Open Boat and to Build

¶ … Open Boat" and "To Build a Fire," demonstrating how both

There is little doubt that Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" and Jack London's "To Build a Fire" are both part of the Naturalistic movement in American Literature. An analysis of the themes of both of these works confirms as much, as do the deciding moments in each of these stories. Furthermore, the themes and the critical determinants in each of the plots in these works share poignant similarities with one another, which indicate that both of these writers were working in the same aesthetic movement of literature. The principle evidence that indicates that both of these tales embrace the aesthetic of Naturalism is the fact that the setting of the stories is the chief determinant in the fate of the characters.

This thesis readily applies to "The Open Boat," particularly when one considers the role that the sea plays in this story. In Crane's narrative, four sailors are in a small boat which is precariously balanced in the sea -- one sudden movement can capsize them. In this respect, the setting of the tale (the harsh sea) is the chief determinant of the fate of the men. The fact that characters are often not in charge of their fates is a principle component of Naturalism in American literature (no author). The characters eventually turn to despair at the fact that they have little influence in their fate, which the following quotation demonstrates. "When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important…he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fat that there are no bricks and no temples…Thereafter he knows the pathos of his situation" (Crane). The "pathos" referred to in this quotation is due to the fact that the characters have realized that they have no control over their fate, and that nature does. Nature, of course, is most dramatically seen in this work as the sea, which tosses and turns the men at will. Thus, it is evident that the natural setting in this story plays a huge part in the fate of the characters.

The setting of London's story was also vital to the plot. Similar to "The Open Boat," "To Build a Fire" takes place in a harsh natural setting: the sub-zero snow of the Yukon. In this tale, a traveler is attempting to go meet his friends shortly after nightfall. However, he is regularly impeded by the elements which include the blisteringly cold temperatures, the snow, frozen lakes, and other natural elements that essentially dictate the fate of the character. It is important to note that in both of these stories, the characters are not given proper names, to merely emphasize the fact that their lives are secondary to the natural setting that governs them. The potency of the setting and its effect upon the character in London's tale is alluded to in the following quotation. "The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow. It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice-jams of the freeze-up had formed" (London). 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 importantly, that environment surpasses the will of the individual characters, which actually have little sway in determining their fate. This aspect of American Naturalism is known as determinism (no author), and is evinced in both talks by the fact that the elements dictate the fate of the characters. After days of battling the sea in "The Open Boat," the foursome is finally plunged into its frigid, murky depths. The survivors are tossed about by the waves with no power to control the outcome of their own lives. As luck (or rather nature) would have it, one particularly powerful wave happens to thrust the correspondent into the shallow water near the shore, which saves his life. The following quotation demonstrates the power of such a wave: "A large wave caught him and flung him with ease and supreme speed completely over the boat and far beyond it" (Crane). In much the same way that the elements save the life of the correspondent and two of the other three characters in "The Open Boat," they end up killing the character in London's narrative. The same manifestation of fortune that the wave provided in Crane's tale becomes a manifestation of misfortune in London's, in which the character inadvertently falls through the snow, wetting himself -- which means that this part of his body will freeze, which the following quotation implies. "He had felt the give under his feet and heard the crackle of a snow-hidden ice-skin…to get his feet wet in such a temperature meant trouble and danger" (London). Eventually, the hazard of this misfortune of nature and the freezing temperatures, kill the man, whose own will is powerless before the might of nature.