Why Did Edith Wharton Use Of Naturalism

Realism is accepting a situation as it is and dealing with it appropriately. Jack London, Edith Wharton, and Elizabeth Bishop go on adventures, inspired to write about their observations during their travels. They are also inspired by first hand experiences, dealing with hardships. In these readings; “To Build A Fire”, “A Journey”, and “The Fish”, the authors use naturalism, irony, and symbolism to emphasize their different approaches. Their approaches are realism and naturalism, showing how man can be ignorant, life isn’t fair, self determination, and overcoming obstacles.

London uses naturalism to show that man can be ignorant. He shows that the main character is ignorant and naive, not careful with his surroundings. He is a newcomer to

The wife did not love her husband the same way she did before and her husband has fallen ill, yet she never really cared for him. The author states, “How she had rejoiced when the doctors at last gave their consent to his going home! She knew, of course… that he was to die… in the joy of preparation, she really forgot the purpose of their journey.” (Wharton, CR93) When her husband dies and the attendee comes with his milk, she tries to cover up his death and drinks the milk, rather than throwing out so nothing would seem suspicious. The wife is so caught up in her “secret” about her husband being dead, so she resorts to rash extremities to conceal his death. Assuming that she would mourn over his death, she makes a plan to pretend to panic, acting shocked to his death, but she began hallucinating, as stated, “She saw them standing on the platform with the child’s body between them; she had never forgotten the dazed look with which they followed the receding train… It was horrible---She quivered like a creature at the bay,” (Wharton, CR97) resulting in her hitting her head on her husband’s berth, dying alongside his body. Wharton emphasizes the wife’s lingering desire to be free and once she was free, she resorted to rash extremities to conceal the truth with irony, which also showed that life's not