Jack London and Steven Crane - Book Report/Review Example

The characters are often shown to be facing challenging relationships with their surroundings. Nature is portrayed as an indifferent force. The plots typically follow the progression, rather regression, of the primary character towards death or degeneration. good! The narrative is a third person account of the main character's downward spiral which is presented with a detached or objective view. The lives of the characters in this literary form are often governed by the forces of instinct, passion and heredity.

Forces beyond the control of the characters come into play whenever they try to exercise their free will or choice. Literary realism focused on the trials and tribulation of people in the upper echelon of society, whereas naturalists wrote about the human suffering where characters were fighting against an indifferent universe for survival. Writers of this genre were heavily influenced by the scientific and social theories of the day. Jack London and Stephen Crane wrote in this tradition about social class, industry, city life and the indifference of nature.

Jack London considered Huxley and Darwin among others to be the heroes of his personal pantheon. His famous works like "'The Call of The Wild,",' "'White Fang"' and "'The Sea-Wolf "' are set against a backdrop of hardship and struggle for survival. The concept of Darwinism in the exploration of Nature and unconfined individualism is evident in his works. Darwin had great influence on Jack London through the works of Herbert Spencer.( The Philosophy of Jack London by Joseph Sciambra M.A. 1996) Darwin found the term 'Survival of the Fittest' used by Herbert Spencer more accurate than his own coinage 'Struggle for Existence'.

This idea was embraced and espoused by London in his "White Fang", White Fang, "he was doing that for which he was made - killing meat and battling to kill it. He was justifying his existence, than that which life can do no greater; for life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do." London took the theories of the writers he read and incorporated them in his stories. In "The Call of the Wild" 'The Call of The Wild' London depicts a perfect Darwinian world portraying the wilderness as a cruel uncaring place where only the strong survive.

The life of the protagonist, Buck, can be summed up in the phrase "the survival of the fittest." London though does not stop at letting the novel be a story of survival but takes it to the next level where the protagonist fights for mastery. "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets"(1893),Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), the first novel by Stephen Crane is recognized as one of the seminal works of American naturalism. It is the realistic penning of slum life, where the characters are influenced by poverty.

(Stephen Crane: A Research Guide '2007 by Rob Bain) In spite of their circumstances they are able to make choices and determine their own fate.