Temple but no bricks

Gustavo Quintero
English 48B
February 21, 2008
Journal #27 Stephen Crane



Quote:
"...he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples"(Crane 1011).



Summary:
This is another stage in Crane's stage's. This is the stage where one wants to curse the gods but there is nothing to curse.


Response:
Naturalism is how the environment shapes a humans actions and reactions and in the case of the doomed ship crew the environment serves exactly this purpose. After they have prayed for salvation they find themselves staring death in the face. They complain about how unjust it is for them to have rowed so long and be within eyesight of land only not be able to make it to land. These men think they are better then the sea. The sea is what holds the power over the lives of these men. While trying to row their way to land they are thrown all over the place by the strong currents of the sea. This is when the men get upset, they want to vent their anger on the sea for fighting against their progress. The only problem is what are they supposed to do if the very thing keeping them from the land has no physical form. They want to get mad at something that has no physical shape. I chose this quote because of the deep philosophical roots that these problem conjures up. How do you hurt something that has no feeling? This reminds me of any time I am having trouble fixing my car and things are not going as I please. I then become frustrated and hit whatever part of my car I am working on. What if an inatimite object could feel pain? Would I hit the part of my car knowing that it felt pain? The Crane stages prove to be very complex when they are broken down and looked at individually.