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The open boat by stephen crane thematic essay
Stephen crane the open boat analysis
Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat a characteristic of naturalism
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Determinism, Objectivity, and Pessimism in The Open Boat
In Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat", the American
literary school of naturalism is used and three of the eight features are
most apparent, making this work, in my opinion, a good example of the
school of naturalism. These three of the eight features are determinism,
objectivity, and pessimism. They show, some more than others, how Stephen
Crane viewed the world and the environment around him.
Determinism is of course the most obvious of the three features.
Throughout the entire story, the reader gets a sense that the fate of the
four main characters, the cook, the oiler, the correspondent, and the
captain are totally pre-determined by nature and that they were not their
own moral agents. "The little boat, lifted by each towering sea and
splashed viciously by the crests, made progress that in the absence of
seaweed was not apparent to those in her." The characters had no control
over their boat, rather nature was totally in control. "She seemed just a
wee thing wallowing, miraculously top up, at the mercy of the five oceans.
Occasionally a great spread of water, like white flames, swarmed into her."
(pg.145) There is also a sense that man is totally not important to the
natural forces controlling his fate. "When it occurs to man that nature
does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the
universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the
temple, and he hates deeply that there are no bricks and no temples."
(pg156) The one character who perishes, the oiler, is of course a victim of
determinism. Even as he was so close to land and no longer out in the open
sea, nature still takes its role in determining his fate.
Objectivity refers to how the author describes reality as it exists,
that is, not glorifying something, but rather simply stating the
observation. The fact that the narrator is the correspondent in itself give
an impression on how the story is going to be told in a more journalistic
sense, describing actual events instead of feelings or ideas. " In the
meantime the oiler and the correspondent rowed. They sat together in the
same seat, and each rowed an oar.
A determinist’s reply would state that humans are ignorant of the forces around them that are actually controlling their behavior in this sense; man becomes a puppet to irresistible forces acting upon him. Neither the free will nor the determinism theories can be proven to be wholly causal of human behavior. Alternate theories are formulated that incorporate main points of free will and determinism that appear...
I say this because there were points in which I personally could not really understand what was going on due to my lack of exposure to this problem that American journalism is facing. More specifically, terminology that was used, especially from business standpoints, and the different companies that were involved made it harder to keep up with the issue at hand. However, with a little editing and better explanation of terminology, I think that this film could extend to a wide audience that would include both digital natives and digital immigrants that are experiencing this transition within American news reporting. This paper will examine the difference between old and new journalism and its new standards, “The New York Times Effect” and its 21st century challenges, important qualifications to be a successful journalist, and the future role of journalism within American society.
"The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head…” For most people, when the name Sylvia Plath comes to mind, the word “psychotic” is the word that follows; however, there was more to Plath than her demented works. Throughout her shortened life, Plath had a variety of titles bestowed upon her: daughter, sister, student, wife, mother, teacher, author, and poetess However, Sylvia Plath was a haunted soul, as she also had the labels of “manic depressive” and “bipolar.” Her constant struggles with her mental illnesses are evident in her writing, especially her semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar.
Like most young adults, Esther, a nineteen-year old college student, also struggles with choosing her career after college due to the suppressed social conditions for women and her lack of confidence about herself. In the chapter seven, she adds up things she is not good at. Plath employs symbolism to demonstrate what Esther is not confident about. She cannot cook unlike her grandmother and mother. As cooking represents domestic work and women were supposed to do housework especially at this time, she expresses her uncertainty about being a good wife and mother. Also, she does not know shorthand, which signifies a practical job. Esther mentions that her mother has kept telling her that she needs to learn shorthand to get a job despite having a bachelor’s degree in English as women had difficulty in succeeding as professionals in their careers during the time. As a widow raising two children, her mother has to deal with family finances. Therefore, her mother emphasizes a practical standpoint in terms of ca...
There have been many different theories and arguments based on whether determinism is true. To understand this argument, you must first understand what determinism is to Peter van Inwagen. Determinism as Peter van Inwagen states in “The Powers of Rational Beings: Freedom of the Will,” that all that happens in life is the product of what has happened in the past and the laws of nature, making people have no control over the choices they make or events that happen in their lives. The laws of nature are laws that develop from human nature, which includes “ethical belief or system of beliefs” (Natural+law). People form this system of beliefs that are morally right or wrong. Each persons has a unique perception of the laws of nature. For example, many people would think that killing an innocent human being is morally wrong while others may feel from their self-perception of the laws of nature, that it is okay to go out and kill an innocent human being. Inwagen believes if determinism is true, then a person’s life is planned. They have only one future that is planned out for them. In other words, he explains this as being at a fork in a path in which you have four ways you can go. You think you have the freedom choose which path to go down. The other three choices do not go along with past events and the laws of nature and the plan that has been set out for yourself. Even if the path you go down might lead you away from the way your life is supposed to be, it will always bring you back to the right path that is set for you and your self-laws. For instance, a flower is lying on its side slumped up to the ground. The flower will eventually stand up and find its true path, facing the sun. P1 states that if “determinism is true, then every...
