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3.1 The Characteristics of Naturalism in Dreiser’s Works
In Dreiser’s works, readers can always find that his novels aim at mirroring a truthful of life, and environment in front of people. Like most naturalists, Dreiser concentrates on describing a faithful picture of modern society, often featuring a panoramic view of a slice of life. Being gifted with a keen awareness of details, he objectively shows readers what America looks like. If all his stories put together, it will constitute a true panorama of American life. Through his works, Dreiser tries his best to seize and grasp the typical scenes in contemporary life. Dreiser’s harsh experience of life and impoverishment, and his yearning for wealth and success later became cardinal themes in his novels. What’s more, he also expresses deep compassion for the laboring and poor people from the low social and economic class, and values the inpiduals very highly. Most of his novels hold the view that humble insignificant people are also admirable and their lives are worthy of people’s attention and interest. He knows ordinary people very well and the way he represents them in his works gives readers the impression that they meet these characters in their daily life. In naturalistic fiction, characters from social levels are examined in depth. It tells the reader that life is complicated and can not be fully understood.
Dreiser writes novels reflecting the mechanistic view of life, a concept that holds a man as the victim of such ungovernable and uncontrollable forces as heredity, instinct, environment, and desire. Dreiser considered himself driven by the biological and environmental factors he called “chemisms,” a term he never defined exactly. Dreiser holds that life is a tragedy. It is difficult to express exactly what is made up of life. In Dreiser’s fiction, he is adept at stressing the function of