A captain, cook, oiler, and correspondent find themselves in a miniscule boat fighting for survival. This is not the beginning of a bad joke, but rather the scene found at the beginning of Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”. Following these four characters as the recover from a shipwreck and attempt to make it to safety though all they have is a small boat and their waning strength, this story shares a powerful theme. This story is a prime example of the Naturalism philosophy: no matter what humans do to try to avoid it, fate and natural forces determine the outcomes in our world. According to Evan Luzi of The Black and Blue website, “Stephen Crane is one of the most prominent figures of the naturalist movement...This story is of an exemplary
