Nature in American Literature

SUMMARY

In the White Heron by Jewett is a story of Sylvia. Sylvia is confronted with a dilemma – to choose money or the life of a white heron. This nine-year-old Sylvia has found the elusive white heron which her visiting ornithologist had searched for in days. He wanted to stuff the white heron and add it to his collection of specimens. He was willing to pay a handsome price of $10 for anybody who can help him find the bird. The money was not the only consideration. The young man was handsome. And Sylvia being highly impressionable found it hard to resist him. Despite these strong temptation to tell him where he can find the bird, Sylvia kept mum about the white heron’s whereabouts at the end of the story.

Open Boat by Stephen Crane is a story of four man unfortunately stranded in the endless ocean in a small boat. The story opens with four men, known simply as the captain, the oiler, the correspondent, and the cook, stranded in the ocean in a small boat. They strive to keep alive by rowing non-stop for two days. And with not enough food with them, it was only their wits and determination that keep them alive. The men are in a desperate situation, but nature continues in its ways regardless of what might happen to them. In the end, the four realized that despite nature’s seeming indifference, we still can survive through the noble act of caring for each other.

The Outcasts of Poker Flats by Harte is a story offour outcasts – Mr. John Oakhurst, a young woman familiarly known as “The Duchess”; another, “Mother Shipton”; and “Uncle Billy”. The four were suspected to have committed a crime in Poker Flat so they were exiled to another place.

On their way to Sandy Bar they met Tim Simson “The Innocent” and his love interest Piney. They eloped and were making their way to Poker Flats. Tim Simson thinks the world of John Oakhurst. John once beat Tim in a “little game”. But he returned all of Tim’s money because he wants him to learn his lesson.

A snowstorm prevented them to get on with their journey. They got stranded in a little hut in the middle of nowhere. Due to the unforgiving cold and not enough food around, all of them lost their struggle against nature and perished.

Depiction of Nature

The White Heron by Jewett

“The murmur of the pine’s green branches is in her ears, she remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron’s secret and give its life away.”

In these lines, we can glean that Sylvy has a love affair with nature. The white heron shared a certain bond with Sylvy – a quite, friendly bond. That it was hard for her to betray the white heron’s trust. “Were the birds better friends than their hunter might have been,– who can tell?”

This bond with nature was also apparent in these lines:

The tree . . . must truly have been amazed that morning through all its ponderous frame as it felt this determined spark of human spirit creeping and climbing from higher branch to branch. Who knows how steadily the least twigs held themselves to advantage this light, weak creature on her way! The old pine must have loved his new dependent. More than all the hawks, and bats, and moths, and even the sweet-voiced thrushes, was the brave, beating heart of the solitary gray-eyed child. And the tree stood still and held away the winds that June morning while the dawn grew bright in the east.

Sylvia also felt a certain attachment to the tree. There bond was like blood her, “coursing the channels of her whole frame”. In the story, one can sense that Sylvia and the tree seem one in desire. There was an unmistakable unity in spirit, the “existence heart to heart with nature,”. And this force rules Sylvia’s life. So much so that she chose to save the heron’s life above the hunter’s offer.

Open Boat by Crane

Open Boat by Stephen Crane depicted nature as indifferent to man. Man had to struggle in order to survive. The captain, the oiler, the cook and the correspondent knew nature’s indifference all too well.

It represented in a degree, to the correspondent, the serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individual–nature in the wind, and nature in the vision of men. She did not seem cruel to him, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she was indifferent, flatly indifferent.

They all struggle to fight Nature’s indifference to their plight. Their difficulties in their shipwrecked showed all too well that nature sometimes leaves us to our own devise. To face our difficulties alone without any outward help.

But despite nature’s seeming indifference, there is an important lesson that can be learned from it. “It is, perhaps, plausible that a man in this situation, impressed with the unconcern of the universe, should see the innumerable flaws of his life and have them taste wickedly in his mind and wish for another chance. A distinction between right and wrong seems absurdly clear to him, then, in this new ignorance of the grave-edge, and he understands that if he were given another opportunity he would mend his conduct and his words, and be better and brighter during an introduction, or at a tea.”

Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” helps us realize a few things. Nature may not put our welfare at the top of its priorities but we always have the company of family and relatives to help us cope in difficulties. Nature’s seeming unconcerned may make us cynical as in the case of the correspondent but it would also make us realize that the shared difficulties brought about by this indifference will make us better and more human as shown in this line “The correspondent, plying the oars and dreaming of the slow and slower movements of the lips of the soldier, was moved by a profound and perfectly impersonal comprehension. He was sorry for the soldier of the Legion who lay dying in Algiers.”

In the end, the human spirit triumphs because of shared bond as exemplified by the four – captain, oiler, cook and correspondent – in the story.

The Outcasts of Poker Flats by Harte

Harte’s Outcasts of Poker Flats is a heartbreaking tale of people who were branded as “outcasts” but who were in truth good and kind-hearted with Uncle Billy as the exception. Nature’s fury unleashed in the “Outcasts of Poker Flats”. The killer snowstorm did not waste time as it closed on its prey. Uncle Billy ran away with Tim’s provisions. They barely had enough left to be able to brave the snowstorm.

It was ironic that these so-called outcasts could display so much affection to total strangers such as Tim and Piney. As in the case of Mother Shipton who appeared to be strongest among them yet on the tenth day was slowly ebbing away. She bequeathed a bundle to John Oakhurst before she passed away. In it was her ration of food which she intended to give to Piney. “You’ve starved yourself,” said the gambler. “That’s what they call it,” said the woman, querulously, as she lay down again, and, turning her face to the wall, passed quietly away.” This line is a testament of the nobility of human spirit amidst adversities in stark contrast to the agony they suffered in nature’s hand. The wrath of nature reaches its peak as we witnessed it claimed the lives of John Oakhurst, Piney and the Duchess’ at the end of the story.

Conclusion

The White Heron by Jewett shows nature as subordinate to man. Man is stronger and more in control. Man determines the fate of the white heron. The hunter wants it dead. But Sylvy strives to keep it alive. There was also a silent bond between nature and man. As exemplified by Sylvy’s attachment to the trees, white heron, cow and other creatures. The White Heron by Jewett typifies a story of co-existence between nature and man. That, despite differences, we are one with nature and we share the same spirit with them.

Open Boat by Crane shows nature’s indifference to man. Amidst the lead characters’ tribulations – captain, oiler, cook and correspondent – we could see nature unmoved and appearing to be unconcerned. With no helping hand in sight, Open Boat by Stephen Crane showed that in the face of nature’s seeming indifference, we could still survive by holding on to each other. We need to rely on each other to be able to withstand nature’s apathy.

The Outcasts of Poker Flats by Harte show nature at its worst. There is no escape in nature’s wrath. If nature can nurture as in the case of White Heron or be indifferent like Open Boat, it is also capable of unleashing its wrath and caused various discomforts even death to man. The lesson to be learned in Outcast of Poker Flats by Harte is that nature may seem unloving and full of wrath but our love for other humans will always be unfailing even in death.

The White Heron by Jewett, Open Boat by Crane and The Outcasts of Poker Flats by Harte are all depictions of the different facets of the same nature we all come to either love or hate.