Naturalism in the Open Boat

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is an excellent example of literary naturalism. Naturalism, according to Dr. doCarmo, is an extension of realism in which, “human beings are at the mercy of uncontrollable larger forces that originate both within them and outside them.” In other words, nature is cruel and apathetic, the universe seems chaotic, a protagonist looks to outside forces and signs to explain their problems, and man is a small and seemingly helpless character in the universe. “The Open Boat” does well to exemplify these traits of literary naturalism. The title of the short story immediately emphasizes the helpless nature of a man that naturalism contains. The image of an open boat on the sea is one that belittles a man’s ability to control his fate because after all he is surrounded by water and more water. Furthermore, Crane successfully gives a plot-driven definition of naturalism in the following quote: “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." The man is helpless and can do nothing but come to the realization that he is, indeed, little in the vastness of the universe as so many protagonists in naturalism are. The previous quote is also relatable to how a protagonist will look to outside forces for an explanation. At first the protagonist of the story wishes to blame the universe for his plight and wants to throw bricks at the temple. More importantly, the metaphor of the birds circling the captain’s head during the men’s situation was taken as a bad omen and as a sign. The men were looking for order and for a sign given to them by nature. The men looking for order in the story gives into the idea of naturalism that the universe is chaotic. The men in the story worked so hard, to exhaustion even, to find that they cannot reach