Nature: The Unforgiving

For centuries, theorists and philosophers have described the state of nature as being rigorous, brutish and unexpectedly short. These ideas would form the basis for political and literary thinking for generations to come. Even as standards of living are substantially increased through the period of industrialization, nature is still considered as a wild and unforgiving domain. As literature typically portrayed characters and themes through actions and symbolism in the literary period of realism, writers began addressing the role of nature in the course of human development in a literary period known as naturalism. Literary naturalism is a movement that took place around the early 20th century that suggested nature was the ultimate molder of our reality. The poet, Cervantes, was known for naturalism in his works. Naturalism used vivid detail to luridly descript some of nature’s most graphic moments. Two prime examples of literary naturalism are seen in the short stories The Open Boat (1897) and To Build a Fire (1908). Each story contains a struggle between man and nature, in which nature is the antagonist. Though the outcomes in each vary, the allegories are the same.

Heavy trade and mobilization of resources took place during the period of industrialization. As capital and resources became readily available, more people involved in the process of modernization. The short story The Open Boat (1897) shows the protagonist, based on the true experience of the author Stephen Crane, attempting to make use of one of the luxuries of modernity by taking a boat to Cuba for a job opportunity. The ship hits a sandbar on its course to its destination and ultimately sinks, leaving the protagonist and three others in a struggle for survival. Helplessly rowing for their lives in a dinghy, nature shows its true dominance despite the advancement of industrialization. Nature and naturally recurring evolution have made it so humans are severely inefficient in water. Not only can humans not breathe underwater, but also even the effort it takes for a human to convert energy into forward motion in water is a great deal. Despite the intricacies of boat travel in the time period, a simple sandbar was able to destroy the vessel and endanger the lives of all passengers. Whereas the protagonist, captain, and chief made it to shore alive, the oiler (Billy) was found on the shore drowned to death. The protagonist was able to survive natures grasp he as accompanied by others and able to divide up jobs among the group. In a one-on-one scenario, however, nature is much more difficult to defeat.

The story To Build a Fire (1908) is another man vs. nature narrative that depicts the relentlessness of nature. The protagonist of the story, and said to be based on the author Jack London, is traveling along the Yukon Trail to meet with some friends. The weather on this specific trip was -50 °F. Forewarned not to travel in such condition alone, the protagonist ventures out with a single husky wolf-dog. Aware that becoming wet in such conditions could be fatal, the traveler travels carefully to avoid such danger. However, as careful as the traveler is, he falls through a hollow sheet of ice into a spring. His lower body soaked, he pulls aside to light a fire and dry his attire using any dry wood he could find. Unfortunately for him, a pile of snow shakes from the trees and extinguishes his fire. Unable to make another easily, the man begins to resort to desperate measures to stay alive. He even contemplates and attempts to kill the dog to use its body to keep warm. Unable to do so because of how cold his fingers are, he lets the dog go. In his final minutes, he falls into the snow and falls into a deep sleep to his death. As advanced and modernized as humans have become in the time period, this man was unable to defeat nature in its most rigorous of conditions. But nature does not act with malicious intent, but rather it simply exists. It is ultimately to the decisions of the beings within it that determines whether they survive or not. This is one of the core themes of the literary naturalistic movement in American literature in the early 1900s.

Whereas literature prior to the period of literary naturalism consisted of ideals and symbolism with minor doses of reality, literary naturalism did not hold back any real, raw, natural descriptions in its literature. The literary descriptions of nature can also be found in the book, A Beautiful Question. Whereas an idealistic story of a sunken ship would consist of characters bonding through the experience and coming out stronger, the realistic, naturalistic story of The Open Boat (1896) conveyed the arduous scenario of a sunken ship leaving one of the four main characters dead in the end. Another realistic, naturalistic experience of a lone traveler on the unforgiving Yukon Trail resulted in the same brutal conclusion nature is capable of bringing. However, nature does not act with any level of consciousness at all. Nature simply exists as is. Being that it is a given variable, it is up to the consciously, rationally thinking beings within that domain to adapt and survive. In a way, industrialization is a macro adaptation to nature in which the human species develops mass production capabilities to satisfy their population's needs such as food, water, and shelter. Whereas no one will be left to die in the middle of a cold, manmade city with millions of people, nature is not so forgiving, especially when dealing with an individual.

Works Cited

Crane, Stephen. The Open Boat. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 1982. Print.

London, Jack, and Byron Glaser. To Build a Fire. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 1980. Print.