If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men's fortunes. She is an old hen who knows not her intentions. If she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it in the beginning and save me all this trouble. The whole affair is absurd...But no, she cannot mean to drown me. She dare not drown me. She cannot drown me. Not after all this work" (Crane).
This narration of the men's musing not only highlight's Crane's theme of fate, but also his theme of nature, and the way in which men are overpowered by nature, expressed as the sea. This primary theme is captured by the fact that the men did not drown simply at the hands of nature, in the shipwreck, but are convinced that they will die at the hands of nature now, when safety is almost within reach. In addition to their expression of anger with Fate, the men acknowledge this when Crane describes them as convincing themselves that "she cannot drown me. Not after all this work" (Crane). In fact, to the men, nature and fate seem much the same. If nature has the power to drown, than she must be contained within the sea. Here, the men feel as if nature is toying with them, allowing them one last glimpse at human society before reminding them that she is superior.
Although Crane's themes of fate and nature often intersect, as the men, in their condition, see them as intertwined, Crane's nature imagery is written throughout the story. In fact, the story begins with Crane's statement that, "None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them" (Crane). Thus, in the first sentence of the book, Crane establishes...
Stephen Crane's story "The Open Boat" is a masterful example of Naturalistic storytelling that evokes the characters of four men stranded on a small boat as well as character of the sea itself. By the end of this long short story, despite the fact that Crane has provided us with only the most elliptical clues about these four men, we have came to understand a great deal about their characters.
"The Open Boat" may have been based on Crane's real-life experience but it also functions as symbolic "of man's battle against the malevolent, indifferent, and unpredictable forces of nature…This reading is confirmed by the final irony of the death of the oiler, physically the strongest man on the scene and the one most favored to withstand the ordeal" (Rath & Shaw 97). The futility of resisting the power nature with
Stephen Crane: A Great Writer of American Naturalist Fiction and Non-Fiction, and of Local Color Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was an American author of the late 19th century, whose work, in terms of style and sub-genre, was somewhere between American Romanticism and American Naturalism (with some American Realism added). Crane wrote at the end of a century (the 19th), a time when several literary styles and genres are typically blended together until
One critic's reading of "The Open Boat" positions the story as a turning point in Crane's career, away from the isolation and interiority of The Red badge of Courage and towards a sense of the need of community and the inescapability of interpersonal bonding. Statements like "Four scowling men sat in the dingey" are taken by some to be indicators of the camaraderie that must necessarily form between any
The dangers of this setting are readily apparent, and are conditions in which few living creatures, let alone man, can exert their wills to survive. The predominance of a natural settings and such powerful influence it has on its characters is a trait of Naturalism. It is also significant to note that the deciding moment of both of these stories is dictated by the natural environment of the setting. More
London's traveler is, to a certain degree, experiencing less terrible conditions and he is practically responsible for everything that happens to him. In contrast, the men on the boat have no power over what happens to them and they are constantly subjected to unfortunate events, even with the fact that they do everything that they can in order to remedy things. Crane's characters virtually refuse to believe that nature
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