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Comparing The Open Boat And To Build A Fire

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Comparing The Open Boat And To Build A Fire
Nature is indifferent to humans, nobody is important to the universe, and everybody is subject to fate -- all ideas that are strongly supported by naturalists. Naturalists have a very realistic and grim view of life: Naturalists believe that all humans are unimportant because there is no god. “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane and “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, both short stories written by naturalist authors, share a common theme: nature is completely indifferent to the suffering of humans. “The Open Boat” follows a group of men that are stranded in the ocean on a lifeboat after they have survived a shipwreck. The men’s main focus throughout the short story is to reach land safely, and they eventually do after having a few very close calls …show more content…
In “The Open Boat,” the correspondent undergoes a spiritual awakening to change from an observer to an interpreter. His spiritual awakening occurs when he realizes that he is unimportant to the universe, and there is nothing he can do about nature’s indifference. The correspondent’s spiritual awakening becomes obvious when Crane writes, “A high cold star on a winter's night is the word he feels that she says to him. Thereafter he knows the pathos of his situation.” This quotation is significant because it illustrates how the correspondent feels when he realizes that a few humans are completely unimportant to nature. After his spiritual awakening, he understands that he does not matter, and there is no god in the universe that can help him. The correspondent’s journey teaches him that life is unfair because everybody is vulnerable to nature, and there is really nothing anybody can do about it; he also learns that everything does not happen for a reason because life is completely random. Unlike the correspondent in “The Open Boat,” the man in “To Build a Fire” does not undergo a profound spiritual awakening. While the man does realize that he should have taken the advice of others, he still has not changed that much besides the fact that he is a little less arrogant. The man realizes he should have listened to the old man at Sulphur Creek, and this realization is a big step for him because of his ego, but his character does not completely change because of a spiritual awakening. The man ultimately reacts calmly to death once he realizes there is nothing left to do about the situation. The man’s journey fails to teach him to be less prideful and arrogant: Instead of admitting to his foolishness, the man tries to escape and then accepts death because the camp is too far for him to run. Even when he
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