Stephen Crane: A Great Writer of American Term Paper

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Stephen Crane: A Great Writer of American Naturalist Fiction and Non-Fiction, and of Local Color

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was an American author of the late 19th century, whose work, in terms of style and sub-genre, was somewhere between American Romanticism and American Naturalism (with some American Realism added). Crane wrote at the end of a century (the 19th), a time when several literary styles and genres are typically blended together until a new century finds its voice (which became, in the first decades of the 20th century, at least from a broad perspective, American Modernism, of the sort expressed by Faulkner, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson and others, with its emphasis on fragmented narratives, stream-of-consciousness writing, and other narrative-related experimentation). Stephen Crane, given his creativity and thirst for experimentation (he was an early American Naturalist when Romanticism remained in vogue) no doubt would have loved being alive to write at this time, but died too early. Crane's peculiarly mixed writing style (with elements of Romanticism; Realism; Naturalism; Regionalism; and local color, sometimes in one piece) worked in Crane's favor (as with his masterpiece The Red Badge of Courage); in other ways it did not. For example, Crane's first novel, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, a story set in New York City about an Irish immigrant girl who turns to prostitution, was considered too realistic for most tastes. For many of the same reasons Maggie was lukewarmly received, however, A Red Badge of Courage, about a Civil War soldier facing his first combat, was a critical and popular success. The Red Badge of Courage also catapulted its author, still in his early twenties, to fame. While it is true that not all of Crane's published works should be deemed great in and of themselves, Stephen Crane should still be considered a great author because of his success with both naturalistic fiction and non-fiction, and also because of his success as a local colorist.

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Within American Naturalism, two characteristics distinguish Naturalism from Realism (with which Naturalism often, nonetheless, overlaps): (1) humanity in opposition nature, as within Crane's "The Open Boat," where four men battle for life, overnight, against wild and merciless ocean currents, and (2) humanity in degraded circumstances, due to nature or social conditions. Descriptions of human beings in degraded social conditions are the mainstay of Naturalist works of Norris; Sinclair, Dreiser, and Crane. "The Open Boat describes humanity opposing nature and humanity degraded by nature. It is these two distinct criteria, more than any others that set works of American Naturalism apart from those of other literary sub-genres, such as Realism or Romanticism. However, there is often some overlap. For instance, in "The Open Boat," Crane initially describes the alternately calm, alternately violent ocean extremely realistically, but later, having seen its true power vis-a-vis him and the others, "the Correspondent" (Crane) begins instead, to romanticize the ocean and its dangerous spell over human beings. In another short piece of Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," about the sheriff of the town of Yellow Sky who brings a bride home, to the surprise of citizens there, local color and Regionalism combine with Naturalism; Realism; and Romanticism.

Within American Naturalist works, an individual (or individuals) will typically be shown as weaker than nature. Vis-a-vis nature, humanity cannot control destiny. Crane's works spring from his view of chaotic society and a godless, often brutal universe. Crane was fascinated by lives of average individuals, often poor and trapped within oppressive circumstances. In 1893, however, public appetite eschewed such realism within literature, and Maggie sold poorly, despite positive critical reviews

Stephen Crane's next novel, The Red Badge of Courage (1894), a realistic tale of a young man named Henry Fleming testing his personal courage in Civil War, fared better. The Red Badge of Courage, still widely read,….....

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