On January 14th of 1963, Sylvia Plath had finally completed The Bell Jar after approximately two years of writing. This novel could have been considered a partial autobiography, because the main character Esther Greenwood eerily represents Sylvia Plath. There are a number of references to Plath’s real life throughout the book, too many for it to be considered a mere coincidence. Within the story, Esther Greenwood considers and attempts suicide quite frequently. Could this novel have been foreshadowing Sylvia’s death, which took place a little less than a month after?
The determinist believes that man cannot act freely if his actions are causally determined. As Philosopher A.J. Ayer suggests in Freedom and Necessity, if a man has a choice between choosing A or B, there will be a consistent explanation
The problem of free will and determinism is a mystery about what human beings are able to do. The best way to describe it is to think of the alternatives taken into consideration when someone is deciding what to do, as being parts of various “alternative features” (Van-Inwagen). Robert Kane argues for a new version of libertarianism with an indeterminist element. He believes that deeper freedom is not an illusion. Derk Pereboom takes an agnostic approach about causal determinism and sees himself as a hard incompatibilist. I will argue against Kane and for Pereboom, because I believe that Kane struggles to present an argument that is compatible with the latest scientific views of the world.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, proves to be a sinner against man, against God and most importantly against himself because he has committed adultery with Hester Prynne, resulting in an illegitimate child, Pearl. His sinning against himself, for which he ultimately paid the
Esther’s psychological transformation from a perfectly healthy person ends up suffering from depression. Her influences around her have negatively shown Esther a negative path to take. The events during the 1950s such as the Rosenbergs executions have only made the transformation even powerful. Sylvia Plath’s life could be compared to the Bell Jar because she was in the same situation as Esther. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis and psycho dynamic has addressed depression through the main character Esther.
Sylvia Plath was a troubled writer to say the least, not only did she endure the loss of her father a young age but she later on “attempted suicide at her home and was hospitalized, where she underwent psychiatric treatment” for her depression (Dunn). Writing primarily as a poet, she only ever wrote a single novel, The Bell Jar. This fictional autobiography “[chronicles] the circumstances of her mental collapse and subsequent suicide attempt” but from the viewpoint of the fictional protagonist, Esther Greenwood, who suffers the same loss and challenges as Plath (Allen 890). Due to the novel’s strong resemblance to Plath’s own history it was published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas”. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath expresses the themes of alienation and societal pressure on women in the 1950s through symbolism, an unconventional protagonist, and imagery.
Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1971) is a thinly veiled autobiography. Having been riddled by depression herself, Plath has us follow her protagonist Esther’s journey of self-discovery in order to assert her views on the intersection of mental illness and traditional femininity. In the novel, blood serves to mark transitions in Esther’s life. Time after time, blood intersects with largely feminine milestones and the shifts in her mental health as she witnesses births, is sexually exploited, and must confront her own sexuality. Esther struggles to fit in to the narrow feminine role and views the world through a predisposition for depressive thoughts. The “traditional” era in which she exists enforces very binary gender roles and places her purity
"If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days" (Plath). Plath was in fact a schizophrenic, never really being cured and only receiving temporarily relief from her own mind with electroshock therapy. Her novel, The Bell Jar, is almost a self-biography with the veil of fiction over the story of Plath’s own life being so thin that her mother fought its publication (McCann 1631). Nevertheless, Plath’s immense hard work paid off and it was published. Writing was Plath’s passion and when she wrote, her life became an enthralling story. Sylvia Plath’s late teenage years, time right after college, and time in the mental hospital were all influential in writing The Bell Jar.
...n her mind is more important than his words. It is an example of the patriarchal society that they live in; although he is her father and has the parental power over her he would most likely not speak to a son in such a demeaning tone. He makes her seem to be slow, as if she cannot carry on a conversation or listen to him, which is quite demeaning.
... her true feelings with her sister, or talking to her husband or reaching out to other sources of help to address her marital repressed life, she would not have to dread living with her husband. “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 262). Her meaning for life would not have to mean death to her husband. In conclusion, her lack of self assertion, courage and strong will to address her repressed life made her look at life and death in a different perspective. When in fact there is no need to die to experience liberation while she could have lived a full life to experience it with her husband by her side.