Nature In Stephen Crane's The Red Badge Of Courage

Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” and Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” include parallel ideas of Man’s hopelessness in the natural world. Through out both short stories the authors bring up questions of man’s fate and his relationship with nature as well as carry a theme of naturalism. When nature seems to repeatedly play against man, the reader wonders we whether nature is cruel and sinister, making it difficult for man to live. Evidence in the the two stories such as the animal’s presence, the environments, and the different human characters, in both stories leads one to believe that nature is not in fact out to get man, but it is a neutral, indifferent factor.

He personifies nature as a human being by giving him the ability to hug and give warmth to others. He also says that people should have no worries in him because the beauty of nature is not the temporary happiness of sadness that life brings you, but the ability to breathe in air. The ability to stand up and walk. Nature has the ability to bring the best out of the worst. The narrator also says that people can truly see nature when they are isolated from society due to the fact that they can think take their time to analyze

The affection of nature on the main character. “The main character is a young man who believes that he knows the frozen wilderness, but he is still a tenderfoot who has not yet learned to respect the power of nature” (James M.

She took a quick look around the last turn before the main street that led to the school. She noticed several boys and girls in the alleyways on both sides of the narrow street. It looked as if every class at her school, several young ladies and even her teacher waited for her in ambush. She ducked back before they could see her, hiked up her dress, and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her in the opposite direction of the angry mob. She didn’t stop until she had found the forest path that she needed and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard no one in pursuit. The forest surroundings felt different for some reason and it frightened her. It had a forbidding feel to it this dawn like she had never felt in the past.

Naturalism is “a philosophical viewpoint according to which everything arises from natural properties and causes.” A Naturalist is “a person who practices naturalism in art or literature.” Stephen Crane is a famous writer during the Naturalism movement, and best develops Naturalist beliefs throughout his stories. Naturalists believe an individual’s life is determined by environment, chance, and heredity. They also believe free will is an illusion, survival of the fittest and natural selection govern people as well as nature, and people resort to the animal within during crisis situations. Naturalists also believe people should endure their suffering with quiet dignity. Stephen Crane uses characters, setting, plot, and conflict to develop Naturalist themes in “An Episode of War,” and “A Mystery of Heroism.”

Books and stories are more than just stories. Many authors aim to challenge the reader in several different ways. Stephen Crane serves as a prime example for this concept; he continually asks questions through his literature, challenging the thoughts of the reader. This critical view is popular among critics of Crane, and reading his work proves its truth. Crane tries to make his work more than an enjoyable story.

The metaphor of nature can be seen by comparing the number of leaves on the trees in summer, to the amount of leaves in the forest in autumn. Then, these differing numbers are tied to the number of soldiers in the beginning; plentiful, and in the end; barren. This use of nature as a metaphor can also be explained to the physical states of the soldiers changing from colorful and full of life, to bleak and dead.

Since the creation of mankind, nature has provided us with the resources to survive by providing humans with food and shelter, which is why humans view nature as a home. In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character Huck tries to escape to the north with a runaway slave named Jim. While in nature, they learn how to trust each other and develop their own opinions instead of following what society believes is right. In Emerson’s short essay, “Nature”, Emerson describes nature as a place in which it provides protection from all calamities and disgraces. While in nature, he’s able to become relaxed and peaceful. In William Cullen Bryant’s poem, “Thanatopsis,” Bryant writes that although everyone will eventually die, death shouldn’t be feared, but instead embraced. While nature does bring death, it also provides care and a sanctuary, which clears our dark thoughts away. Although nature can often bring sadness, it ultimately provides a hideaway from society; therefore, people should preserve nature because we rely on it.

The movement arrived during a time in American history when almost everything had changed. Appearing in the 1890s, naturalism was the end-product of a generation brought up after the Civil War who recognized that the so-called American Dream of the period held little significance in their life and the future, “The realization by the generation coming of age in the 1890s that American life had changed radically since the Civil War helped compromise a key aspect of the American Dream—the faith that America guaranteed all men the free and just pursuit of self-fulfillment and of the good life” (Pizer 3). In effect, man was not the ruler of his own destiny but was subject to forces beyond him. Naturalist writers, such as Crane, viewed humanity as objects. In previous works such as the book The Red Badge of Courage, Crane had written about how environments play pivotal roles in shaping individuals (Pizer 4). Influenced by the likes of Charles Darwin as well as social scientists who prophesied that the course of humanity was not predicated on the self but of the things existing all around, the naturalist writer set about carving a pessimistic world

It represented in a degree, to the correspondent, the serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individual -- nature in the wind, and nature in the vision of men. She did not seem cruel to him, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she was indifferent, flatly indifferent.

