Chapter -1

Introduction

Today the American literature is at the zenith, and has

acquired most prominent place in the world literature. Scholars,
belonging to different branches of study have taken keen interest in
American Literature. The U.S. Civil war (1861-1865), between
north and south on the issue of slavery is very important in U.S.
history. The effects of war started to shade its casts on
contemporary society. The contemporary and post war novelists
handled themes such as alienation, effects of industrialization on
slum area, effects of war, poverty, economical and social condition
of contemporary society. And all related themes.
The creative imaginative and naturalist Stephen Crane used
such themes in his novels “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” (1893,
1896), “The Red Badge of Courage” (1895) and many short stories
and poems. The present dissertation aims at the study of “The
Novels of Stephen Crane: A Thematic Study”. This dissertation
has been divided into five chapters as follows.

Chapter -I- Introduction

A) A brief survey of 19th century American literature.

B) A Brief account of Stephen Crane’s life and works.

Chapter- II - Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.

A Thematic Study.

l
 Chapter -III- The Red Badge of Courage.
A Thematic study.

Chapter -IV- The Monster.

A Thematic study

Chapter -V- Conclusion.

A critical statement of findings

Selected Bibliography.

The Literature of any nation is the invention of its poets,

novelists and other authors who have written about the land and its
people, their dreams and their real life. Geography and culture
played an important role, in the development of literature of a
nation. Many American authors imitated English writers, in early
period of development of literature. 1
Today America is rich, in all fields such as science,
Agriculture, Political, Economic and so in literature as well.
Nowadays everyone reads American books, novels, short stories,
essays, critics, plays, songs, poems etc. Today American authors
win Nobel Prize; American literature is widely studied in all over
the world. It is translated in many other languages. In American
literature, from beginning to till the 21st century, almost all kinds of
subjects are handled by the authors.
Generally American literature is classified in following
ways.2
 1. 1607-1763 The Colonial period literature.
2. 1763-1810 The Revolutionary period.
3.1800-1850 First national period
4. 1840-1890 Second national period.
5. 1890- up-to date -Modern American literature.

In colonial period almost all writers imitated English

literature. In revolutionary period various types of literature are
produced including prose and poetry. In the period of Romantic
Movement, such writing was developed which was against the
nationalism. It was the writing about the optimistic young America
and inner life of the self. The writers Poe, Melville and Whitman
played an important role in first national period. In the period from
1800-1850, the difference between the American literature and
European is expressed. So the period from about 1850 to 1900 is
necessary to study in the point of view of the present dissertation.
As the Stephen Crane (1871-1900) bom and worked at the end of
the 19the century. So we must through light on contemporary
American literature.3

A) A brief survey of 19th century American literature:

American literature after 1850 has been enriched by great

novelists, poets, dramatists, short story writers and critics. At the
end of the 18lh century, American writers handled some quite
different themes, styles, plots, structures and imaginations. They
focused on social as well as individual problems. In this period the
novelists from Mark Twain (1835-1910) to Earnest Hemingway
(1898-1961) played a prominent role. In the field of poetry, this

3
period was dominated by Walt Whitman, H.W. Longfellow, James
Lowell and Emily Dickinson. Poetry, in this period was dominated
by moral and metaphysical imagination.

The period from 1840-1899 is the most important, in the

literary history of America. It was the period of pure literature. In
the late 19th century romantic literature lays an emphasis on
emotionalism, individualism and nature. American novels from
Cooper to Hemingway presents, the sense of loss and loneliness,
failures and frustration. There is a realistic imagination in the 19ta
century in American novels. There is social reality in the novels of
Dickinson and Thackeray, but in the novels of Stephen Crane, we
find realism, naturalism and imagination. There is search of
identity in American novels. The main writers, after the 1860 are
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville, Walt Whitman, H.W. Longfellow,
James Lowell, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Robert frost, Ezra
Pond, Henry James and Stephen Crane etc. All writers contributed
to enrich the American Literature.
American literature starts its journey in the real sense of the
term with Ann Bradstreet (1612-1672) and in 19th Century emerged
the transcendentalists. The most popular figure in his time was the
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). His essays and poems gave
him popularity. Then in 1954 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
wrote ‘IWalden’ or ‘Life in the Woods’ In 1855 Walt Whitman
(1819-1892) wrote ‘Leaves of Grass’. It was an epic. Then he
wrote ‘Democratic Vistas ’ (1871) the most important work.
The Brahmin poets such as H. W. Longfellow (1807-1882),
James Lowell (1819-1891) etc. gave great contribution to enrich
the American Poetry. Longfellow wrote ‘Evengaline’ (1847) and

