Example Of Essay On Wharton And Crane

Language is a fundamental tool for communication of ideas. Thus, both the short stories “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton and “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane portray a writing technique that goes hand in hand with realism movement. This is a period that existed around 1910 to 1920, during post civil war. It was supposed to be an intense form of pragmatism, one that moved away from the middle class center of the realists and pertained more to the remains of society. The view of naturalism that classifies it as so different unit from naturalism is its ability and difference in looking at the written works. Thus, both Crane and Wharton stories support naturalism. “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton and “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane bring forth a theme of being helplessly powerfully. The characters in both settings do not seem to be comfortable. The tone of both short stories is very naturalistic because it brings a feeling of limited control. Moreover, the characters are not representatives of free will hence hopeless often. As stories of naturalism, the characters are left to the randomness of external forces whether that is nature, fate or a much stronger force. Men are wondering why they are perishing after fate has really uplifted them.
Thus, the primary themes of the short stories depicts mans struggle against nature, the community power, the struggling to survive, and the fragility of human survival. The stories therefore show behaviors of human being in pure coexistence. As we can see, the last part of the story Roman fever is evident as the story reveals that Mrs. Slade has a convincing motive for her feelings of antagonism with Mrs. Ansley despite the fact that she only learns of it after years of ill-feeling. Some readers may find this final sentence to be a deception ending, on par with those of Saki or O. Henry.