Evidently, nature is the only force that seems to have dominion over the men’s lives. For example, the very first line of the short story says, “None of them knew the color of the sky,” (Crane). This line expresses how Stephen Crane made nature appear as stark and unemotional. Throughout the story, a naturalistic tone is very prevalent. Crane explains how the sea is calm in one day, yet rough the next. This shows how nature is compassionate, yet unforgiving. Thus, this elucidates the point of nature’s indifference to man. Another way Crane creates a naturalistic tone is how Crane highlights the importance of physical features and the environment as deleterious to man in most cases. For example, Crane describes the rough surf and waves as “slate walls” and affirms that they are “snarling” at the sailors (Crane). Another prime example is when the correspondent was in the midst of drowning. He started to grieve the inequity of his destiny and how he did not live his life to the fullest. As if, he did not experience everything life had to offer, and that his life was going to be cut short. This is an exemplary illustration on what naturalism is. Basically, the correspondent cared about his precious life, because in a naturalistic worldview, there is no afterlife or second

In the novel A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter, there lies in the pages the themes of nature and moths, both intrinsic motifs sunk deep into the bones of the storyline. The beauty and elegance of nature is viewed by the characters as a direct manifestation of the hand of God. As such, the characters in the story basked in the glory of the outdoors and spent most the time perusing the surrounding areas around their homes. Each character in the novel had a different relationship to nature. For some, such as nature was a way to find inner peace. For others, nature represented the turbulence and wildness upon which the course of life took you. Specific places out in the surrounding environment novel also had a noteworthy part in the theme of nature. And then you have characters in which nature played a more significant role such as Elnora and her mother Mrs. Comstock’s life.

Naturalism analyses objectivity and the loss of individuality to study the instinctual nature of human beings when governed by forces beyond their control. “An Episode of War” by Stephen Crane uses elements of naturalism to describe what happens to a lieutenant after being shot in the arm. Characters in naturalism literature, such as the lieutenant, experience forces of heredity, environment, passion, or instinct that weaken their attempts to exercise free will. In “An Episode of War,” Crane incorporates a dynamic setting, evolving characterization, and person vs self conflict to prove that war brings more tragedy than glory.

On the other hand, the rest of society is hesitant, crooked, and depraved. The mind process of mankind has been switched with the negative qualities one associates animals with. Humans may be able to understand ideas more clearly than animals, however in this case ignorance is bliss. Being unaware of certain concepts can reduce the amount of barbaric actions in the long run. Unlike nature, people lack harmony with themselves. In order to survive they feel the need to disrupt earth’s creations and pollute the environment. This will eventually consume and wipe out everything there is to be grateful for all because people cannot be left alone in peace. When nature is left alone, it has a beautiful way of balancing itself out and reaching tranquility. John Coffey is the epitome of nature, which is why the owl’s “hoo” is so captivating and intriguing to him. He recognizes its purity, which makes him feel more at home and peaceful. This scene offers a glimpse of positivity, and is significant because Coffey never had as intimate of a connection with any of the other

London not only uses the wild nature of dogs but also uses human’s wild instinct. In his stories of “War,” and “To the Wisdom of the Trail,” London uses the brutalness of natural intuition to show survival of the fittest. In the story “War,” a scout lets an enemy scout live, just to be killed by that same scout. This is ironic, and London uses this irony to show that humans are willing to kill when their own life is in peril. The need to survive is a very crucial piece of this story, and the narrator lets his emotions get in the way of his instinct. Nature also plays a key role. In this case, nature is a foil to the theme. London draws a stark contrast between the tranquility of nature, and the brutality that is human nature. This highlights how brutal the human intuition, a part of nature, in the beautiful landscape of the forest. Jeanne Reesman writes, “While nature shows her fecundity with images of great forests and the golden pollen that hangs in the air, men kill each other as strangers” (Reesman. “War” ). Nature in this story is seen in the instinct of the living scout, as well as in the emotion of the narrator. The narrator is killed leaving the reader to think that the beauty of nature is inferior to natural instinct. Nature and the narrator are very similar in this story, both are calm and worry free. The Scout who lives is brutal, and wild, like the nature that is traditionally described in London’s work. The prevailing scout goes to his natural instinct