Stephen Crane's "The Open Book": Determinism, Objectivity, and Pessimism In Stephen Crane's short story “The Open Boat”, the American literary school of naturalism is used and three of the eight features are most apparent, making this work, in my opinion, a good example of the school of naturalism. These three of the eight features are determinism, objectivity, and pessimism. They show, some more than others, how Stephen Crane viewed the world and the environment around him. Determinism is of course the most obvious of the three features. Throughout the entire story, the reader gets a sense that the fate of the four main characte