Monday, May 7, 2012

Naturalism

What is naturalism? How does London's "To Build a Fire" exhibit the characteristics of naturalism?

24 comments:

  1. Naturalism depicts social problems and views humans as victims of larger biological, psychological, social, and economic forces. London exhibits characteristics of naturalism In "To Build a Fire" because it is about everyday life in the cold. The man in the story struggles with nature. It is so cold that he can not have his hands out of his mittens more then a minute. It shows how much you have to depend on yourself to survive.

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  2. Naturalism emphasizes the role of nature on characters in a story. Nature usually always has an important role in a Naturalist story. To Build A Fire is a good example of a Naturalist story. The story is about a man and his dog trying to survive in the Yukon and meet up with his friends. The man has to deal with the harsh cold and battle the freezing snow. He eventually falls in an underground spring and gets his legs wet. He starts a fire, but it is put out by the snow. The man begins to panic and starts running, but he falls down each time he tries to run. The story ends with the man "drowsed off into what seemed to him the most comfortable and satisfying sleep he had ever known". The harsh weather and environment plays a big role in this story, which makes it a great example of Naturalism.
    - Jeff Ayares <3

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  3. Naturalism is the depiction of the physical environment, especially landscape or the rural environment. London exhibits characteristics of naturalism in his "To Build a Fire". He uses many descriptions of the setting the story takes place. London uses the environment as the main conflict for his character. Nature is what kills the character in the end. London emphasizes the environment a lot through out the story.

    -Chelsea Abhau

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  4. Naturalism shows the true harshness of nature in its entirety. "To Build a Fire" shows this, as he walks through the harsh and unforgiving landscapes of Alaska. The temperature is cold, and liquids freeze as soon as they hit the open air. These are all characteristics of naturalism and each relate to naturalism.

    "..I know a few toes are going to be lost.."

    -Joe Starcevich

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  5. Naturalism was a nineteenth-century literary movement that claimed to portray life exactly as it is, with detachment and objectivity. London uses characteristics in his story "To Build a Fire”. He describes the setting and explains how nature is killing the man. He thinks him and his dog would be okay in the weather but in the end he was wrong. He tries his best to keep warm throughout the story but it just gets too cold for him to even make a fire. He also breaks through ice and gets wet which makes him have to build a fire again. Nature makes the man struggle to survive and plays a big role in the story for the man and his dog.
    Jordan Brank <3 MAMMA MIA

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  6. Naturalism shows the harshness of nature and potrays real life as it is. In the story, "To Build a Fire", the main character has to struggle to survive. The character is in the woods trying to fight hyperthermia in the freezing cold weather. The story shows the harsh environment of nature. That is how the story reflects naturalism.

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  7. Naturalism was a movement in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Naturalism relies on the truth that you cannot control anything outside yourself. Also, naturalism explores the realm of psychological and also behavioral aspect of human life. Many of the stories depict survival and have a scientific abjectivity that is normal fort the genre. In the story "To Build a Fire", Jack London writes about survival in the extreme cold. Though the main character does not make it out alive, he observes his predicement with almost no emmotional attachment. He says, "..I know a few toes are going to be lost.."(London). He says it with certainty because he knows that this is outside his control. That kind of acceptence is normal in Naturalism.

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  8. It started in the nineteenth century. It explores the psycological aspect of life. Tons of the stories are about survival. Also they have a scientific abjectivity.
    ~kwhth3

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  9. Naturalism says that people live with limited choices, that they live without free will, like an animal. It explore the psychological sides of our human nature & try to dissect it. It says that our behavior is beyond our power, & that our lives was basically a losing battle, that we lived crudely by instinct. that is resembled in "To Build A fire" because the man has limited choices to make while trying to live. He knew he was going to die when the snow put his fire out, which can be the human's life "losing battle" & the 'limited choices' part stands out when he decides to kill the dog. Sionce people don't really do that unless faced with few choices, that is how this story resembles Naturalism.
    -YinYang13

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  10. Naturalism is a harsher version of realism. It shows how harsh nature can be, and the negative results. In To Build a Fire, he has to battle something he can't control, which is the cold weather. In the end the cold weather kills him.
    -Jena Buoncuore

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  11. Naturalism was a movement in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Naturalism shows the harshness of nature and potrays real life as it is. London uses characteristics in his story "To Build a Fire”. The main character does not live, but he observes his problem with no emmotional attachment. He says, "..I know a few toes are going to be lost.."(London). He is very calm when he explains that he is going to lose toes. Naturalism truely protrays nature.

