Stephen Crane's Use Of Literary Naturalism In The Open Boat

A story containing literary naturalism has been defined as one which "emphasizes the role of environment upon human characters" (Flanagan), where nature is portrayed as uncaring, where it seems there is no order in the universe, where man looks for order and signs in the universe, and where it seems that man has no purpose in nature. In his short story "The Open Boat," Stephen Crane uses all four of these characteristics to bring his story to life.

Crane portrays nature as uncaring in his descriptions of the unforgiving and relentless sea. He states at one point in his story that, "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 anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats." Despite the fact that the men in the lifeboat are tired and that their death seems imminent if the sea does not let up, the sea continues on in wave after wave of relentless fatigue. Nature, in this case the sea, is portrayed as uncaring.

Crane portrays the seeming lack of order in the universe when he writes, of the men's thoughts, "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? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life? It is preposterous." The men in the boat have worked hard, far past the point of exhaustion, and all of it just to see the land that they are unable to reach. This strikes the men as unfair, understandably. Surely if there were any order in the universe they would certainly have deserved to make it to land, particularly after all they had been through to get to where they were.

Crane shows that man looks for order and signs in nature when he says, of a bird kept away from fluttering about the captain's head, "After it had been discouraged from the pursuit the captain breathed easier on account of his hair, and others breathed easier because the bird struck their minds at this time as being somehow gruesome and ominous." This bird, flying around their captain's head, in the plight they were in, was taken as a sign of negative apprehension.

Lastly, Crane shows how it seems that man has no purpose in nature when he writes, "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 him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples." It seems that most all mankind views themselves as somehow special or privy to some dark and wondrous secret hidden from the rest of the peopled world. Yet as expressed in this quote, there comes a time when a person is forced to see that in reality nature shows no favoritism, and holds no special place for a particular individual near and dear to her heart.

Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat" is a good example of a story using a classical definition of literary naturalism. His story contains multiple situations and examples where nature is expressed as being uncaring, where it seems there is no order in the universe, where man looks for order and signs in nature, and where it seems that man has no purpose in nature.

Sources:

Crane, Stephen. "The Open Boat." 1898.

Flanagan, Mark. "Naturalism." About.com: Contemporary Literature. 5 March 2008 http://contemporarylit.about.com/cs/literaryterms/g/naturalism.htm.