Stephen Crane And American Literary culture
Arguably, the work of Stephen Crane has chopped a solid legacy in the annals of American literary culture. Though, his work “The Upturned Face” did not initially receive the kind of accolades it is attracting today, the advent of the modernists literary school did work to refocus attention to the salient features of this iconic scholarly writing.
Stephen Crane is particularly reputed for his ability to bring to the fore significant elements of Realism and Naturalism both on an individual scale and also often times on a collective platform in his fiction. He also did play a pioneering role in the process of blending irony, dialects and straightforward languages to craft his fiction. In a related instance, the ace in making reference to his explained that for the purpose of coherency logic should be at the central locus of a well written story to serve as a precursor to initiate a faithful flow between action and the character flow. In doing this the merit of the story will be self-fulfilling through simplicity in confirmation of the fictional definition of the story—this is precisely what “the upturned face” has accomplished.
A leading theme in the story is death and the inherent instincts of the human nature to death. It is artistically exaggerated to incite emotional response to grueling depths of humanity in the midst of latent uncertainty and threat. Indeed, in the heat of a fierce battle the resolve of the human nature’s capacity to cope is stretched to its elastic limit. Beyond the question of death, the morale of the platoon is sinking with the departure of the commander. The boys become overwhelmed by the sudden leadership vacuum. In confirming this assertion, the story opens with the words of Lean addressed to the adjutant thus “What do we do now?” This highly provoking question further exposes the level of distress in camp by the response of the adjutant when he said flatly “Bury him.”
The action outpour is way beyond what the young soldiers can contain, probably their disillusionment sterns from a combination of the fierceness of the battle coupled with the leadership absence. A look at the ensuing dialogue between the depressed and terrified soldiers reveal that all is not well, and those immediately responsible for the task of leadership are crumbling under the weight of expectation of leadership qualities heavily brought upon them. In one of the instances, the adjutant once again yells at two privates with strong orders “Why don’t you hurry up with that grave? What are you doing anyhow? Hurry, do you hear? I never saw such stupid..”
Indeed, the story is chillingly packed with images of horror yet the facts remain timeless.
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