ABSTRACT
The rapid movement from the realism of facts, objects, and simple responses to symbolic abstraction is a significant characteristic of traditional naturalist fiction. The naturalist tradition reflects the social symbol-making of a society of producers and consumers. Both dramatic violence and the panorama of sociological abstraction are by-products of the naturalist's reductive view of character, but a more significant result is the spirit of condescension implicit in it. In naturalist fiction the poverty of the characters' responses is often conveyed by infantile simplicities of style, and, with sometimes powerful dramatic irony, this style is used to describe even the most serious and painful experiences. Dos Passos, in a documentary vein that contrasts with Norris's melodrama, indicates again how naturalist fiction adapts to political allegory. The important need— and Norris's response to it is almost formulaic in the naturalist tradition of writing—is to make power humanly accessible and still do it justice, still mark out a stoic respect for nature's truth.
