Realism and Naturalism in Crane’s Open Boat “Perhaps an individual must consider his own death to

James B. Colvert, a chief critic, agrees that the sea is described as hostile and indifferent force (“Stephen” 112). At the end of the story the correspondent it taken away by the swift current but whirled back toward the land, the very thing that has put him in harm’s way has saved him (Crane 239). Along with the death of the oiler, Crane shows that nature does not act out of motivation and fate is inevitable. The internal conflict resides in the men’s realization that their survival is uncontrollable; it is up to fate. In “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane it states, “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?” (Crane 232). This statement refers to the god’s who are traditionally in men’s lives as being absent toward the abandoned men. This statement alludes to Peter denying Jesus; man denying God, but Crane inverts this scene to God denying man. “Irony is Crane’s chief technical instrument,” explains critic Robert Wooster Stallman (“Stephen” 108). In the statement “When it occurs to 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… Thereafter he knows the pathos of his situation,” it

The Open Boat is a tragic tale by Stephen Crane of four men contemplating what seems like their inevitable death. This paragraph above serves as a quality passage on its own and as an interesting part of the entire story as the author repeats it often. The text is a beautiful paragraph, perhaps the most flowery writing in the entire work. Lines such as "to nibble the sacred cheese of life" and "name of the seven mad gods who

Although there is no land in sight and their supplies are limited, the crew tries to stay positive. Throughout the story, the men are repeatedly offering words of encouragement, trying to reassure each other and keep their minds at ease. Some of the men boast that they are glad that they have an “on shore wind,” and jokingly question what kind of pie the others like. At one point, the captain is described as “soothing his children,” offering them some words of encouragement by saying, “we’ll get ashore all right” (Crane 197). These words help the others remain positive, as the author explains, “But there was that in his tone which made them think, so the oiler quoth: ‘Yes! If this wind holds!’ ” (Crane 197). We can sense that they know the gravity of the situation by the captain’s tone, but they continue to reassure each other. Not only do they mentally support one another, but physically as well. Throughout the experience, they share the burdens and the task of rowing, keeping the boat from capsizing, and staying on the watch at night. The oiler and the correspondent take turns rowing until one loses the ability to continue on, at which point they ask the other, “Will you spell me for a little while” (Crane 206). When the night grows cold, they use one another to keep warm, lying in the bottom of the boat in what is described as a “grotesque rendering of the old babes in the woods” (Crane 207). When people suffer together it creates a bond that makes them stronger, with this rationale often used in the armed forces during boot camp, where the team is forced through challenges and experiences that allow them to become a more effective team. The author describes this precisely by

In "The Open Boat," Crane writes of the "EXPERIENCE OF FOUR MEN FROM THE SUNK STEAMER COMMODORE" (743). Having escaped the sunken ship, the four men--the cook, the correspondent, the oiler, and the captain--are now in a dinghy sailing obstinately in the midst of a seething ocean for the coast of Florida. From the beginning of the story till the end, one can admire these honest men, who confront such a dangerous environment.

In “The Open Boat”, four sailors survive their ship being wrecked and must continually fight to find land and to stay

Dmitri and Anna “walked and talked of the strange light on the sea; the water was of a soft, warm lilac hue, and there was a golden streak from the moon upon it” (270; Ch. 1). Lilac is a warm color that creates an active response in the brain and brings a feeling of excitement, passion and sometimes aggression (Eiseman 43). The dreary weather in “The Open Boat” is just like the survivors mood, somber. In a boat no bigger than a bathtub, the captain, cook, oiler and the correspondent are at the mercy of nature, they are unable to control their own fate. Nature does not care if you live or

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is a short story included in The Norton Introduction to Literature. In it, we embark on the journey of four men, whose ship has sunk and are now adrift. The characters fight for survival throughout the whole tale, trying to withstand nature. As the story passes, they realize that nature is indifferent and uncaring. Moreover, they begin to question the existence of God. Ultimately, three of the men survive and one of them dies. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” shows the struggle of men attempting to understand nature and desiring to survive against this invincible and indifferent force. I will analyze literary elements of character, plot, and symbol, using Literary Naturalism to demonstrate this constant conflict between man and nature that plays out in “The Open Boat.”

In Stephen Crane’s, The Open Boat, the short story examines the naturalistic theory that shows the fate of men on their journey and how they struggle to carry on alone and helplessly, this is a perfect literary work that closely looks at their destiny of survival primarily with nature. According to Dictionary.com, Naturalism can be defined as “the view of the world that takes account only of natural elements and forces, excluding the supernatural or spiritual, the belief that all phenomena are covered by laws of science and that all teleological explanations are therefore without value.” Naturalism, philosophically determines the ideas of man and his fate in the universe, throughout this tale the reader can see many of these examples of naturalism,

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

In the short story written by Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat,” the author provides the reader with a familiar theme of mans never ending battle against nature. Although this conflict is the dominant theme in the story, Crane delves into the perspectives of these opponents and how it shapes the sub-themes, survival and brotherhood, within the story. The four men in the boat struggling against the tempestuous sea cling to the belief that they can dominate these barbaric elements as they are experienced sailors, they are men! The perception of these men is that they face a frenzied sea with malevolent intent, “When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of

The ship being tossed about in the violent waters, creatures of the sea moving in toward the bodies, and the chains around the victims induce terror and sorrow. Drama is further materialized with the impression of movement of the water and ship.

Nature is a common battle field for everyone in existence. In The Open Boat by Stephen Crane, he elaborates exactly how nature can be such a huge part in someone’s life, even if it between life and death. Crane uses nature a lot in this story. Typically, The Open Boat is read as a story of nature against man, however, nature can be a protagonist in the story. But, it can also be used merely as a way of providing more depth on how one feels in the struggle of life past and present.

Stephen Crane’s story “The Open Boat” starts off with four strangers stranded in the middle of the ocean after their ship unexpectedly sank. The four men, a correspondent, a cook, an oiler, and the ship’s captain, struggle hopelessly just to keep their bathtub sized dinghy afloat in the rough seas off the coast of Florida. The four men must bond and work together as any wrong move would result I their small

Stephen Crane has come to be considered the “forerunner” of western naturalism (Perosa 94). His works portray the harshest of realities, from the crime and disease ridden streets brought to life in Maggie, to his take on the atrocities of battle in The Red Badge of Courage. Crane pushed his strong messages of “environment” being a determining element in life, and his belief that there are no “heroes,” only different individuals in different situations. Crane himself was part of the 19th-century movement for naturalism in art, or the “contemporary ideas of science and society, which rejected the idealization of experience and adopted an objective and often uncompromisingly realistic (my italics) approach to art” (Oxford Dictionaries).