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Argument: Naturalism is the application of principles of scientific determinism. Humans view the world as animals would, responding to environmental forces and internal stress and drives.  Claim: There are eight ways to determine if a piece of literature contains naturalism: objectivity, frankness, amoral attitude toward material, philosophy of determinism, bias toward pessimism in selection of details, bias in selection of characters, characters are subject to certain temptations, and complexity and American Determinism. Evidence: Smith gives no evidence to support his claims, however he does cite three books (Parrington's The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America: 1860-1920, Murfin and Roy's The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, and Holman and Harmon's A Handbook to Literature). Evidence, however, can be shown throughout naturalists' novels. Steinbeck, a proven naturalist by critics, has these criteria shine through vividly throughout his literature. For example, one criterion given was the bias in selection of characters. "There are usually three types: (a) characters marked by strong physiques and small intellectual activity; (b) characters of excited neurotic temperament, at the mercy of moods, driven by forces they do not stop to analyze; (c) an occasional use of strong character whose will is broken" (1). In Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Lenny (type A) is a strong, tall man with no brains. His friend, George, (type b) who has extreme mood swings between sympathetic and furious, must keep his Lenny from speaking because his stupidity might ruin their jobs. http://www.viterbo.edu/perspgs/faculty/GSmith/Naturalism.html

In the critique by richard Boyd on Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp there is little to be said due to his wealth of analsysis of this story. Not only does he put the story in some historical contexts happening at the time, he analyzes the demenors of a range of characters, most frequently, the character Frank Russel. The ingnorant biggot of a character contends time and time again that the factor of freedom is a small one indeed. He is proslavery and believes that slavery will only end in violence.