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  12. Naturalism is very objective and to the point. It is not being able to control what happens in the world and in your life, almost like everything is fate. You can't change your future, and you have to be able to take what comes at you in life. In "To Build A Fire," naturalism occurs with the survival of having to travel through extremely cold weather. Weather that not many people experience. It portrays the extremes of nature and that there is nothing we can do to change the way nature acts.

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  13. Naturalism is a style and theory of representation based on the actual depiction of detail. Naturalism explains things such as survival, absence of moral judgement,and indifference of the environment. Jack London's "To Build a Fire" demonstrates all of these elements. Throughout the story, the man in surviving in the cold, which relates to the survival theme. Also, the man learns a lesson which is the title, how to build a fire. This helps him through his journey in the cold weather. The events in the story have to deal with nature, and nature is eventually what ends up killing him.

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  14. Naturalism is a literary movement that had occurred during the 19th century. Its writings had to deal with exposing the darker and more harsh side of life. Violence and extreme actions would be incorporated into the writings. In "To Build a Fire" naturalism is used to show how nature brings the death to a man. The weather was described as being very extreme and freezing.

    -Umar

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  15. Naturalism it things that happen in real life. London show that in " to build a fire" because he trys to build a fire to survive and when the flame goes out he he dies. In real life you have to have a fire in your life and if there isn't a fire in your life anymore you are close to dying.

    Austin wolfer

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  16. its somthing about life and nature . it helps out little kids in the long run . its also builds a fire in a snow. he has to survive in the snow . so he builds a fire. hes also in the snow with the fire . " i know there are toes in that fire" . taco

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  17. Naturalism is written about things that happen naturally in life. Hypothermia is something you can get from being in nature. "To Build a Fire" is what the title says. This man has to build a fire to survive. He is relying on nature in order to defeat nature. Everything that happens in the story is because of his natural enviroment.

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  18. Naturalism is the depiction of the physical environment, especially landscape or the rural environment. London exhibits characteristics of naturalism in his "To Build a Fire".In the story "To Build a Fire", Jack London writes about survival in the extreme cold. Though the main character does not make it out alive, he observes his predicement with almost no emmotional attachment. He says, "..I know a few toes are going to be lost.."(London).

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  19. Naturalism focuses on nature and social problems like sociology and psychology. Naturalism is present in "To Build a Fire", by Jack London. It is present when the narrator depicts the surroundings in the Yukon, and the psychological and physical pain of facing death. The fires represent the narrators attempt to save himself from hypothermia, and escape death.
    Lisa Williams

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  20. Naturalism was a movement in the early 19th century. It was sought to show the harshness and the realities of the world they lived in. How no matter how hard he tried, he couldnt survive the harsh cold and everything bad that could happened, happened. He fell through ice, his dog did as well, he couldnt start a fire the 2nd time, and he froze to death. The fact that he didnt have many options and nature controlled his life and killed him, are all elements of naturalism. "He wetted himself half-way to the knees before he floundered out to the firm crust"(London)
    -Nick Williams

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  21. Naturalism is the style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail. London writes about surviving in the woods in a snow storm. He relates this to naturalism by describing the woods throughout the whole story. Also he talks about survival and what as a human has to do in the wild. He has to make a fire to survive and since he could not make it he died.

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  22. Naturalism is a style of writing that was created in the 19th century.It is a way of writing that is an appropriate way to show life without romanticizing details. "To Build a Fire" shows these characteristics in a couple of ways. The extreme conditions that occur though the story and how is is not dulled down for reading purposes. Also, the great amount of detail that is given about his life, it is more facts then emotions.

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  23. Naturalism is realism only taken to an extreme. It portrays human characters as animals. It also degrades humans and shows how they are flawed. Jack London's story "To Build a Fire" exhibits elements of naturalism because the human character's pride ends up killing him since he believes he's "man enough" to take on the harsh weather of the Yukon by himself. He does this even though he is advised to bring someone with him by a very wise man. It also shows the killer instict the man had that animals also have in order to survive when he attempts to kill the dog that has accompanied him to warm his hands so he could start another fire.

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  24. Naturalism is a version of literature that involves nature. London's "To Build a Fire" involves naturalism because the setting is out in nature. The man in the story is trying to survive out in the bitter cold in nature. Fighting nature is or living in nature or something revolving around nature is what naturalism is about. Harsh as it is, naturalism tells a story without beating around the bushes. Naturalism is cold and blunt, just like "To Build a Fire".
    Joe Cardona

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