Introduction
In their various stories, Stephen Crane and Jack London show how nature can formulate a man’s fate. Sometimes nature uses different media to send human messages to save them while it abandons them at other times. Following various events controlled by nature, human emotion changes depending on their level of desperation. During troubling natural events, a man can settle his mind and reflect on their life. Henceforth, they can understand the unfolding of different struggles they are going through. Brutal nature-formulated happenings can make a man angry and desperate to take action. However, the two authors reveal it is not possible to punish nature. Humans are therefore left with the option of loving themselves more. After reading these stories, I understand that nature can destroy man through cruelty. Nature can corner a man’s life through a mix of hope and cruelty that triggers anger and despair.
Nature Gives Hope
Even when things go contrary to human expectations, nature can be a source of hope. Crane and London write that when humans go through challenging situations, nature gives them hope to keep moving. In the open boat, nature offers the four men several chances of rescue, keeping them positively expectant. When their ship sank, the cook, the oiler, the correspondent, and the captain were saved by a lifeboat. The lifeboat symbolizes the hope that the four still have a chance to sail out of the sea alive. The cook claim that there is either a life-saving house or a house of refuge nearby, so they sail towards the dry land.
By successfully stopping by the lighthouse and relaxing for a while, the four men have renewed hope that they will make it out alive. Another opportunity opens when the four see tourists at a resort, and instead of saving them, they assume that the captain and his colleagues are on a fishing trip. Although the four are not rescued in the three chances, their hopes for being saved are alive.
London also indicates how nature provides hope through expectations and belongings. In the story to build a fire, the protagonist is inspired to keep walking in the snow because he would later meet his companions in the camp. The man is also thrilled by the lunch he carries, which he consumes while he waits for his friends. Since he has hopes to look forward, not even the threat of cold can worry him. When the man starts to freeze in the cold, he remembers the possibility of warmth and lights up a fire. From the gained warmth, the man continues with his journey. Therefore, in various ways, nature pushed the man to keep walking in the cold.
Triggers Anger and Desperation
Nature, through aggressive incidences, can make humans angry and desperate. Crane and London write about ongoing adverse events that made men question nature. The four men in Crane’s story are frustrated by the sinking of their ship, the captain’s injury, being thrown out of the boat by a rude wave, and having no one to rescue them. The correspondent is angered by realizing that nature no longer finds him essential and wishes to punish it. However, since it is impossible to discipline nature, he decides to love himself more. When the dawn came, the four men were desperate as they had lost hope of being saved.
In London’s story of building a fire, he grew desperate when the man had his hands too frozen to light a fire. He is jealous of his dog’s fur, which keeps him warmer. The man angrily burns all the seventy matches at once and burns his hands as he tries to light up the fire. When he finally gives up and lies to die, even the dog abandons him. The rage and despair that men experiences push them to give in to nature’s fate of destruction.
Helps Human Self-Reflect
Nature forces humans to self-reflect by making them undergo stressful situations. Crane and London say that characters would reflect on their life choices and experiences. For example, when a man in to build a fire starts sensing the danger of cold, he remembers that he had been warned about taking the trip by himself. The protagonist remembers that the man from Sulphur creek warned him against ignoring the dangers of the cold. By the time he sleeps to bed, he is sure that the creek man is right. Similarly, the correspondent from the open boat also remembers a poem about a French soldier who died in Algiers. He starts reflecting on how he is going to die on the sea. Humans must reflect on their choices and decisions as nature dictates their fates.
My Attitude Towards Nature
After reading the works of Crane and London about nature, I feel that defeating nature is only by luck. Nature poses threats to all people, rich or poor, but whether or not they perish or succeed is based on if they are lucky. For example, the four men in an open boat faced similar challenges, yet only three made it alive. The story shows that by the time the four found help, the oiler was already dead. In the story by London, the man and the dog experiences cold, but he dies, and the dog survives. I also learned that nature sends people warnings, and if they decide to ignore them, they are severely punished. For example, the man in the frozen Yukon had been warned about the dangerous cold but ignored.
Nature also can define the characters of humans based on their experiences. While some people grow happy because they emerge victorious out of difficult situations, others become aggressive because they failed. However, it gives the failure hope to try from time to time. The readings also made me believe that nature can preserve characters of good actions and punish the ruthless. For example, London’s story illustrates that nature lets the man dies following his ill intentions to kill the dog while allowing the dog to live. Therefore, even though nature can be aggressive, it gives people multiple chances to make the right choices.
Conclusion
Although nature can corner humans with cruelty, it is also a source of hope and dependence. Crane and London reveal how nature can be ruthless toward humans through their various writings. The four men in the boat and the man with a dog in a frozen region illustrate the dangers in nature that can get humans. The probability of human survival in the various stories depends on luck or good deeds. Nature formulates brutal events towards people whose fate is dark. It also is capable of avenging wrongdoings, giving second chances, and continued hope. Therefore, nature can define the severity of a human’s path through actions or out of luck.