Comparison: London & Crane

In both "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane and "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, the authors used naturalism. In both stories, we see nature as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings. In "To Build A FIre" the phrase "it certainly was cold' was repeated many times. It is ironic because London was trying to put emphasis on the fact that it was actually cold. In "The Open Boat" in the scene with the gulls, "the gulls sat comfortably in groups." This is ironic becuase the gulls are sitting comfortably in groups; however, the four men on the boat aren't sitting comfortably. In both these cases we see the character's are challenged by forces beyond their control. In both stories, there are men in the wild trying to face the forces of nature. Hence, we see the use of naturalism. In London's story, the man is out in the wild alone, and he realizes when the situation gets really bad that he wished that he had the company of someone. In Crane's story, during the night, the correspondent wakes up and sees a shark roaming around near them. He wishes that someone else would wake up so he wouldn't be alone. Both these writers have studied the social conditions of humans and realized that we as humans want other humans to be around us when we're afraid.