He is, of course, not able to leave Jennie. She is so good, so motherly, so womanly that he seems to depend on her. When he is busy in his office and becomes
tired, he goes home and finds a relaxation with her. She is clever enough to soothe him, and she is faithful to him. How could he leave her without a shame?
3.2 The Web Accidentalness and Causation
The second element of naturalism is that the characters are usually caught in the web of chance and causation, that is, the relation of cause to effect. It is by
chance that Jennie meets Brander in the hotel. This meeting will cause her to find disaster later on. Brander is good and generous. He helps her and her family
financially so that they are able to survive. But it is Brander who brings about Jennie’s shamefulness.
Lester Kane meets Jennie accidentally at Mrs. Bracebridge’s house. He is visiting Mrs. Bracebridge because the latter is his father’s friend. This meeting also
causes Jennie to face many problems. Jennie meets Brander when she works at the hotel, and he is the hotel guest. She meets Laster when she works for Mrs.
Bracebridge and he is Mrs. Bracebridge’s guest. Both meetings are accidental. It is also by chance that Lester meets Letty Pace, his ex-girlfriend. At the
time, Lester and Jennie are traveling to Europe and Egypt, and they accidentally meet Letty. If they did not meet Letty, there would not be any separation between
Lester and Jennie. The meeting is by chance or accidentally:
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“It was while traveling abroad that Lester came across, first at the Carlton in London, and later at shepheards at Cairo, the
one girl, before Jennie, whom it might have been said he truly admired – Letty pace.”
Dreiser, 1963: 300
It seems to us that it hardly possible for two Americans to meet twice in foreign countries. While Lester and Jennie are in London, they meet Letty. They meet her
again while they are in Cairo, Egypt. But this is one of the characteristic of the naturalistic novel. We, readers, will accept this fact as a conventional, that is, the
agreement between the author and the reader. It is also by chance that Letty Pace is going back to America on the same ship
with Lester and Jennie. If there were not on the same ship, Lester’s relationship with Letty might not continue. If their relationship did not continue, he might not leave
Jennie and get married with Letty. This causation or the cause and effect, always exists all over the story.
Let us have a further look on this causation in the novel. Jennie and her mother work in a hotel, and accidentally Brander, the senator, stays in the same
hotel. He meets with Jennie and likes her. If he did not stay in the same hotel, Jennie would not be pregnant. If Jennie were not poor and needed help financially, she
would not accept Brander’s help. Laster meets Jennie accidentally at Mrs. Bracebridge’s house. If he did not
visit Mrs. Bracebridge and Jennie did not work for Mrs. Bracebridge, they would not meet. If they did not meet, Jennie’s fate would be different. Here, we can see that
accidentalness and causation play an important role in the plot of the story.
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3.3 Destiny or Fate
