Background
Stephen Crane, studied in Syracuse U, passionate about baseball and literature, worked for NY Tribune. Liked to explore the slums and police courts of Syracuse. Liked to observe humanity, hanging around with the poor, trying to understand the psychology of their lives.
First work Maggie, was about women of the streets. Read realistic writers like Tolstoy, especially Sebastopole, an unvarnished tale of war.
Crane’s son of Methodist minister, but didn’t really embrace their views. Aware of insignificance of man, attentive to how sin can inspire guilt and fear.
He died of tuberculosis and exhaustion at age 28. He wrote a lot and traveled widely and wore himself out early.
The novel was well received, made him a celebrity, veterans thought he must have served in the war but he had never seen a battle. “They all think I’m a veteran of the civil war.”
1800-1850 Romantics dominated literature, viewing nature as benevolent. So realistic writers are taking over (nature as neutral). He’s attracted to that. Then naturalists who considered nature as hostile.
1860-1890 Realism: you know someone is going to die at the end, usually a woman at the mercy of society, divided class structures. Faithful depiction of reality: verisimiltude. Typically middle class live, reaction against romanticism, interest in scientific method, rational philosophy. Focus on here and now.
Psychological realism: realism as described by the person, how it appeared to him.
1880-1930: Naturalism. Plumb the natural to find the laws. Influenced by Darwin’s evolution. Used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity and environment had an inescapable force to shape human character. Example: Call of the Wild, a dog completely reverts to his primal instincts, the fit survive. Depict every day reality. Attempts to determine the underlying forces that influence the subject’s actions. Include uncouth subject matter. Expose the dark side of life: human vice and misery.
1860-1900 ish: Impressionism movement, applies not just to visual art. Internal monologue (pre-stream of consciousness), inarticulated thoughts. Narrative style is intentionally ambiguous. Action explained while events are occurring, instead of after the events are processed by the character. Concerned with the emotional landscape of the setting—the way the setting evokes emotional responses in the character and reader. Employ details in ways that it’s difficult to get clarity by looking at the details. You can’t trust the narrator. Often avoid chronological telling, focusing instead of how and why things happen.
Plot:
Some say it’s nearly plotless. Maybe overstatement. How does it flow? The linear mountain-peak plot line (conflict, rising action, climax, denoumout). Perhaps not plot-driven, but certainly has a plot.
climax? end he goes from boy to man, his soul is changed, it rained (symbolic of baptism, a newness out of the rain).