스티븐 크레인의「오픈 보트」의 기법과 주제: 인상주의적 그림 위에 비친 미묘한 형제애

Abstract

As one of Crane's most important works, “The Open Boat” is the story of the four men, on the brink of death, riding the waves in an open boat. The men in the boat justify their survival in the desperate struggle against the sea. Critics generally agree that “The Open Boat” is the crown of all Crane's works and an impressionist masterpiece. In “The Open Boat,” Crane has applied the principles of impressionist readings: the apprehension of life through the play of perceptions, the limited point of views of the single character, the montage of sense impressions, episodic narrative structure, and the colorful chromatic touches. There can be found the combination of some naturalistic premises and impressionistic methods of presentation in Crane's work. If Impressionism derives from the premise that reality is apprehensible only thorough empirical experience, Naturalism develops from the concept of determinism from genetic to environmental. The techniques and themes of Impressionistic fiction derive from the fact that human life consists of the interaction of an individual with a world apprehensible in terms of sensory experience. The men in the boat achieve their own kind of epiphany in terms of light, sounds, colors, images, and sense impressions. The men realize something new about their lives and they experience a sudden moment of insight in a Joycean “epiphany,” which is the flat indifference of nature to men and the subtle brotherhood of men in crisis. The idea that the characters regard nature as wholly indifferent accompanies the feeling of men's deeping concept of brotherhood. The protagonist becomes increasingly aware of the physical reality of indifferent nature and the moral reality of brotherhood. This deepening awareness of existing realities is attributed to the theme of “The Open Boat.” Since the correspondent's process of perceptions and his impressions leads him to the revelation of the whole truth of life like an interpretation of secret. Conclusively, Crane's impressionistic rendering strictly consistent with the theme of the novel as the perfect coincidence of formal technique and thematic substance.