Realism can be seen as a mirror of reality. It aims to capture an accurate portrayal of a situation as it is and to represent it with realistic and factual descriptions. Realism seeks to recreate real-life situations of the average person. For instance, in A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert, we are reading about the life of an ordinary woman, Felicity, with explicit details of her endeavors. An aspect of Realism is seen most through the details of the description of her house; the author is showing us rather than telling us. Accordingly, the events that happen in the story are plausible and may actually happen in real life.

On the other hand, Naturalism strives to explain what is happening and why it is happening. Unlike Realism, Naturalism focuses on how the environment and how the person’s surrounding contributes to their behavior. It is based largely on Darwin’s survival of the fittest, therefore an example would be Separate Ways, by Higuchi where social class is determined by birth and family, and unfortunately for Kichizo, he is unable to move in social ranks and is forced to live as peasant/lower class position in society. Therefore, knowing that his status in life is predetermined by societal structures, he doesn’t bother to try to rise in wealth or power.