SOURCE: Rand, William E. “Chester Himes as Naturalistic Writer in the Tradition of Richard Wright and Theodore Dreiser.” CLA Journal 44, no. 4 (June 2001): 442-50.

In the following essay, Rand discusses Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, Richard Wright's Native Son, and Himes's If He Hollers Let Him Go as examples of the development of the naturalistic novel.

In a defense of naturalistic writing, Donald Pizer says that the naturalistic novel “can be written by mature male and female authors,” and he acknowledges that naturalistic writing is known to appear more frequently during periods of economic or social hardship.¹ Pizer's first statement, a defense of female naturalistic writers, also seems to invite exploration of other previously marginalized groups of writers such as African Americans, a group historically subject to chronic economic and social hardship. Such an exploration could then trace naturalistic techniques and influences through mainstream American and African-American literary tradition...