When I was late enduring from the awful sweet tooth syndrome. I hadn’t the slightest hint that the consequence would take to a personal and cosmopolitan philosophical argument worthy of comparing to Richard Wright’s Native Son. I found a bag of Dove milk cocoas in my closet. and proceeded to nosh mindlessly. If you have of all time had a Dove cocoa saloon. you may cognize that the foil negligees include endearing anecdotes. promoting you to “take a well-deserved bubble bath” . or reminding you that “when two Black Marias race. both win” . After simply two cocoas ( I swear ) . I came across a negligee that I found slightly hysterical in nature.
“Follow your inherent aptitudes. ” it beckoned. and I wanted to express joy out loud. What did this even intend? I began to believe about the novel I was reading. Native Son. The chief character. Bigger Thomas. was slightly of a slave to his inherent aptitudes. But were they even his? And therefore. my ain wonder over existential philosophy and naturalism began. Though Richard Wright’s Native Son encompasses several traditional values of existential philosophy. the manner and subjects presented are chiefly a contemplation of the realistic motion in doctrine and literature.
The philosophical surveies of human existences. existential philosophy and naturalism. portion a critical sum of similarities. But the differentiations between the two must be emphasized in order to better comprehend which manner Richard Wright employed. Upon dissecting the manner. subjects. secret plan. and characters in Native Son. it is clear that naturalism was the prevailing philosophical attack. Existentialism has been defined as a philosophical motion or inclination. stressing single being. freedom and pick.
The existential philosophers conclude that human pick is subjective. because persons eventually must do their ain picks without aid from such external criterions as Torahs. ethical regulations. or traditions. Life’s events are non predetermined. but instead are a series of minutes. “Human being. so. can non be thought through classs appropriate to things: substance. event. procedure. There is something of an internal differentiation in being that undermines such efforts. a differentiation that experiential philosophers try to capture in the classs of ‘facticity’ and ‘transcendence.
’ To be is to co-ordinate these opposed minutes in some manner. and who I am. my kernel. is nil but my mode of co-ordinating them. ” harmonizing to “Existentialism as Philosophy” . Because persons make their ain picks. they are free. but because they freely choose. they are wholly responsible for their picks. The existential philosophers emphasize that freedom is needfully accompanied by duty. Furthermore. since persons are forced to take for themselves. they have their freedom—and therefore their duty —thrust upon them.
They are “condemned to be free. ” “The term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to use scientific rules of objectiveness and withdrawal to its survey of human existences. ” says Donna M. Campbell in “Naturalism in American Literature” . Naturalism is more of a philosophical survey than literary technique. Naturalistic authors regard human behaviour as controlled by inherent aptitude. emotion. or societal and economic conditions. and reject free will. following alternatively. in big step. the biological determinism of Charles Darwin and the economic determinism of Karl Marx.
Naturalism in literature is. in kernel. an attack that proceeds from an analysis of world in footings of natural forces like heredity. environment. and physical thrusts. Naturalism has its roots in the Renaissance. its backgrounds in the Middle Ages. Writers in the Naturalist motion tended to cover with the rough facets of life. The capable affair in naturalist plants differs from pragmatism in that it frequently deals with those natural and unpleasant experiences which cut down characters to black behaviour in their battle to last. These characters are largely from the lower center or the lower categories.
They are hapless. uneducated. and unworldly. Naturalism and Existentialism have several similarities. Both philosophical agencies of analyzing human nature “belongs to rational history” . They strive to convey a strong sense of objectiveness and “coldness” to their surveies. They are based upon concluding and logic. and want to see human existences scientifically. The cardinal difference between naturalism and existential philosophy is the exercising of free will. and the individual’s ability to happen significance in their life. Naturalist perspective argues that worlds can non order their ain lives.
Their belief is that an individual’s life is determined by its environment. heredity. fortunes. and so forth. whereas existential philosophers are based upon the construct of the single moving out of free will. The intent of life is to reject outside governments or impacts on one’s life. Therefore the indispensable inquiry mentioning to Native Son is ; does Bigger take control of his ain life. or is his life established by his environing fortunes? The secret plan of Native Son contains illustrations of both existential philosophy ( arguably ) and naturalism. Primary theoretical accounts of existential philosophy would be the Bigger’s slayings of Mary Dalton and Bessie.
