Naturalism in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”

During a few decades, American society had been through different significant changes such as the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and Scientific Development. These changes had given a massive influence to the American literary movement in the nineteenth century. In fact, some of the literary works at that time are a reflection of those changes. One remarkable intellectual trend, which emerged in America in the nineteenth century and which subsequently became a literary movement is Naturalism (Kendir). In this case, Scientific Development is a major factor that influences the movement of literary naturalism. Charles Darwin is the one who brought up a new concept of sciences, in which Stephen Crane will use it as a concept for his short story “The Open Boat”. From Darwin’s book “The Origin of Species,” there are two concepts that can be found in “The Open Boat.” The first concept is natural selection, which means only individuals with certain advantageous characteristic will remain survived (Padian, 2009). Apparently, Crane used this Darwin’s idea as a foundation of the story for his short story “The Open Boat.” Then, the next concept is survival of the fittest which means nature only selected the fittest individuals that can adapt to any changes. In “The Open Boat,” Crane explicitly tells the readers the effort from the four men and their struggle for existence. In brief, the influence of Darwinism had played a pivotal role in literary movement by inserting a new philosophy and idea of life based upon science, in which this idea is used by Stephen Crane for his short story “The Open Boat.”

Naturalism was a literary movement of the late nineteenth century, and it was mostly influenced by Scientific Development at that time. ...

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... of nature because their eyes are on waves only. However, that condition creates a strong friendship bonds between them because they are all were aiming the same things. In short, “The Open Boat” is a representative work of American Literary Naturalism that relates Darwinism theory to real life and gives more emphasis on several themes such as pessimism, brotherhood, hopelessness, and survival.

Works Cited

Hilfer, Anthony Channell. "Nature As Protagonist In "The Open Boat.." Texas Studies In Literature & Language 54.2 (2012): 248-257. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

Padian, Kevin. "Ten Myths About Charles Darwin." Bioscience 59.9 (2009): 800-804. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

Kendir, Fatna. “The Study of the Major Principles of Naturalism through The Open Boat by Stephen Crane.”English Literature and Civilization. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.