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Naturalism is frequently cited as one of the dominant literary movements of 19 th century America. Naturalism aimed at a detached, scientific objective portrayal of a natural self controlled by instincts and ruled by passion. Since a self was not perceived to have free will, naturalism debunked moral judgment. Historically, naturalism is perceived to have been more inclusive but also less selective than realism (Hart 525). Naturalism was boxed-in by a determinism established by Darwinian theory and Marxist economics. The compelling writings of Stephen Crane which celebrate a fierce self battling against the harsh elements of its environment offer a striking example of American naturalism.
In Crane's often anthologized short story "The Open Boat", the careful reader can detect Crane's careful mixing of naturalist elements which results in one of the most powerful American tales ever told. Beginning with its compelling and often cited opening line, "None of them knew the color of the sky" (Lauter 715), "The Open Boat" functions as a tour de force. None of the four men bobbing helplessly about the ocean know the color of the sky because they are so intent on survival. Crane immediately sets the tone for this harsh tale by suggesting that there can be no room for a tourist's observation or aesthetic appreciation when one is battling for one's life.
Crane indicates that he has lifted his tale from actual facts. In attempting to render the struggles of four men set adrift in a small boat bouncing about on rough waters, Crane frame his tale according to the dictum's of naturalism. In order to underscore the reality of the dangers which accost them at the toss of every wave, from the beginning the reader senses that not every man will successfully arrive on shore. One of Crane's naturalist techniques is to present inanimate objects as if alive.
The boat in which the four men ride is described as if a "bucking bronco" (Lauter 715). Yet set against this animation of the objects and environment in which they find themselves trapped, these men are continually assaulted by an ominous and pervasive "greatness" (Lauter 714 - 5). The waves are described to be like "slate" in the first paragraph (Lauter 714). Crane coyly adds that although none of these men know the color of the sky, each one could exhaustively describe the "colors of the sea" (Lauter 714). Their eyes gazing out at the sea in a mix of terror and awe turn grey as if in sympathetic correspondence (Lauter 715).
At the end of the first section Crane has already left the clue that the oiler may not survive. The correspondent is drawn as inquisitive, anxious to know what is happening and why. The cook is seen to be almost light-hearted and affirmative of life. The captain is intent on developing a strategy for bringing his new crew successfully ashore. The oiler is presented as the most dispassionate, the most cynical. Already in this first section, Crane's compressed technique hints that in this naturalist tale the one who accepts the harshness of his condition and does not battle against it may be the one most easily victimized by nature.
In the second section Crane continues the action of the story's plot. The sea is seen to be a difficult and treacherous opponent. The captain orders the men to bail and the cook cheerfully responds (Lauter 718). In the third section Crane artfully develops the brotherhood of man as a compelling counterpart to the destructive nature which surrounds these men. Nature is seen as always threatening. Yet Crane employs almost a comical tone at times to lighten the story's ominous thrust and to suggest that nature must be understood as the confining force of the universe.
To this end, in the third section, the correspondent feels as if they are four men involved in a circus act, riding the dinghy as if it were a colorful pony. Yet they also take a moment to relax and celebrate the pleasures of life when they uncover four cigars and dry matches (Lauter 720). Crane seems to be suggesting that in this moment of reprieve, they feel confident that they can better nature. In the fourth section, Crane continues to build the tale's dramatic tension. The world about the four men battling so heroically against nature's harsh elements is intentionally portrayed as dramatically indifferent to their plight. The section begins with the captain observing that "there don't seem to be any signs of life about your house of refuge" (Lauter 720).
The cook has contended that they will be saved by people on the shore who will spy them, understand that they are in danger, and arrange a rescue party to save them. Crane intensifies the futility of the men's hopes that the world will present itself as a benevolent place when he wryly observes that "there was not a life-saving station within twenty miles in either direction" (Lauter 720). Crane reveals to his readers what these four men themselves do not know. Crane seems to be suggesting that part of life's cruelty is that we hope for things that are not possible and believe in things that are not actually there. Set adrift in the midst of the wide open sea, the men keep lamenting that they are not observed from shore. The men passionately observe the activities of the people on shore.
