After the Civil War, realism became a dominant form of writing in the United States, with writers attempting to write about everyday life. After realism came naturalism, a form of writing similar to realism, but with more pessimism. One of the reasons for this pessimism stems from free will and the question of whether people possess it or not. In realism, it is definitely true, while in naturalism it seems less so, but the options are often less than ideal. Because choices do exist for characters, free will is still there, which indicates that naturalism is a derivative form of realism. In Stephen Crane’s “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,” the characters may have little chance to escape the world they inhabit, like Maggie, Jimmie, and Pete, but choices are there, even if these choices aren’t very good.
Maggie, herself, is a prime example. In the end of Crane’s tale, Maggie is turned into a prostitute and dies (995-999). Yet, her life didn’t have to end in that fashion. One of the big decisions Maggie makes is whether to be with Peter or not. This culminates in one moment where Maggie’s mother comes back from drinking. Jimmie has to drag her in, and the two fight, with Maggie hidden in another room (Crane 977). In all that destruction, Pete comes, and tell Maggie “Come ahn out wid me! We’ll have a hell of a time” (Crane 978). Maggie has a choice: go with Pete, or stay. Before all this, Maggie had been working in a factory, “where they made collars and cuffs” (Crane 967). This life was hard. Factories of the time had horrible working conditions, and left little chance for a woman to advance. Considering the slums that Maggie grew up in, though, this was one of the best options she could have.
When Pete comes into...
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..., but he had a chance. Even if he may not have done outrageously well, the fact that he had a choice remains.
Perhaps it could be argued, in the end, that Maggie’s fate wasn’t hers. She could be considered a victim of lack of free will due to the fact that some of what influences her life deals with other’s choices, like Jimmie’s and Pete’s, making a lack of free will in naturalism like a new genre of fiction. Yet, the fact remains that Maggie did have a chance to avoid the fall into prostitution and, ultimately, her death. Because of these possibilities for choices, she does have some sort of free will, no matter how horrible her choices are or how much she can’t totally avoid the world of the slums. Thus, naturalism isn’t a new form, but related to realism. The two are closely connected, with differences and similarities, much like a any family would.
The text from A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, both written by the renowned author Tennessee Williams, deal with the topics of life's pressures, and the desire to succeed in everything we do. Oftentimes, people place unrealistic expectations upon us and set the bar higher than we can achieve, or even want to reach. People end up developing mechanisms to deal with these stressors and tensions that have been created. We find other unhealthy habits and vices to supplant the reality we are trying to escape, that hopefully will take away this pain and suffering we are experiencing. In both of these plays, the characters are not able to live in their present realities. Two of the main characters are closely linked in their characterizations
In this story, Maggie is a lot like her mother. They both are uneducated, loving, caring, and allow Dee to run over them. Maggie has been through more things than her mother has though, because of the incident that happened. Maggie has scars like Emily, except Maggie’s scars are from a house fire (319). The house fire has impacted Maggie’s life tremendously, since she is very self-conscious and shy. Walker stated that Maggie is “ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs (318). The mother is protective of Maggie and will be there for her whenever she needs her too. Even though her mother knows all her struggles, she still supports her and pushes her to be better. I think that is one reason she pushes her to marry John Thomas, because she wants her to become her own person and to be strong (319). The mother of “Everyday Use” is opposite from the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing”, because she is there for her children no matter what their financial status
In Miss Porter’s short story, Maria Concepción, the title character finds her dream shattered when she discovers her husband is having an affair. The husband runs off with the other woman, but they return the next year. Maria Concepción loses her baby during the year, but the rival gives birth when she returns. Maria Concepción stabs her rival to death. Her husband (and the entire village) protect her and proclaim her innocence, even though they know she is guilty. In the end, she takes the rival’s baby as her own, and reclaims her husband. He is miserable, but she is happy. She has gotten what she wanted, and restored her dream. (Porter, Maria Concepción 9-27)
When Maggie finally smiles ‘a real smile’ at the end of the story as she and her mother watch Dee’s car disappear in a cloud of dust, it is because she knows her ‘mother holy recognition of the scarred daughter’s sacred status as quilter is the best gift if a hard-pressed womankind to the fragmented goddess of the present.’ (Piedmont-Marton)
Naturalism portrays humans' control over their actions and fate as limited and determined by the natural world, including their very humanity. The freedom described by Jean-Paul Sartre results in all individuals having the ability to make present choices independently. Despite the fatalism illustrated in naturalism, the characters in London's 'To Build a Fire' and Crane's 'The Open Boat' are ultimately responsible for their choices and consequences of their choices.
Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" revolves around a wife and mother who becomes overwhelmed with her husband and child and withdraws from them, gradually shutting them completely out of her life. Unsatisfied with her role as dutiful mother and wife, she tries on other roles, but finds that none of them satisfy her either. She is accustomed to a specific role, and has a difficult time coping when a more extensive array of choices is presented to her. This is made clear in this section of the story.
The use of color in Stephan Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is crucial when looking at the setting of the story; the repeated use of red is significant when describing Maggie’s mother Mary and the importance of color in describing the social system through the story. It is seen prominently when Maggie and Pete go to the theater, parts of the play paralleled the lives of the common people: "The latter spent most of his time out at soak in pale-green snow storms, busy with a nickel-plated revolver, re...
