SOURCE: Conder, John J. “Stephen Crane and the Necessary Fiction.” In Naturalism in American Fiction: The Classic Phase, pp. 22-42. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984.

In the following essay, Condor outlines Stephen Crane's naturalistic vision in “The Open Boat” and “The Blue Hotel.”

“the Open Boat”

“The Open Boat” is the center of the Crane canon and the appropriate work with which to begin a discussion of Crane's naturalism. In its brilliant starkness, the central image portrays a naturalistic vision of man. Men adrift in a boat, a human creation, confront the sea, the world of nature. Unwillingly they receive an education whose terms are understood mainly by the correspondent. The lessons he learns are central to Crane's naturalistic vision, and they emerge with remarkable clarity.

Although the correspondent would like to think of nature as having purpose, he is soon divested of that comforting illusion, for his...