Thursday, March 8, 2012
A Man Adrift
After considering the poem "A man adrift on a slim spar" by Steven Crane, the portrayal of nature reminded me of "To Build a Fire" by Jack London. In the poem, the sea is characterized as a massive, fearful beast. It froths, lashes, and growls - it sinks, heaves, and reels. The horizon is so distant that it can barely be distinguished. This vastness and danger is echoed in the description of the landscape in the short story. There's nothing but ice and snow as far as the eye can see. Both works employ a Naturalist image of the sublime - with nature as something that is awesome as well as fearsome. The characters in both of the pieces are placed at the mercy of nature in one way or another, and both of them end up having their lives snuffed out by its power. It's a dark and poignant image that makes these kinds of works fascinating to read.
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That's a good point about the "naturalist sublime," Talon.
ReplyDeleteTalon, I like your comparison between Crane’s poem and London’s story. I agree that poem echoes heavily the description of the landscape in “To Build a Fire.” It was not a connection that I had noticed, but it is true that both display a very vast sense of nature. And, in this vastness the terrifying power and loneliness of nature becomes all the more magnified.
ReplyDeleteWhile the power of nature does overcome the characters in each, Crane’s poem also speaks to the idea of an uncaring god that does nothing to intervene. In my opinion, this amplifies the dark tone of the poem. Without this sense of “God is cold,” the poem would still be sufficiently depressing due to the vastness and power of nature subduing a powerless man. However, the fact that the nature takes the man when a god, with the power to stop such an act, does nothing, the senselessness of the death is intensified.