended to deal with the stinging aspects of life. The subject matter in naturalist works differs from realism in that it often deals with those raw and unpleasant experiences which reduce characters to fatal behavior in their struggle to survive. These characters are mostly from the lower middle or the lower classes.They are poor, uneducated, and unsophisticated. Naturalism and Existentialism have several similarities. Both philosophical means of studying human nature belongs to intellectual history. They strive to catch a strong sense of objectivity and coldness to their studies. They are based upon cerebrate and logic, and want to see human beings scientifically. The trace difference between naturalism and existentialism is the exercise of free will, and the individuals ability to find meaning in their life. Naturalist perspective argues that humans cannot say their own extends.Their belief is that an individuals life is determined by its environment, heredity, circumstances, and so forth, whereas existentialists are ba sed upon the concept of the individual acting out of free will. The subroutine of life is to reject remote regime or impacts on ones life. Therefore the essential question referring to Native Son is does big take control of his own life, or is his life conventional by his surrounding circumstances? The plot of Native Son contains examples of both existentialism (arguably) and naturalism. Primary models of existentialism would be the bigs murders of Mary Dalton and Bessie.His reaction is not one of regret, but one of euphoria He had done this. He had brought all this about. In all of his life these two murders were the most meaningful things that had ever happened to him. larges possibilities have always been scrawny by racism, but after these homicidal acts, he is free to act (and to live with the consequences of these actions) for the first time. Even though these consequences finally mean flight and imprisonment, this feeling of self-confidence and personal control none theless mud liberating and intoxicating for bigger.This action brought big outside his family now, over and beyond them. Other significant existentialist passages surround the make figures in larges life. The first is his mother, who sings a spiritual song early in the story. Bigger becomes annoyed with this, showing his require to move past religious pledge to find his own meaning. The rejection of religion is a very common feature of existentialism, in particular for philosophers such as Sartre and Nietzche. Nietzsche proclaimed Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Sartre elaborates on this bold statement by saying that nothing will be changed if God does not exist we shall discover the same norms of honesty, progress and humanity, and we shall have wedded of God as an out-of-date guess which will die away quietly of itself. The second instance is Mrs. Dalton, who he somewhat compares to his mother. In their conversation in the Da ltons kitchen, Bigger notices that Mrs. Dalton seems to want him to do the things she felt that he should have wanted to do, rather than the things his mother imposes upon him.Despite his dislike towards Mrs. Dalton, she gets Bigger to pass over thinking about his own desires, and how he wants to live. Naturalism, on the other hand, makes up quite a majority of the book. Bigger, whom the focus revolves around, is a naturalist character. He fits all of the adept traits of a representational hero they are Frequently but not ever ill-educated or lower-class characters whose lives are governed by the forces of heredity, instinct, and passion. Even Biggers actions that pass off him a sense of meaning by going against the norm are cases of him spare-time activity instincts.And his instincts are based off of passions that are determined by his environment and past. For example, Bigger often feels enraged, ashamed, and fearful. All of these emotions come as a result of him feeling as though he is overstepping a social boundary, or he thinks he is being mocked for his race or social status. The moment a situation became so that it worked up something in him, he rebelled. That was the way he lived he passed his days trying to castigate or gratify powerful impulses in a world he feared. When he stifled these feelings, he was playing into his surroundings, and when he acted upon them, he was a product of his environment. The elementary tone and style in which the novel was written reflects naturalist ideals. While reading Native Son, I felt an eerie detachment from the story and the characters. It is not entirely cold, but the style effectively forces the ref to realize that this is a unique fictitious character of hero. Through a methodical testing of the human nature of the story, it accomplishes a naturalistic way of making the reader come to this conclusion.Today Bigger Thomas and that home are strangers, yet they hate. They hate because they fear, and they fear because they feel that the deepest feelings of their lives are being assaulted and outraged. And they do not know why they are powerless pawns in a machination play of social forces. This examination of human beings displays a very scientific approach to cause-and-effect instances in human nature, as well as the inability to exercise free will over circumstances. In Wrights essay, How Bigger was Born, he discusses Bigger as chiefly a confederacy of many real relationships and political metaphors.Biggers relationship with white America, both North and South,I had to depict,I had to make known once again, alas a relationship whose effects are carried by every Negro, like scars, somewhere in his body and mind. Because Native Son is Biggers story, and Bigger is a naturalist human being, the novel is naturalistic as well. Any example of existentialism can be argued as yet another(prenominal) result of Biggers long struggles. The instincts Bigger followed, whether or not prescribe by a chocolate wrapper, were fundamentally naturalistic.Works Cited http//www. crsd. org/505208273510200/lib/505208273510200/Existentialism_Overview. doc http//static. dpsk12. org/gems/dsa/SartreonExistentialism. doc http//www. tameri. com/csw/exist/exist. html Campbell, Donna M. Naturalism in American Literature. Literary Movements. . http//plato. stanford. edu/entries/naturalism/ Nietzsche, Friedrich. God is dead(p). http//static. dpsk12. org/gems/dsa/HowBiggerWasBorn. doc http//static. dpsk12. org/gems/dsa/NaturalismAmerLit. doc.