Naturalism in to Build a Fire

Both stories were very descriptive when it comes to nature and how they got through there battle with nature. Naturalism really sticks out in both of these stories because unlike realism where they share the difficulties living in a more political, social, and they way of life they grew up in; Naturalism gives a uncomfortable nature like feeling.

Naturalism is more difficult when it comes to feelings and getting out of a situation because you have no control over it. Like how in the store of 'To Build A Fire', the character was trying to go and meet his friends so they can enjoy the good biscuits and bacon, but the temperatures outside made it extremely hard. As quoted in the video " The power of Nature--cannot anticipate what will happen." Which is a perfect description of how Naturalism differs from the stems of realism. The story of ' The Open Boat', has expressed naturalism through the characters experiencing challenges to get to there destination, instead the sea or "Her" ( Captain would express for mother nature) made it extremely hard for them. Quoted ( on page 1059), "When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples."

This quote is a perfect example of how naturalism differs from realism, due to it is bringing up nature as its main source to cause extreme emotions and tough decisions for the characters. 'To Build A Fire' made me think of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Reason being, as quoted ( pg.1117) "Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold one hundred and seven degrees below freeezing-point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge." Which explains how evolution took place for the dog to have strong natural instincts and is naturally prepared for the weather due to its thick fur (even though it still made the dog uncomfortable) because of the evolution that took place with the dogs ancestries.

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