The Naturalistic Tendencies of Stephen Crane
. Man has to struggle to survive in a natural world: Although the line between realism and naturalism is often blurred, realists tend to emphasize the roll of individuals choice on volition, which naturalists emphasize ways in which human behaviors is determined by biological, economic, and environmental forces . (38) The only way the characters survive in this novel is through persistence and cooperation . The story revolves around four characters, known as the captain, the correspondent, the cook, and the oiler . The men feel as if nature itself is showing no mercy to them as they are stranded helplessly on a boat . One cannot control nature even though in this desperate situation, nature is going to continue regardless . A sense of indifference arises which causes an insanity in the group . The group feels as if the waves are swamping the boat with extra intent: Indeed, in many naturalistic works characters struggle for survival against the seemingly hostile forces of nature, symbolized by the threatening ocean waves in Stephen Cranes The Open Boat . (38) After awhile the men are starting to lose hope and still believe that an outside force may be controlling their destinies . A factor in reality is that one must strive to be successful and survive if one chooses to be lazy in the face of adversity, adversity will rear its ugly head and one will succumb to disappointment and unhappiness .