Naturalism is the belief that only natural laws and forces govern the world that we reside in. In Stephan Crane’s “The Open Boat” his perception of naturalism is best explained through the death of the oiler because although the oiler remained strong in the end he was still vulnerable to the power of nature. If any of the other characters (correspondent, cook, and captain) were to perish the same interpretation couldn’t be achieved.
The correspondent, eyes and ears of the ship, was the one character that was unsure of his role on the same boat. Crane’s view of naturalism wouldn’t be well portrayed through his death because repeatedly throughout the story he curses nature and the situation he has found himself in. “The correspondent wondered
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Since the beginning, the cook has a positive outlook on their survival. “The cook had said: ‘There’s a house of refugee just north of the Mosquito Inlet Light, and as soon as they see us, they’ll come off in their boat and pick us up’” (Crane 22). Even after the crew approaches the “house of refugee” to be disappointed that no one is present the native cook simply says, “Funny they don’t see us” (Crane 25). Indifferent to what is happening around him the death of the cook wouldn’t illustrate naturalism because the cook is far too native for nature to actually take notice of what he was …show more content…
The hardest working member of the crew, he went from operating the boiler room on the sunken ship to rowing on the dingey following the captain’s orders precisely. The oiler simply did what had to be done to get back ashore. However, his death demonstrates how nature has no favorites. Even though he never complained about the cruelty/unfairness of nature, he was still the one to face death. “Afterwards he saw his companions in the sea. The oiler was ahead of the race” (Crane 30). Nature was able to break the false illusion of brotherhood that had formed between the crew (the sharing of the cigars) once the dingey approached the shore and flipped. At that moment, it became every man for themselves and the oiler was on top of his game. This indifference of nature to man specifically toward the oiler since he was most likely the least deserving of punishment of the crew is why Crane’s view of naturalism is illustrated in solely his
To survive, is one of the few basic needs that every human needs to obtain, to of course find a sense of nirvana. In this story, these four gentlemen are on what you would call a dinghy. A dinghy is something of a “last resort” type deal, foreshadowing that something bad is going to happen and letting the reader know that something bad has already happened. Speaking of foreshadowing, you can see that something bad is most likely going to happen when the Captain stated, “I wish we had a sail”. The Captain stated “We might try my overcoat on the end of an oar and give you two boys a chance to rest”, speaking to the cook and the correspondent.
However, the most traditionally "romantic" facets of his artifice are most fully manifested in a series of private correspondence between himself and a certain society maiden by the name of Nellie Crouse. It is these letters that serve to illustrate Crane's writing prowess as it transcends traditional Romantic genrefication. Through these letters, which serve as an informed testament to Crane's marked skill as a writer, we begin to examine Crane in the context of his own existence, devoid of the fictional trappings of his most acclaimed accomplishments.
Crane was forced to contend with nature after his ship, the SS Commodore, sank into the ocean (Crane 18). He was constantly forced to act under the threat of death by drowning. If he didn’t step into nature to escape the sinking ship, he would drown. The same goes if his team didn’t row fast enough in their lifeboat. Crane’s goal was to leave nature’s cruel threats and return to civilization as fast as possible.
In the short story “ The Open Boat,” by Stephen Crane, Crane does an outstanding job creating descriptive images throughout the entire story. With saying this, Crane uses symbolism along with strong imagery to provide the reader with a fun and exciting story about four guys who 's fight was against nature and themselves. Starting early in the book, Crane creates a story line that has four men in a great amount of trouble in the open waters of the ocean. Going into great detail about natures fierce and powerful body of water, Crane makes it obvious that nature has no empathy for the human race. In this story, Crane shows the continuous fight that the four men have to endure in able to beat natures strongest body of water. It 's not just nature the men have to worry about though, its the ability to work together in order to win this fight against nature. Ultimately, Crane is able to use this story, along with its vast imagery and symbolism to compare the struggle between the human race and all of natures uncertainties.
Important aspects of naturalism are the ideas that people are essentially animals responding to their basic urges without rational thought, and the insignificance of man to others and nature. In The Jungle, Sinclair portrays Jurgis as a man slowly changing into animal as well as a man whose actions are irrelevant to the rest of the corrupt capitalist world of Chicago in order to show the reader the naturalist ideas of the struggles between man and society.
... out that nature, although it does impact the men's lives, does not have any connection to the outcome. With his short story, Crane challenges the idea that men and nature are connected spiritually. He even challenges the idea of religion by leaving the outcome of the men simply to the experience that they have. The boat, an oar, and some directions from their captain save the men from death, not a divine guide. One man simply does not make it to the shore alive. The view of man and nature within this story is somewhat pessimistic, pointing to the philosophy that we are hopeless in the face of circumstance. The point Crane makes in the end is that although people are often victims of circumstance, humans have one another to help survive difficult experiences.
The story possesses amazingly vivid description. This attention to detail affords the reader the greatest degree of reading pleasure. Crane paints such glorious images in reader's mind with his eloquence. "The morning appeared finally, in its splendor, with a sky of pure blue, and the sunlight flamed on the tips of waves"(387). Artistic sentences of such caliber are not often found. The reader is left with a terrific vision of the perilous sea maintaining its beauty amongst the violence of the wind. "Their back- bones had become thoroughly used to balancing in the boat and they now rode this wild colt of a dinghy like circus men"(378). Here, again, Crane uses splendid detail to capture the essence of the chaotic situation.
