Naturalism is a literary Genre that first began as a literary movement in the late nineteenth century of literature. In film, theater, and arts. This literary movement suggested the role of social conditions, family background, and the environment in which it shaped the character. 
It was known that realism was linked together with the idea of naturalism as literary genres. Realism focuses on the idea of literary technique, and naturalism “implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts,"(Scheidenhelm 1). The  characters can then be studied through the relationships and their relationships the have to their surroundings.

This term of Naturalism was invented by Emile Zola who was a french novelist, a playwright, a political journalist, and the best known to be actively engaged in the literary school of Naturalism. Born 1804 in Paris. He wrote many short stories, essays, four plays, and three novels. After Zola’s father passed away and left his mother on an eager pension Zola started to write in a romantic style. None of Zola’s family seemed to want him to become a writer. As his mother had set up a law career for him, but he failed the examination twice and then proceeded in his mother's death. Before Zola decided his career was to be a writer, he worked at as a clerk in a shipping business, and then tried to be in the sales department for a publisher company. As a side job apart from his other jobs, Zola wrote literary art reviews for newspapers. Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature for two consecutive years, in 1901 and 1902. Zola also had an interest in photography in his later years of his life. Reaching the point where his experience level in photography was near professional. Zola died on the twenty ninth of September 1902 from carbon dioxide poisoning. Thousands attended his funeral, as he was known by many people.

Frank Norris was an American Journalist, Novelist, and wrote fiction in the naturalist genre. During Norris’s younger years he began studying painting. Which then exposed him to some of Emile Zola’s works and inspired him to become a writer. He also got acquainted with the ideas of human evolution of Darwin that also inspired him and had an impact on some of his later works. He attended Harvard University and met a professor by the name of Lewis E. Gates that pushed Norris to keep writing. Norris traveled all over the world. Working as a news correspondent in South Africa, was an editorial assistant for the San Francisco Wave, and even worked for a magazine as a war correspondent in Cuba during the Spanish- American War (Volney).

Naturalism has a strong connection to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In 1925 Theodore Dreiser published a novel called “An American Tragedy”. An American Tragedy was a literary genre. It was about a boy who had to step up and help support his family. His life begins to change drastically as his job forces him to do things that aren’t good things. Like Uncle Tom and many of the slaves, they had to step up and be put to work to support family and themselves. The slaves when put into their homes when bought from a slave market, sometimes would be forced to do things that they would never do themselves (Shmoop Editorial Team 1).In 1940, Richard Wright wrote a novel called Native Son which was a study about American racism and how it affects one black man’s life. This also connects to Uncle Tom because the racism and what he had to go through definitely affected his life in many ways. That goes for any black man or woman. Another example would be in 1895, Stephen Crane published the novel The Red Badge of Courage which took place during the civil war tearing up the internal and external life of a man named Private Henry Fleming. This connects to Uncle Tom’s Cabin because, Uncle Tom’s Cabin took place during the time of the Civil War and had great impact on everyone and Uncle Tom (Shmoop Editorial Team 1).

    In Jack London’s Poem, “To Build a Fire” this strongly relates to Naturalism. As Naturalism bases its main idea on the scientific laws, London focuses on the idea that “nature is indifferent to man”. London also does not give the “man” or what is the main character in his poem a name. Because in Naturalistic stories, the characters are usually unnamed and they focus on the narration of what the character is saying rather than their physical characteristics.  The man in the poem is traveling in cold conditions. He was warned that he shouldn’t travel alone in the cold because it is dangerous. But, he thinks otherwise and judges it by his own thoughts and experience. This shows that nature or “the cold” in the man's situation is indifferent to him. He is unconcerned with what others have to say, or what could happen if he goes in the cold alone. A direct quote from Jack London’s poem “But all this - the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail. the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all - made no impression on the man, this shows how nature is indifferent to the man, and how he thinks he can survive the cold on his own (London 1).
          Using the Library Data base I researched more information to get to know Emile Zola and Frank Norris. I also used the American Academy of Poets to get more information about what Naturalism is, and gave me more examples to how it is connected to other readings. Such as Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the reading connected to Naturalism for the day Jack London's "To Build a Fire". Frank Norris and Emile also have a few organization pages of there own that I used as resources. 

    Researching this Literary Context movement has gained me knowledge on understanding some of the in class readings we have done. I found a lot of good detailed information that I never knew existed before. As well as learning new people that had a big influence in Literature. I enjoyed looking deeper into some of the people and their background and what they went through through their careers.

  Works Cited

Chase, Richard Volney. "Norris and Naturalism." In The American Novel and its Tradition, Doubleday, 1957

Farrell, James T. "Naturalism." N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uwc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7d930dd5-0355-486a-895b-2ea0c68849bb%40sessionmgr4007&vid=4&hid=4104

Lehan, Richard. "American Literary Naturalism: The French Connection." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Linda Pavlovski, vol. 155, Gale, 2005. 20th Century Literature Criticism Online,go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LCO&sw=w&u=cicctr&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CKSQUKX352992579&it=r. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017. Originally published in Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 38, no. 4, Mar. 1984, pp. 545-557.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Naturalism Timeline." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2017.

"Short Stories: To Build a Fire by Jack London." East of the Web. N.p., 2017. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.