Stephen Crane: A Great Writer of American

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 a new century finds its voice (which became, in the first decades of the 20th century, at least from a broad perspective, American Modernism, of the sort expressed by Faulkner, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson and others, with its emphasis on fragmented narratives, stream-of-consciousness writing, and other narrative-related experimentation). Stephen Crane, given his creativity and thirst for experimentation (he was an early American Naturalist when Romanticism remained in vogue) no doubt would have loved being alive to write at this time, but died too early. Crane's peculiarly mixed writing style (with elements of Romanticism; Realism; Naturalism; Regionalism; and local color, sometimes in one piece) worked in Crane's favor (as with his masterpiece The Red Badge of Courage); in other ways it did not. For example, Crane's first novel, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, a story set in New York City about an Irish immigrant girl who turns to prostitution, was considered too realistic for most tastes. For many of the same reasons Maggie was lukewarmly received, however, A Red Badge of Courage, about a Civil War soldier facing his first combat, was a critical and popular success. The Red Badge of Courage also catapulted its author, still in his early twenties, to fame. While it is true that not all of Crane's published works should be deemed great in and of themselves, Stephen Crane should still be considered a great author because of his success with both naturalistic fiction and non-fiction, and also because of his success as a local colorist.

Within American Naturalism, two characteristics distinguish Naturalism from Realism (with which Naturalism often, nonetheless, overlaps): (1) humanity in opposition nature, as within Crane's "The Open Boat," where four men battle for life, overnight, against wild and merciless ocean currents, and (2) humanity in degraded circumstances, due to nature or social conditions. Descriptions of human beings in degraded social conditions are the mainstay of Naturalist works of Norris; Sinclair, Dreiser, and Crane. "The Open Boat describes humanity opposing nature and humanity degraded by nature. It is these two distinct criteria, more than any others that set works of American Naturalism apart from those of other literary sub-genres, such as Realism or Romanticism. However, there is often some overlap. For instance, in "The Open Boat," Crane initially describes the alternately calm, alternately violent ocean extremely realistically, but later, having seen its true power vis-a-vis him and the others, "the Correspondent" (Crane) begins instead, to romanticize the ocean and its dangerous spell over human beings. In another short piece of Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," about the sheriff of the town of Yellow Sky who brings a bride home, to the surprise of citizens there, local color and Regionalism combine with Naturalism; Realism; and Romanticism.

Within American Naturalist works, an individual (or individuals) will typically be shown as weaker than nature. Vis-a-vis nature, humanity cannot control destiny. Crane's works spring from his view of chaotic society and a godless, often brutal universe. Crane was fascinated by lives of average individuals, often poor and trapped within oppressive circumstances. In 1893, however, public appetite eschewed such realism within literature, and Maggie sold poorly, despite positive critical reviews

Stephen Crane's next novel, The Red Badge of Courage (1894), a realistic tale of a young man named Henry Fleming testing his personal courage in Civil War, fared better. The Red Badge of Courage, still widely read, is considered to be Crane's greatest work. As a newspaper correspondent, Crane traveled widely in the 1890's, throughout the United States and overseas. Pieces he wrote while on various assignments, such as "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" (1898) and "The Blue Hotel" (1898) display Stephen Crane's keen observations of regionalism and local color

Another of Crane's greatest works of Naturalism/Realism sprang from an experience he almost did not survive. In 1897, Crane, serving as a war correspondent bound for Cuba on the Commodore to cover the revolution there, was shipwrecked at sea and nearly drowned. From that he wrote "The Open Boat" (1897), a short masterpiece of Naturalist realism. Crane himself is "the Correspondent," rowing for his life inside a bathtub-sized lifeboat, along with the ship's injured captain, cook, and oiler. Oiler Billy Higgins drowns trying to swim ashore. Crane's story captures the sensations of struggle for survival against nature. "The Open Boat" is naturalistic masterpiece, vividly describing circumstances by which men learn of nature's power through experience.

In true Naturalist fashion, "The Open Boat" contains a strong "Man vs. Nature" theme. Each character faces the ordeal differently. But all four men become angry at nature, and then, alternately, respectful of and resigned to its power. Crane's realistic descriptions of a merciless ocean indifferent to men and their plight, vividly conveys the vastness and strength of the ocean, compared to the men at its mercy. As Crane states at the beginning, for instance: "A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important . . . "

. The men in the lifeboat face the open ocean with a combination of awe, respect, derision, and anger.

In particular, the four men become angry with the birds they see flying casually above the ocean. Seagulls circle the boat and stare at them indifferently. These birds can fly off to land at any time while they, human beings, such a more important species, remain stranded in a lifeboat on the open sea, their lives seriously at risk. But such is nature: man is man and birds are birds, but men (as these men learn) are not always superior to birds at all times and in all ways, as they had thought before. Of one such bird, Crane writes, "The cook and the correspondent swore darkly at the creature"