The world of Stephen Crane's fiction is a cruel, lonely place. Man's environment shows no sympathy or concern for man; in the midst of a battle in The Red Badge of Courage "Nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment" (89). Crane frequently anthropomorphizes the natural world and turns it into an agent actively working against the survival of man. From the beginning of "The Open Boat" the waves are seen as "wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall" (225) as if the waves themselves had murderous intent. During battle in The Red Badge of Courage the trees of the forest stretched out before Henry and "forbade him to pass. After its previous hostility this new resistance of the forest filled him with a fine bitterness" (104). More omnipresent than the mortal sense of opposition to nature, however, is the mortal sense of opposition to other men. Crane portrays the Darwinian struggle of men as forcing one man against another, not only for the preservation of one's life, but also the preservation of one's sense of self-worth. Henry finds hope for escape from this condition in the traditional notion that "man becomes another thing in a battle"‹more selfless and connected to his comrades (73). But the few moments in Crane's stories where individuals rise above self-preservation are not the typically heroicized moments of battle. Crane revises the sense of the heroic by allowing selfishness to persist through battle. Only when his characters are faced with the absolute helplessness of another human do they rise above themselves. In these grim situations the characters are reminded of their more fundamental opp...
Imagine a scene in which a small, wooden boat is peacefully floating on the ocean. Now, imagine that the scene is panning out to reveal the boat is merely a tiny speck, the ocean reaching out endlessly around it. Suddenly, the peaceful quality of the boat has been replaced by a feeling of consuming meaninglessness. Stephen Crane, a naturalist writer and reporter in nineteenth century America, often used nature to prompt readers into questioning their purpose and place in the universe. In “The Open Boat,” complex symbolism allows Crane’s characters to reflect humanity's shared experience regarding existence and self-worth.
There are many lessons one can learn by reading Crane’s “The Open Boat” due to him constructing a microcosm of society. It is unbelievable how authors, especially Crane, are able to use characters and items as symbolism to produce a meaning of a story. Crane was meticulous on choosing the correct names, backgrounds, and descriptions of the characters and items he used in this story. If he would not have paid close attention to these details in his story, it would just be another plain story with no meaning.
Authors’ Steven Crane and Jack London are known for their stories using naturalism, the struggle between man and nature. Naturalism is like realism, but it explores the forces of nature, heredity, and the environment on human beings, who are faced with the forces of nature. Both “The Open Boat” and “To Build a Fire” demonstrate how inferior and small humans’ really are to nature. Humans cannot control nature or determine its outcome. In both stories nature is the antagonist constantly challenging the humans’ ability to survive. I chose the topic over naturalistic elements because I enjoyed reading these stories. Both stories have a strong since of naturalism in it and both authors’ are known for naturalistic features existing in their writings. In this paper I will give you more of an insight to what naturalism is and what naturalistic elements are present in the two stories listed above.
Writing in “Fact, Not Fiction: Questioning Our Assumptions About Crane’s ‘The Open Boat,’” Stefanie Eye Bates remarks, “By mentioning the men’s friendship, the atmosphere of congeniality and fraternity, the captain’s calm voice and the comfort the others took in it, Crane fully explains how he draws the conclusion that ‘although no one said it was so,’ the sense of unity was felt by all” (73). Since this bond of brotherhood is felt by all the men in the boat, but not discussed, it manifests in small ways as the men interact with each other. They are never irritated or upset with each other, no matter how tired or sore they are. Whenever one man is too tired to row, the next man takes over without complaining. When the correspondent thinks that he is the only person awake on the boat, and he sees and hears the shark in the water, the narrator says, “Nevertheless, it is true that he did not want to be alone with the thing. He wished one of his companions to awaken by chance and keep him company with it” (Crane 212). In reference to this scene, Shulman remarks that “the central theme of community [is] touchingly rendered here because the correspondent does not awaken his exhausted companions” (451). Nobody makes any statements about the bond that the men develop, but it is evident in small things like this, where the correspondent lets the other men sleep
Naturalism is about bringing humans into the “natural world”. We, as humans, are seen as aspects of nature collectively not separate like they once were. “Naturalism holds that everything we are and do is connected to the rest of the world and derived from conditions that precede us and surround us. Each of us is an unfolding natural process, and every aspect of that process is caused, and is a cause itself ” (“A Guide for Naturalism”). Humans are like “animals” they contain the same drives that animals have. They are just plain “natural”. Many authors express naturalism in their writings such as Kate Chopin. She expresses a naturalistic view on sexual drives which classify her as a naturalistic writer.
The struggle for survival by mankind can be found in many different settings. It can be seen on a battlefield, a hospital room or at sea as related in “The Open Boat”, written in 1897 by Stephen Crane. The story is based on his actual experiences when he survived the sinking of the SS Commodore off the coast of Florida in early 1897. “The Open Boat” is Stephen Crane’s account of life and death at sea told through the use of themes and devices to emphasize the indifference of nature to man’s struggles and the development of mankind’s compassion.
... point of view, and irony. Crane use these techniques to guide the reader in the course of the struggles, both internally and externally, of mans great endeavor against nature. The tone sets the suspense of the story by building the impending doom upon the crew. The stories point of view allows the reader to gradually understand and expect the indifference of nature upon people’s lives. The reality of nature is expressed through the use of different kinds of irony. The universe is represented by the power of the ocean, and the small boat in this ocean is symbolic of man in this giant universe. The immaculate power of the ocean is very indifferent to the small boat, just as our great universe could not care less for man.