It is as if Crane is suggesting that if they return to the shore they will be once more amidst civilization and free from menacing nature. Yet as a "yellow tone" spreads across the sky, the men begin to shiver (Lauter 723). As a naturalist tale, the men are never quite free from the menacing presence of nature's potential cruelty. With his superb craftsmanship, Crane depicts the surf itself as expressing the men's woe and bewilderment. They wonder why if they are to be drowned, why have the "seven mad gods who rule the sea" allowed them to come this close to "sand and trees" (Lauter 724). Unable to resist a comic ending to this section, Crane has the cook asking dreamily "what kind of pie" do his companions like best (Lauter 724).
The oiler is disgusted with the cook's question. Yet once again it indicates the cook's desire to live and enjoy life. In the fifth section, Crane intensifies the men's experience of isolation. The correspondent unable to sleep in the dinghy wonders if he is "the one man afloat on all the oceans" (Lauter 725). As he looks out toward the darkness, he notices a finned object swimming about near the boat. He eyes it nervously, but rather dully Crane suggests and not with the eye of a "picnicker" (Lauter 726).
Yet the isolation of the correspondent is preserved as his companions continue to sleep. Artfully Crane begins the sixth section with his already established refrain "If I am going to be drowned" (726). Here Crane describes man's frustration when he is confronted with the fact that nature is indifferent to him and his plight. Crane observes that in such a moment, a man might wish "to throw bricks at the temple" (Lauter 726). Here Crane suggests that nature is often seen to be as if divine. Yet within the rigors of naturalism, nature is actually to be eyed as if a menacing deity.
Nature is seen as cruel and indifferent rather than imbued with compassion. Crane then suggests that man in recognizing this brutal indifference of nature might wish to bow and see himself as sacred saying "Yes, but I love myself" (Lauter 726). With his brilliant compression, Crane then observes that in such a moment nature responds by flashing "a high cold star on a winter's night" (Lauter 726). "Thereafter" the man "knows the pathos of his situation" (Lauter 726). The correspondent equally as speechless as his comrades all of a sudden remembers a bit of sentimental verse which concludes with the line "I shall never see my own, my native land" (Lauter 726). Now the lines of this poem depicting the death of a soldier in Algiers speak with unsurpassable grace. He recalls that as a schoolboy they had left him unaffected.
Now he sees the soldier vividly dying before his own eyes and what he imagines is "stern, mournful and fine" (Lauter 727). As the fifth section closes, the captain is trying to row while a shark once again encircles their boat. In the sixth and concluding section, Crane allows a touch of hope to enter into the narrative. The correspondent awakens from his sleep of the dead to see the sky resplendent with carmine and gold (Lauter 728). Recognizing that they are unlikely to be rescued the captain plots to bring the boat into the surf themselves. There seems no other plan.
As they draw relatively near to shore, fierce waves force all four men out of the boat. They struggle to shore. Only the oiler does not survive. Crane suggests that this life and death struggle with the ocean must demand some price. In this tale, the price to be paid for battling against nature and emerging victorious is that one man must die. Crane seems to choose the oiler as the sacrificial lamb since he is the least friendly of the crew and the closest to living as if dead when he was alive.
To battle the sea a man must be willing to give his all and choose life. Crane ends his extraordinary tale with the same compressed elegance with which it began. None of the men may have known the color of the sky as they sat in the dinghy for hours tossed on the sea, but they intimately learned the colors of the sea. Now ashore the three survivors sit in an awed silence. Now when they heard the surf's call, its fierce beatings upon the sand, the captain, the cook and the correspondent know that they have acquired new knowledge. They have survived to become "interpreters" of the sea, its sounds, rhythms and cruelties.
The oiler has vanished but the cheerful cook was able to float ashore with a lazy grace desiring to eat another slice of pie. Works Cited Clark, Mitchell Lee. Determined Fictions. American Literary Naturalism.
New York: Columbia UP, 1989. Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography. Realism, Naturalism and Local Color, 1865 - 1917. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc. 1988.
Hart, James D. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. New York: Oxford UP, 1983. Lauter, Paul, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature.
Volume Two. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath & Co. , 1995
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Research essay sample on Naturalism And Stephen Crane The Open Boat
