The Desultory Presence of Fear “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside; somewhere they can be quite alone with the heavens, Nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature”. This is a quote by Anne Frank from The Diary of a Young Girl that clearly praises and acknowledges the beauty of nature and its power of soothing and helping people to become happy. Frankly, Anne Franks words reflect one of the common views of nature.
Many people in the modern society and the media portray nature as beautiful, heavenly, and aspect in life that can truly help people live and solve issues. This construction of nature is reflected in the Japanese Television Film, Hide, Girl of the Alps, which portrays a peaceful life Of a girl, Hide living a joyful lifestyle in the beautiful landscape with White Mountains and green grass in the Alps. The admiring nature is a symbol of peace in the modern society where the media is trying to build an image where nature functions as a healing spot for humanity. However, nature is to always so and this is not the only view of nature.
Despite the humans respect, nature can pose their indifferent side and become a cruel presence ravaging. The film, Titanic portrays the verisimilitude of the cruel nature where the citizen’s dream gets crushed by nature. It clearly portrays the indifference of nature, and analyzing nature in “The Open Boa? ‘ by Stephen Crane along with “To Build a fire” by Stephen Crane will validate this point. The film Titanic can be described as a film that portrays a struggle between humanity and nature and that draws attention to the view that ultimately tauter does not give mercy to humanity and is capable of overriding them.
Titanic’s scene of the grand scale vessel leaving the dock is affiliated with a hopeful and joyful mood with the bright and lively band music happily sending off people to the sea. The hype of the people in the beginning demonstrates how the Titanic resembled “The Ship of Dreams” for the people moving forward toward the next generation. Titanic was a symbol of civilization. When Leonardo Didactic gets the ticket and rides on the boat, he mentions that he feels like he is the “king of the world” reinforcing the Dream filled in the ship.
Also, the majority of the movie is set and displayed in the gorgeous ship filed with high-class interiors and individuals who demonstrate the effort put into this ship and that this ship was meant to show the world that it was a big step forward in civilization. However, regardless of all the effort and time put into, “Ship of Dreams” also known as the “Unsinkable ship” gets crushed by the nature in a split second clearly raising the verisimilitude of the cruel nature. People’s strong hope and faith in this “Ship of Dreams” is conveyed from Zamias quote, “But the ship can’t sink” even after the ship hits he iceberg. People could not believe that this ship, symbolizing civilization can possibly die like this. Furthermore, the working class, in the lower level of Titanic, dies regardless of all the hard work they especially have put into. Scenes in Titanic demonstrate that nature does not have specific targets, but that they are randomly cruel emphasizing its characterization as a devastating force to humanity. Stephen Crane also portrays the cruel nature in The Open Boat. The randomness and the indifferent aspect of the nature are strongly portrayed in this passage.
The four men our stuck at a lonely sea surface with no help. The men strive to survive, but the menageries in the passage make it seem as if nature is mocking their effort. During the day, a gull “flew near” (Crane 730) and onto the Captain’s head but he could not do anything because “an emphatic gesture would have capsized [the] freighted boat” demonstrating how the nature gives challenge to humans and do not give them chance to overcome it (731 Crane also gives hope to the four men when they believe that they see a “man on the shore” (734). However, the nature crushes the en’s hope when the “shore grew dusky… He man waving a coat blended gradually into this gloom” (735). This quote clearly depicts the devastating nature because the nature creates hope for humanity but as soon as they are relieved, the nature acts swiftly to take the hope away. Sense of hope also rises when the correspondent finds wet cigar. The four men has been exhausted but after finding the cigar and successfully producing a match, they had “an assurance of an impending rescue shining in their eyes”, creating an optimistic mood where they have seemingly defeated nature wrought cooperation and hard work (732).
But at the end, the optimism does not lead to full rescue and the “wet” cigar symbolized the tragedy of the men’s spirits. This devastating give and take action of the nature characterizes itself as a cruel, indifferent and devastating force. Also the title The Open Boat is noteworthy. By describing the boat “open”, it insists that the boat is unprotected and thus open to suffering the misfortunes that are unavoidable. This is similar to Titanic, where the film suggested that civilization couldn’t be prepared for all that nature may throw at and is therefore vulnerable.
Furthermore, To Build a Fire by Jack London uses reinforces the indifference of nature. The dog is the partner for the men’s journey and the devastation he goes through is further emphasized through the use of the dog’s perspective. This man eventually falls through the snow and wets himself realizing that his body is significantly endangered. Contrary to the men going through the panic and was “angry and [cursing] his luck aloud”, the dog, with its fur and natural instincts, was calm and well prepared (London).
Knowing this, the man attempted to “kill the dog and bury his hands in the warm hand” UT the dog sensed fear in the high pitch of the man and stayed away (London). This scene portrays how the nature poses no remedy for this human who is extremely unprepared, and does not pose severe challenge to the dog who is prepared. Even when the man collapses, the dog leaves the man’s body and walked towards the camp where the “food-providers and fire- providers” were.
The dog, the closest partner of the man, did no help for the man and it emphasizes the verisimilitude of the indifferent environment and survival. To add on, it could be said that this devastation of the man was fate. Whenever an accident happens, London uses the diction “it” happened and it seems as if “it” was an inevitability of nature and the man had no role in the nature (London). This contrast between man and animal is also seen in Titanic where the dolphins appear.
Cameron places the dolphins at the bow of the ship, racing to keep ahead. Explicitly posing a race between culture and nature, the implication is that there will be a winner. Although the vessel is huge and imposing compared to the dolphins, Cameron never shows the ship overtake the dolphins, demonstrating through visual representation that ultra created by manpower is nothing against nature. Looking at all these film and passages, we could also state that nature is extremely atrocious to human who does not show full understanding of nature.
