Writing Sample

Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” represent American literary naturalism. Naturalism is about surviving nature in seemingly impossible situations such as the freezing cold. It often depicts a character’s progression towards death. In one story, four shipwrecked men try to survive at sea and in another story a man tries to survive the freezing weather. 

 

In “The Open Boat”, there is the correspondent, the boiler, the cook, and the injured captain. The correspondent is speaking for the author, who was once in a shipwreck. “If I am going to be drowned – if I am going to be drowned – if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?  Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?” (Chapter IV) This quote is said multiple times throughout the story. It shows how the man is wondering why he was allowed to live that long if he was going to die anyway. It is also an example of the pessimistic progression towards death in the story and in naturalism. The water and the sharks in the story represent how nature can be unpredictable and uncaring. 

 

In the Jack London story, the protagonist (a man) is trying to get through the freezing cold of the Yukon to his friends at the camp. There is a dog with him. He is a man without imagination. In the story, fire is a symbol of survival. This story shows a slow progression towards death, which is a characteristic of naturalism. “At a place where there were no signs, where the soft, unbroken snow seemed to advertise solidity beneath, the man broke through.” - Page 216. “At last, when he could endure no more, he jerked his hands apart.” - Page 222. These quotes are some examples of the man’s disregard for the dangerous nature around him. The events that happen in these two stories show characteristics of American literary naturalism.   (7th grade girl in my enrichment/acceleration offering)