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American Literature / Unit 12   AML 1103 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Determinism, Heredity, Environment

Captions available

The idea

Naturalist fiction explains a life by three pressures: inherited disposition, the environment a person is born into, and chance. Character remains, but it is not sovereign, and a naturalist plot typically shows a person's intentions overwhelmed by circumstances they did not make.

In practice

Inheritance, environment, and luck.

Where people slip

Intentions matter less than pressure.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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