
This is described in his return to his home town in Albany, where he recollects his active life with his strength and grace in playing baseball. He also acts the opposite principle that a person can control his destiny regardless of the kind of life pattern that he or she has been living in. The writer talks of Francis as a man who has a purified soul and wants to journey back to his community and his people.įrancis becomes a naturalist in the sense that the actions of men determine their future fate. Ironweed novel does not only discuss the naturalistic way of falling apart of the weak and the underprivileged, but it also alludes particularly to other books which speak of naturalism (Evans, Solomon and Fredericks, 23).Īt first, when we meet Francis, he is about to return to his family after fleeing to another society due to his crimes. The writer of the novel has restructured the materials of a conference in terms of his distinct revelation. Naturalism has been in existence in America because writers in a generation relate it with originality and independence. The Ironweed novel tries to show that naturalism exists in the fiction of America. Francis is the main character since the novel talks about his life as an alcohol addict and the consequences that followed him. He also killed other people who had wronged him since he was filled with anger and could act with violence when a person does something wrong to him. The novel talks of a man by the name Francis Phelan who was a drug addict and ended up killing his son, though it was accidental. The setting of the book was during the era of the great depression. The novel Ironweed is a literature novel which was written by William Kennedy. He lived a troubled life full of violence, but he longed for the day to understand himself and change his life. The novel discusses one primary protagonist, who is known as Francis.

Ironweed is a novel discussing the lives of homeless people in the city of Albany, considering their lives under poverty and depression. Naturalism takes the world the way it is, for good or sickness (Smith 7).Ī novel for literature is often distinguished by the people’s characteristics and life experiences in the book.

Another recurring element was the power of emotions, which are primitive to negate the human being’s reasoning.

The major theme in the literature of naturalism is that people are destined for any kind of life that the environment, inheritance, and social circumstances have prepared for them. They carried out studies on how their actions and instincts rule people and how environmental and inherited forces rule their lives. They use scientific methods when they are writing their novels. Even though the primary aim of naturalistic writers is to study humans, they believe that the rules behind forces that manage human life should be considered, and they should also be understood.
