Ethan Frome Naturalism Analysis

A. Ethan Frome is considered a work of naturalism. Naturalism is a literary style of writing that tries to portray realistic situations of society. Edith Wharton expressed the feeling of naturalism through each character’s problems. First, Ethan is married to his cousin Zeena but he is in love with his wife’s cousin Mattie. Ethan and Zeena married because of loneliness, so the love is not that strong between them. Ethan is stuck between eloping with a woman he loves but he shouldn’t be with and being a good husband to the wife he already has. His wife Zeena is sickly and sometimes uses that to her advantage in her marriage. Mattie knows that she shouldn’t be Ethan. All these different problems within these characters are realistic situations

Tradition is the continuation of customs or belief systems or cultures from generation to generation. Many people follow tradition but, in some ways, tradition holds society back. Just because something works doesn’t mean that it can’t be improved or changed for the better. Three works that show this are Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. They all express that tradition can be changed for the better and sometimes following traditions isn’t what is best in society. Superman and Me talks about his life as a poor Indian boy who loves to read. He grew up in an Indian reservation and many of the people there are uneducated and or don’t know how to read. Many of the kids there didn’t know how to read and many of the adults were so focused on taking care of their families by working that they overlooked the value of education. Those adults looked at him funny because he enjoyed reading so much. The tradition of the reservation was just feeding your family and taking care of yourself but Alexie was smart. He seen past that and looked at reading as a way to escape the reservation. His reading gave him knowledge and he grew up escaped the conditions of the reservation and became a writer. Girl is about what a mother tells her daughter what a girl or woman is supposed to be. Mom tries to tell her many things to do and what not to do that are traditionally not lady like or lady like. Tradition helps her to become a proper