Urban freedom and uncontained space in American literary naturalism (Richard Wright, Frank Norris, Ann Petry, Herman Melville)

Urban space in American literary naturalism is a site of constrainment, but it can also be a forum for relative freedom for certain characters. Key figures in Wright's Native Son, Norris's McTeague: a Story of San Francisco and Petry's The Street are, moments, able to achieve a kind of circumscribed agency through the perception, experience and sometimes even their own transformation of metropolitan space. Such freedoms are, in these works, uniquely urban, and squarely dependent on the jam-packed acoustic, visual and olfactory spaces that are everywhere in urban life.; The densely populated and sensorially resonant conditions of the city also function as a sort of defense against brutality. Spaces hidden from the perception of others in these works are relatively violent and dangerous; murder, physical abuse and death happen more easily, and more often, in rural and suburban environs, as well as in urban venues that are well removed from public perception. In this sense, the throng can serve a prophylactic purpose, as it provides freedom from rampant violence.; It can also defend against anxieties regarding the possibility of a formless, annihilating universe. Native Son, McTeague and The Street all show instances in which open, unpeopled landscapes turn eerily plastic and blank. Such moments reveal an anxiety about blankness and formlessness---as well as a specific fear of whiteness that has its origins in such nineteenth century authors as Herman Melville and Harriet Jacobs.; Ultimately, the naturalist crowd, which is commonly thought to be corrupting, dangerous and unfree, is desirable in these works. There is a palpable desire, even a longing for enclosure, containment and crowding in Native Son, McTeague and The Street. This longing suggests that the abundance of overlapping acoustic, visual and olfactory spaces offered by the city can provide not only relative freedom and effective escape from formlessness, but also potential relief, possible community---and in one case in Norris's work, even love.