Naturalism

An approach to storytelling that attempts to show how mankind is somehow at the mercy of the forces of nature. Naturalist literature tends to emphasize the way characters struggle to survive when up against the dangerous phenomena of the universe, not the social forces that mankind itself creates. Although it might seem that the universe is against mankind in this worldview, usually nature is considered to be indifferent to man's existence or survival. As a result, this approach often deals with life-death situations in which moral concerns are insignificant.