Proposed Research in Naturalism

Naturalism in literature emerged as a rebellion against genteel tradition promoted by Christianity at that time. In response to the tradition which adopted by most people in the society back to when it is still adopted, naturalists write, in order to impose new standards, beside the already existed standard. Naturalistic literature describes human’s life and fate are determined by nature, hence nature, in naturalistic literature, is portrayed as the force that is superior above human’s power. The works of naturalists do not praise human nobility, because they are not into it. Instead, the naturalists portrayed human, or the hero in the works of naturalist, able to devolve, instead of evolve, in order to cope with nature’s condition, or the condition given by nature, in naturalism’s scope.

Besides the superiority of nature, naturalism is characterized by pessimistic determinism in its work. The work shows, or the naturalists believe, that human’s fate is determined by nature. But, naturalism is also pessimistic that humans can change their own fate through their own means and effort.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London is one of naturalistic works. Naturalism, as previously explained, accentuate that nature is superior over human, and thus giving the possibility of power relations in the works of naturalists. Determinism is also a part of naturalistic literature, and it concerns the determined fate of life of humans in literature.

I propose to explore the way the laws of naturalism work in The Call of the Wild. It is done by examining the journey of Buck (the main protagonist of the novel, a dog in the novel described as having the inheritance of wolf or wild dog) from his totally-domesticated form to its final form, the full wild dog, a beast. Then in the process of which, I will examine the power relation between the humans that is interacting with Buck, and how they affect Buck’s progress to devolution. Finally, after Buck gained his primitive, beastly form I will examine whether or not determinism is in action and responsible of its devolution, and whether or not the final form of Buck is the way the nature in the novel devolve the animal, in order to make it a tool to the nature’s “advantage.”

The references I will use:

Cowburn, J. (2007). Determinism. In J. Cowburn, Free Will, Predestination, and Determinism (pp. 144, 161, 164). Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.

Cowley, M. (2004). Naturalism in American Literature. In H. Bloom, American Naturalism (pp. 49-78). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publications.

Foucault, M. (2004). Discipline and Punish. In J. Rivkin, & M. Ryan (Eds.), Literary Theory: An Anthology Second Edition (pp. 549-551). Malden, Massachusetts.