For example, Theodore Dalrymple writes of a woman so terrified by her boyfriend and filled with hopelessness that she tries to do the unthinkable and take her own life by overdose even though months before while in a drunken state she becomes pregnant, yet again by another abuser, and has shown a pattern of moving from relationship to relationship to escape one abuser only to crawl into the arms of another. With no money the government of England provides this young woman with a way to flee her abuser by gifting her with groceries to feed her children who have no escape from the everyday monotony of living such a life, a home warmed in the winter and cooled in the summer that has also been supplied with modern day appliances and entertainment such as furniture, a refrigerator, stove, and TV’s. With no repayment required due to lack of funds on the recipients half she will once again as Theodore Dalrymple states “invite him there” once again without the consequence of losing all that she has been
Maggie lives with a poor and dysfunctional family and a hopeless future with only the small possibility of change. The environment and setting she grows up in do not support anything more than a dull, dreary and pathetic future for her. An old woman asks Maggie's brother Jimmy: "Eh, Gawd, child, what is it this time? Is yer fader beatin yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin yer fader? (Maggie, 10)" while he runs to Maggie's apartment one night. The lack of love and support of her family hinders Maggie's ability to live a happy and fulfilling life. Without knowing that someone loves her no matter what she does or how she acts Maggie may feel desperate enough to change her situation by any means she can, and without any useful guidance. Even without any positive influences Maggie grows up different from the low-life's living with and around her. Crane explains Maggie's uniqueness in the passage "None of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins. The philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it" (Maggie 16). Maggie's uniqueness gives her the chance to improve her life, but only a slim chance. Even though Maggie differs from the people around her they remain sleazy, making it harder for her to change her life because she must go outside of her community for help.
The problem of free will and determinism is a mystery about what human beings are able to do. The best way to describe it is to think of the alternatives taken into consideration when someone is deciding what to do, as being parts of various “alternative features” (Van-Inwagen). Robert Kane argues for a new version of libertarianism with an indeterminist element. He believes that deeper freedom is not an illusion. Derk Pereboom takes an agnostic approach about causal determinism and sees himself as a hard incompatibilist. I will argue against Kane and for Pereboom, because I believe that Kane struggles to present an argument that is compatible with the latest scientific views of the world.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can be anything you want to be”. He believed that free will is enough to allow people to be what they want to be. On the other side, tales such as Greek mythology speak of inescapable destinies locked in by fate. Whether the fate is targeted at a god or a hero, he tries everything to eschew the prophecy, except the fate always comes true; often the free will’s resistance against the fate acts as the root of the fate. One of William Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth, revolves around issues involving fate and free will. The main character Macbeth is seen attempting to invalidate unfavorable prophecies by his free will. Macbeth is not under complete free will, but he is a mere victim of ruthless psychological manipulation disguised in the name of fate; it leads him to the “fates” that should never have occurred.
For example, in Lusus Naturae, the girl, who is now called “freak,” shows how she was shunned from society when she says, “It was decided that i should die. That way I would not stand in the way of my sister, I would not loom over her like a fate” (Atwood 3). Society, and even her family, feared her so immensely that they wanted her to die, so that they would not have to deal with her looks or the embarrassment of her. They want her gone. In The Lost Children of Tuam, a boy named P.J. was raised in the Tuam home because he did not have a father. “P.J. was happy enough until his teens, when he was called a ‘bastard,’ and people avoided the pew he sat in, and the girls tittered at the sight of him” (Barry 21). P.J. lived his childhood feeling as if he was a normal child, but as he grew up and began to leave the Tuam home, he was shunned and called a “bastard.” No one wanted him in their
War forces young soldiers to grow up quickly. In Stephen Crane’s Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is no exception. He is faced with the hard reality of war and this forces him to readjust his romantic beliefs about war. Through the novel, the reader can trace the growth and development of Henry through these four stages: (1) romanticizing war and the heroic role each soldier plays, (2) facing the realities of war, (3) lying to himself to maintain his self-importance, and (4) realistic awareness of his abilities and place in life. Through Henry’s experiences in his path to self-discovery, he is strongly affected by events that help shape his ideology of war, death, courage, and manhood. The romantic ideologies will be replaced with a more realistic representation.
“We believe in personal choice, rather than society dictating how we must live our lives.”- Mike Peters. In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, the citizens in the community live without choice, meaning they have no control over their own lives. Because of that they do not suffer the consequences for any choice but they do not get to experience freedom. Lois Lowry is saying, the importance of personal choice can change a person's emotions, helps people’s abilities to be independent and affects the freedom which allows a person to pursue what they want in life and to make their own decisions for their future. A person’s emotions can change because they do not know what to feel since all their decisions are made for them, being able to choose
In 1888 Stephen entered the Claverack College military school. Stephen distinguished himself on the drill and baseball field, but not in academics. Without graduating, Stephen transferred to Lafayette University and later Syracuse. While living in his fraternity, Delta Upsilon, Crane started his first major novel. He would eventually flunk out of college. At the age of 20 Crane moved back to Asbury Park to work as a reporter for the New York Tribune with his brother. Crane’s first experiences with his literary ideals started when he attended Hamlin Garland’s lectures on realism. Crane was deeply influenced by Garland’s guidance and tutelage. In 1891 Crane’s mother died. He then moved to Sullivan County, New York where another brother of his was studying law. Crane’s first magazine appearance was a set of poems called “Sullivan County Sketches,” printed in the Tribune and Cosmopolitan. Crane frequented the slums of New York City, haunting the labyrinth of streets in sear...