4
Lowell wrote ‘A Gable for Critics’ (1848). Then Emily Dickinson
(1830-1886), one of the most successful poets emerged in
American literary world who wrote 1775 poems. She was widely
read. Then Nathanial Hawthorne, (1804-1864) wrote his famous
work ‘The Scarlet Letter’ (1850) which became the classical
portrayal of purkan America. ‘The House of Seven GablesJ f'l 851)
presents history of New England and ‘The Marble Faun’ (1860)
also. Herman Melville (1819-1891) wrote ‘Typee ’ which was based
on his time spent among the cannibalistic but hospitable tribe of the
Taipis in the Marguesas Islands of the South Pacific. ‘Moby Dick’
was Melville’s Masterpiece. It was an epic story of the whaling
Ship peqouod and captain Ahab.4
Mark Twain (1855-1910) was praised by the well-known
American novelist Earnest Hemingway that.

“All of American literature comes from one

great book, Twains adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.5

His books ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ (1876) and ‘Life

on the Mississippi (1883) and all other his books took him to the
top in American literature. So in 1907 he was honoured with the
degree of the Doctor of letters. Then the Realist William Dean
Howells (1837-1920) Wrote ‘A Modern Instance’ (1882), ‘Rise of
Silas Laphan’ (1885) and ‘Hazards of New Fortunes’ (1890).
Henry James (1843-1916) was an American Goethe called Rene
Wellek. He wrote ‘The American’ (1877), ‘Daisy Miller’ (1879)
and a Master piece ‘The Portrait of a Lady ’ (1881).
Robert Frost (1874-1963) was a poet who wrote more than
three hundred poems. He published ‘A Boy’s will’ (1931) ‘North of

5
Boston ’ (1914) ‘West Running Book’ (1928). He was awarded with
Pulitzer Prize.
Probably the last novelist of late 19th century was Stephen
Crane (1871-1900). The present dissertation attempts to examine
the thematic study of novels of Stephen crane. So it is necessary to
us to know about the life and works of the Stephen Crane.

B) A brief account of Stephen Crane’s life and works:

The most prolific American writer and journalist of his

time, Stephen Crane was born on 1st November, 1871 in New York
New Jersey, to a Methodist minister, Jonathan Townley Crane and
Mary Helen peck crane. He was fourteenth and last child, who
emerged as a novelist in American literary field, with the
publication of his well-known novel ‘The Red Badge of Courage ’
in 1895.
Being a son of Methodist Minister he spent his early
childhood in hymn singing and Bible reading, when he was a kid of
thirteen or about. He used to visit the church and prayer meetings.
On February 16th 1880 his father Jonathan Townley Crane
died. His Mother started to earn money to support family after his
father, by writing Methodist Journals to New York Tribune and
Philadelphia press. Stephen Crane helped his mother in writing
journals.
Crane’s family was interested in literary activities and Crane
grew up. He was surrounded by books and writings. In 1890 he
entered at Lafayette College as engineering student. But in
Septl890 he had to leave the college because of academic
delinquencies and he joined Syracuse University in 1891. He