His reaction is non one of sorrow. but one of euphory ; “He had done this. He had brought all this about. In all of his life these two slayings were the most meaningful things that had of all time happened to him. ” Bigger’s possibilities have ever been stunted by racism. but after these homicidal Acts of the Apostless. he is “free” to move ( and to populate with the effects of these actions ) for the first clip. Even though these effects finally average flight and imprisonment. this feeling of self-assertion and personal control nonetheless remains emancipating and elating for Bigger.
This action brought Bigger “outside his household now. over and beyond them” . Other of import existential philosopher transitions surround the female parent figures in Bigger’s life. The first is his female parent. who sings a religious vocal early in the narrative. Bigger becomes annoyed with this. demoing his demand to travel by spiritual authorization to happen his ain significance. The rejection of faith is a really common characteristic of existential philosophy. peculiarly for philosophers such as Sartre and Nietzche. Nietzsche proclaimed “Gods excessively decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
” Sartre elaborates on this bold statement by stating that “nothing will be changed if God does non be ; we shall rediscover the same norms of honestness. advancement and humanity. and we shall hold disposed of God as an outdated hypothesis which will decease off softly of itself. ” The 2nd case is Mrs. Dalton. who he slightly compares to his female parent. In their conversation in the Daltons’ kitchen. Bigger notices that Mrs. Dalton seems to desire him to make “the things she felt that he should hold wanted to make. ” instead than the things his female parent imposes upon him.
Despite his disfavor towards Mrs. Dalton. she gets Bigger to get down believing about his ain desires. and how he wants to populate. Naturalism. on the other manus. makes up rather a bulk of the book. Bigger. whom the focal point revolves about. is a naturalist character. He fits all of the proficient traits of a realistic “hero” ; they are “Frequently but non constantly ill-educated or low-class characters whose lives are governed by the forces of heredity. inherent aptitude. and passion. ” Even Bigger’s actions that give him a sense of significance by traveling against the norm are instances of him following inherent aptitudes.
And his inherent aptitudes are based off of passions that are determined by his environment and yesteryear. For illustration. Bigger frequently feels enraged. ashamed. and fearful. All of these emotions come as a consequence of him experiencing as though he is transgressing a societal boundary. or he thinks he is being mocked for his race or societal position. “The minute a state of affairs became so that it excited something in him. he rebelled. That was the manner he lived ; he passed his yearss seeking to get the better of or satisfy powerful urges in a universe he feared.
” When he stifled these feelings. he was playing into his milieus. and when he acted upon them. he was a merchandise of his environment. The primary tone and manner in which the novel was written reflects naturalist ideals. While reading Native Son. I felt an eerie withdrawal from the narrative and the characters. It is non wholly cold. but the manner efficaciously forces the reader to recognize that this is a alone type of hero. Through a methodical scrutiny of the human nature of the narrative. it accomplishes a realistic manner of doing the reader semen to this decision.
“Today Bigger Thomas and that rabble are aliens. 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 non cognize why ; they are powerless pawns in a unsighted drama of societal forces. ” This scrutiny of human existences displays a really scientific attack to cause-and-effect cases in human nature. every bit good as the inability to exert free will over fortunes. In Wright’s essay. “How Bigger was Born” . he discusses Bigger as chiefly a combination of many existent relationships and political metaphors.
“Bigger’s relationship with white America. both North and South. …I had to picture. …I had to do known one time once more. alas ; a relationship whose effects are carried by every Negro. like cicatrixs. someplace in his organic structure and head. ” Because Native Son is Bigger’s narrative. and Bigger is a naturalist human being. the novel is realistic every bit good. Any illustration of existential philosophy can be argued as yet another consequence of Bigger’s womb-to-tomb battles. The “instincts” Bigger followed. whether or non dictated by a cocoa negligee. were basically realistic.
Plants 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. hypertext markup language •Campbell. Donna M. “Naturalism in American Literature. ” Literary Motions. . •http: //plato. Stanford. edu/entries/naturalism/ •Nietzsche. Friedrich. “God is Dead” . •http: //static. dpsk12. org/gems/dsa/HowBiggerWasBorn. doc •http: //static. dpsk12. org/gems/dsa/NaturalismAmerLit. physician.
