The Open Boat

Many critics consider Crane’s work an example of Naturalism, a late-19th-century school of literature that sought to depict humans and human behavior from a scientific point of view. Influenced by theories like Darwinian evolution, Naturalist writers viewed people as driven by broad and impersonal forces—history, environment, psychology, etc.—and saw literature as a means of explicating these forces.

Crane creates a sense of objectivity by putting a third-person narrator in charge of the story: The tale is recounted by a distant, nameless voice. He doubles down on the detachment by withholding the names of three of the four men on the boat, referring to the men by their occupations or roles: correspondent (journalist), captain, cook, and oiler. That the characters function as much as types as individuals reflects Naturalism’s skepticism of personal agency in the face of various natural and societal forces.

Nature itself is one of those forces, and its depiction in Naturalist literature contrasts with its function in earlier movements interested in the natural world. Most notably, the Romantic era of the late 18th and early 19th centuries portrayed nature as a window to the sublime; even at its most horrifying, nature in Romantic literature is transcendent and awe-inspiring, transporting people beyond themselves and gesturing toward a broader spiritual reality. In Naturalism, nature is simply a brute fact. Although “The Open Boat” frequently depicts the sea in conflict with the men, this is essentially projection. Nature may be immeasurably “beyond” the individual human, but it doesn’t point to anything beyond itself; it’s an impersonal reality that reminds people only of their irrelevance. This is why the correspondent becomes “impressed with the unconcern of the universe” (234). Naturalism’s bird’s-eye view of human life produces gritty and uncomfortable ideas about nature and the universe: Ultimately, human beings are disposable.