6
became a famous student there and started to write sketches and
stories. He served for the New York Tribune. He made a baseball
team, before, the death of his mother by Cancer in December 7 ,
1891. He left the college after attending the Hamlin Garland’s
Lecture on realism and decided to establish himself in New York
City. He lived with his brother Edmund and some of his artist
friends in New York.
As a student of Syracuse, he wrote his first novel “Maggie:
A Girl of the Streets ” in two nights before Christmas. Maggie is a
novel which portraits a life of brutality and degradation in the New
York slum. Under the pseudo name Johnston Smith, Crane
published first edition of the ‘Maggie: A Girl of the Streets’ in
March 1893. He published it at his own expense. He was twenty
two years old then. Initially this novel was rejected by many
publishers. Finally in 1896, it was published by D. Appleton and
Company.
With the publication of this novel, crane got a prominent
place in the American literary world. On the recommendation of
Hamlin Garland who had read the book first, the William Dean
Howells admired and invited Crane to tea. Though the Maggie
failed to attract too many readers in those days, it proved and
established Crane as new author in realistic and naturalistic school
of writing. The novel revealed the imagination of the Stephen
Crane about the slum area and skill of handling it as a background
of the novel.
So Edwin H. Cady in his book “Stephen Crane” wrote the
following words about crane.

7
 “In short, the Crane who learned what he had to
know before he could write. The Red Badge was
multivalent. He had a dead of realism which had
supplanted but not suppressed a boyish ideal of
romance. And he had at last immitigably a self which
couldn’t be contained in either camp. Which has
always successfully eluded categorization, and which
broke out in unpremeditated, starting verse at the first
peak of his creative powers.” 7

In 1894, he started to write stories, poems, and second novel

'The Red Badge of Courage’. In 1895 he published his first
successful novel ‘The Red Badge of Courage ’. It was an episode on
a civil war. He also published short stories like ‘The Black Riders’
on May 11th, 1895 and started to write ‘The Third Violet ’ which
published later in 1897.
He got many offers to write for news papers after the
publication of the novel ‘The Red Badge of Courage’. He served as
war correspondent in Turkish war and Spanish-American war. He
worked as correspondent to Cuban insurrection. He used in
experience in his famous short story ‘The open Boat’ in 1898.
In 1896 he published ‘Georges Mother ’ and in December he
published ‘The Little Regiment’ and other episode of the American
Civil war. He published short story-cum-novel ‘The Monster’ in
1898 in Harpers Magazine. It was fine example of pathetic table. In
the same year of 1898 he published his second book of verse ‘War
is Kind’ as well as published posthumously the war sketches in
‘Wounds in the Rain. ’

8
 He published ‘The Open Boat’ in June 1897and wrote ‘The
Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, ’ ‘Death and the Child’ and ‘The Blue
Hotel’. He traveled to the west, to the Mexico and to Greece,
during his last years. He tried to be the viewer of the Greco -
Turkish war. He closely observed the Spanish-American war at
Cuba. He died unexpectedly in 1900 when he was of 29' years old
by the tuberculosis in Baden, Germany. He died because he had
neglected his health.
In the small span of his twenty nine years Stephen Crane
wrote more than one hundred works. The work of Stephen Crane
may be classified into three major groups.

1] Novels
2] Short stories and sketches
3] Poetry

1] NOVELS

In this group following works are especially mentioned.

1) Maggie : A Girl of the Streets

2) The Red Badge of Courage
3) The Monster
4) Georges Mother
5) The Third Violet

These are short novels which are the creation of Crane’s

imagination and high thinking power. ‘Maggie: A Girl of the
Streets’ published privately in 1893 and later revised in 1896.

9
Three years later, in 1895 he published ‘The Red Badge of
Courage’. It is considered that something is more than the war
story that is psychological study of cowardice. His third novel ‘The
Monster’ is published in 1898. It is a novella about sacrifice,
rescue, guilt and isolation. ‘George’s Mother’ is about New York’s
Bowery and its effects on a young working man fresh from the
country and ‘The Third Violet’ is the story of a bohemian artist’s
country romance.

2] Short stories and sketches and Journalism.

