The Imbalanced Relationship Between Human and Nature ----Simple Analysis of the Open Boat

The Open Boat was a short novel released by Stephen Crane in 1897 , always known as the reperesentatives of naturalism writing,and is honored by H. G. Wells the "crown" of Crane's fictions.(Huang Yan) It is a fact-based story that four men in one life boat, the captain, the cook, the correspondent and the oiler, tried their best to row to the shore, during which the sea waves hindered them and at last the small boat was smashed and the four men swam to the shore. Three men survived while the oiler died. As one of the representatives of the twentieth-century naturalism writer, Stephen Crane specialised in nauralism, realism, impressionism and the combination of the three. He always believes in the influence of nature to human being and their instinct and adaptability in the natural environment. This article will give some light on the indifference of nature, the physical vulnerability of human and their conditioned psychology.

Above all, the novel shows how indifferent nature is to all living things. The story wants to convey that nature has no emotion towards whatever happens around. The most evident one should be the icy water felt by the men when they finally have to make a run on the surf . "The water was cold." That is the kind of shoulder nature gives to all creature. And the current never pause and the danger never walk away from these hard-working men. Due to the casual attitude nature takes upon lives, the oiler died. He should have been blessed as he's the most diligent one. But he died at last, even if every detail of the shore was just unfolding before his eyes, because the sea is unmerciful. The question and irony come out here as to whether there is distinction of good or evil, paradise or hell in nature. There is time when the correspondent swears to the sea, "but the thing did not then leave the vicinity of the boat". The mindless sea didn't hear this or do anything. Human could not sway the nature. They are trapped and they have no way out persuading the sea. In rendering of the inner thoughts of the four men, repitition is appropriately applied. They wonder if the life-saving people would rescue them, whether they would drown or succeed finally on the shore. However, nature doesn't care if you do all the work just to drown; she doesn't care whether you can save yourself or not. She is a nonchalant onlooker.

On the other hand, mankind is too vulnerable in front of the nature. The story wants to convey that people are too weak to fight against nature. The death of the oiler illustrates this well. "He did not pause swimming to inquire what manner of current had caught him, but there his progress ceased." He didn't choose to die; but he didn't grab in hand the key to choices. This demonstrates a huge contrast of man's struggling and the overwhelming power of nature. Not once has the author claimed that this boat is too small. It is a "ten-foot dingey"; it is not larger than a bath-tub; it is even "not much smaller" than a broncho. This life boat is too small to escape from swamping in the rough sea. Likewise, humans are just tiny dots represented on the canvas of nature.The correspondent regards the other men as "babes of the sea".They could only sleep unconsciously in a swaying boat and jolt out of their own control. It suddenly occurs that they would end up the same as "the soldier of the Legion", lying "straight and still", fail to resist the nautre and "thwart the going of his life". "Perhaps an individual must consider his own death to be the final phenomenon of nature ", as the writer says. It's essential to notice that, over that time,the end of the 18th century, technology breakthrough had been apparently proving human's power over the nature. But this value was not true indeed. People couldn't even survive in a bath-tub-large boat in the sea, let alone control the whole nature. This self-importance against the fathomless nature is meaningless, even absurd.(Enotes) Man is physically delicate in the contest with nature.

Also, human's view has its limitation compared to the nature's eye. The story wants to convey the inability of human to discover the whole natural world. This theory lies clearly in the famous sentences:"None