Literary Naturalism In Stephen Crane's The Open Boat

     Although the men are pitted against an uncaring sea, they still at this point seem to think their destinies are controlled by some outside force. Their collective thoughts are given: 'If I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?...If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men's fortunes.'(6) It soon dawns on them, though, that there is no 'fate,' no purpose for their being where they are. It is the realization of this fact that brings the men to the brink of despair: 'When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.'(6) It seems to them that their

The Open Boat, written by Stephen Crane is discusses the journey of four survivors that were involved in a ship wreck. The oiler, the cook, the captain, and the correspondent are the survivors that make onto a dingey and struggle to survive the roaring waves of the ocean. They happen to come across land after being stranded in the ocean for two days and start to feel a sense of hope that they would be rescued anytime soon. They began feeling down as they realize nobody was going to rescue them and make an attempt to reach shore. The story discusses an external conflict of man vs nature to help state clearly the central idea. The central idea of the story conveys man’s success against nature when ones’ abilities are combined together to increase the chances of survival. The use of 3rd person limited omniscience and character analysis helps to explain how the journey of the men’s survival to get out of the ocean and reach shore is able to succeed while Stephen Crane uses symbolism to demonstrate the unity created amongst the survivors.

Even though the oiler suffered on his journey on the open boat all of the characters were victims of life’s unfortunate and twisted series of events. These four men have possibly gone through a shipwreck that left them stranded in the middle of the ocean without any tools for survival aside from a small dinghy. This event in itself is unfortunate enough, but for these men it is barley the beginning. They endure rough seas, fatigue and endless rowing alongside several other complications during their desolation at sea. Nearing the end of the story a large and furious wave completely runs

They are so consumed with their struggle against the waves they do not even have the time to notice something as simple as the color of the sky. From the very beginning the reader is filled with the suspense that each individual character feels. Despite the crews struggle with Mother Nature, they are continually struck by the fierce waves. With each passing wave the reader is lead to believe that this one will surely be the one that capsizes the little dingy. “As the salty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean (256).” Crane creates suspense between the reader and the characters that allow both to feel the relentlessness of nature’s indifference of their struggled attempts to survive. It seems that no matter how hard the crew works to keep the dingy from capsizing “… the waves continued their old impetuous swooping at the dingy, and the little craft, no longer underway struggled woundily over them (259).” The narrator describes the waves as acting carefree and rather impulsive as if they had no obligation to the men for their survival. Nature does not care that this crew of men were working to survive, but nor does it mean to cause the men any harm. The waves are merely there, doing as nature intends the waves

While taking a cruise to Jamaica for vacations, the ship you are at starts to sink. How do you think people in the ship would react to this scenario? Stephen Crane, an American author, wrote the story “The Open Boat”. The story is about a boat sinking in the middle of the ocean with four men. The characters presented by Crane in the story are a cook, an oiler, a correspondent, and the captain. Although the story is narrated from the view of the correspondent; Crane gives the reader some particular characteristics of the captain. The goal of this paper is to interpret the character of the captain by discussing his actions, feelings, and quotes presented by Crane.

But nature is harsh and unpredictable, so they have to keep working hard and catch each single chance to save themselves. In “To Build a Fire”, the nature always create difficulties for the men, so he has to figure out many ways to solve the problems. In a summary, the man and the crew’s struggle to survive against a hostile nature is similar, for example, they all work hard, they all have to cope with the different situations, they all feel helpless and depressed, and the man in “To Build a Fire” and the oiler in “The Open Boat” both die in the

The waves seem to be growing in size and strength as the tips of the waves turn white. The waves seem to have the fisherman’s vessel tipped towards the top against the sea. The fog that gives the illusion of growth due to the fact they appear to climb in two particular spots. All of these elements work together to create rhythm, however without the fierce waves these elements would create an entirely different meaning. If the fisherman did not face the task of enduring the ferocious waves to arrive at the large vessel, accomplishing the task of reaching the vessel would therefore not seem quite as

Unknown as what might be ahead all four men embrace the hearty sea at full force working hard to break through the endless waves. The correspondent and the oiler rowed together as the cook bailed out water and the captain laid in the bow of the boat injured but able to give orders. All four men working fiercely, but questioning their fate as they embrace the open ocean in a dinghy described to be as big as a bathtub. “The mind of the master of a vessel is rooted deep in the timbers of her, though he command for a day or a decade; and this caption had on him the stern impression of a scene in the grays of dawn of seven turned faces, and later a stump of a topmast with a white ball on it, that slashed to a fro at the waves, went low and lower, and down.” This expression told from the narrative portrays the caption who is “the mind of the master of the vessel” to be hopeless which has everyone in the dinghy questioning their survival.

In the short story, “The Open Boat,” nature plays a crucial role. The majority of the time, it is the enemy to the correspondent, oiler, cook, and Captain. In the beginning, the waves are explained as being “most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall, and each froth-top was a problem in small boat navigation” (990) With this being said, nature does not care that the four men are stranded in the sea in a small boat. It does what it knows best, create monstrous waves and strong, powerful winds. After one wave hits the crew, they are faced with a new one. Some are more forceful, yet all require great amounts of strength and endurance to overcome. In the story, it says, “A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously

Naturalism is a very important philosophy in Crane’s writing. Although humans have a tendency to romanticize events in nature and in daily life that they perceive as great Crane tries to stay on the naturalistic side of things. Although Crane’s writing is mostly naturalistic it contains some romanticism. This leads some people to believe that Crane is a romantic writer.

My interpretation of Crane’s poem, the deeds people tell of war only tell that of the battles, the hardship, no one hears about the “angels on the battlefield” or the interactions that happen outside of battle. He sees the romantic view, and yet the naturalistic view at the same time.

The waves surrounding the four men are depicted as walls. A wall is a structure meant to enclose something or someone. Which is also why the waves are compared to a fence because they are essentially this barrier to the men and their lifeboat. This enclosure creates a feeling of suffocation and isolation because the men cannot seem to escape. They know that there is this vast ocean beyond the waves as well as land ahead of them, but because of the waves, all they can see is the grey sky above them. This in turn creates a feeling of hopelessness because they know it is there, but they cannot reach it. This isolation that they are undergoing forms a condensed reality on the lifeboat. This condensed reality so happens to be the protagonists being placed up against mother

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane describes the experiences of a sunken steamboat’s crew while they are interlocked in a battle against Nature. With their boat sunk, the crew is left with nothing but their ten-foot dinghy and must now brave the open, never ending sea without knowing how or when they will reach land. The battered crew is continuously deluged by forces of nature, having both blessings and contretemps bestowed upon them. Crane repeatedly depicts the helplessness of the men while they are at sea, which in turn makes some crew members, such as the correspondent, contemplate their place and significance in Nature. “The Open Boat” uses conflict, situational irony, and symbolism to demonstrate Nature’s indifference in its actions towards

In most traditional happy ending stories, there always appears to be evidence of supernaturalism. However, Stephen Crane leaves out all fairy tale elements and mystical creatures in his “The Open Boat”. Throughout the whole story, there are constant examples of the raw, realistic and indifferent parts of life. In Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” naturalism is apparent through the use of language, literary techniques, and thematic elements.

Stephen Crane’s ideas varied from those of Twain and Ambrose as shown in his short story, “The Open Boat.” In the story, the crewmates of a diminutive boat are caught in a storm. This is clearly more depressing than the stories of the other two authors cited but it also sanctions nature to play a substantial role. In naturalism, nature often acts as a force that humanity cannot control. The storm represents Crane’s belief in