Crane wrote many short stories including some of his

Masterpieces.
1) The open Boat
2) The Blue Hotel
3) The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky

In his short stories he wrote ‘The Whilom Ville Stories ’ of

children and childhood in small towns of America. He wrote many
sketches and journalism on Cuba and American civil war.

3] Poetry:

Crane wrote two books of verses

1) The Black Riders and Other Lives (1895)
2) War is Kind (1899)
3) Uncollected Poems.
Crane used unforgettable imagery in his poetry. There are
some traits of naturalistic sense and reality. 6

10
 Though Crane is not major poet of his time and had not
written many verses. He is praised by Edwin H. Cady in following
words.

“Of course Crane is not a major poet. He had

neither a sustained poetic neither career nor any
apparent desire for one. Sometimes his imagination
paid out an unexpected poetic dividend while he lived
for fiction. Nevertheless, as he was aware, these were
his most personal, intimately revealing expressions.
There are perhaps twenty of them to make up a body
of perfectly genuine, wholly successful and individual
and extraordinarily intense poetry.” 8
i

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was really a keen observer of

the contemporary society and was a realist. He wrote a war novel
after it had taken place many years before his birth. He used his
high imaginative power and presented the unforgettable character
of a cowardice hero, Henry Fleming in the ‘The Red Badge of
Courage ’ and through the Old Judge he depicted hypocrisy in the
contemporary society in the ‘The Monster’. He handled various
subjects in many of his short stories. Having capability of handling
various subjects and themes he laid a path to the 20th century
writers to follow realism and naturalism.
Stephen Crane has been seen by his critics as a
contemporary naturalist and realist writer. He is an important writer
of late 19 century. Some critics have made comments on the
novels and naturalism in it, but as per my concern the themes are

Urb.
$H;\
11
r. 5 J! UBtlAfiy
LHa?UR,
not explored deeply yet. Some critics have made attempt to
explore the themes but have not been studied completely.

Crane is a major novelist of late 19th century. Very little

attention is paid to his novels and short stories by the critics.
Nobody has carried out a special thematic study of his novels.
However some critics have mentioned the themes in their books.
As I have mentioned earlier the present study examines thematic
study of Cranes novels. There is no aim to examine the technical
and chronological study of his novels. This dissertation aims to do
the thematic study of his novels.

12
 REFERENCES

1) Goodman, W.R. “A manual of American literature”. Doaba

House, Delhi, 1967.
P.4.
2) Ibid. P.V-X
3) Ibid. P.321-326.
4) Shams, Ishteyaque. ed. “New Perspectives on American
literature Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New
Delhi, 2004
P.5-8.
5) David, Marry S., Varsnney R.L. “A History of American
tR
Literature”. 9 ed. Rev. S.N. Arora, student store, Bareilly,
2005-06.
P. 239.
6) Crane, Stephen. “The Red Badge of courage: An
Authoritative
Text. Back grounds and sources criticism”. Ed. Sculley
Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, E. Hudson Long. Riv.
Donald Pizer. 2nd Ed. W.W. Norton & company, New York,
London, 1976.
P-123-128.
7) Cady, Edwin H., “Stephen Crane”. 1st ed. Popular
prakashan. Bombay, 1963.
P. 98.
8) Ibid. P.114.
9) Crane, Stephen. “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ”. A Story of

13
 New York 1893, ed. Thomas A. Gullason. A. Norton
Critical Edition, W.W. Norton & company, New York,
London. 1979.
p. 104- 105.

10) Stallman, Robert Wooster ed. “Stephen Crane: An

omnibus ”, rpt. 9lh, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, New York, 1976
P. 697-700.
11) The Library of America, “Stephen Crane: Prose and
Poetry”. Literary classics of the United States. New
York, 1984.
P-1353-58.
12) Greene, Jay E., Bertrand, Lawrence A. “Stephen Crane’s
The Red Badge of courage and related readings. ” Prentice-
Hall, Inc, Englewood cliffs, New Jersey, 1966.
P-IX-X1.

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