The Young Men and the Sea: Sea/Ocean as a Space of Maturation?

The sea (or ocean) in American literature and culture is marked by a distinctive ambiguity. On the one hand, and quite expectedly, the sea voyage can be a maturation experience: such is the case of Humphrey Van Weyden, the protagonist of London’s “The Sea Wolf”; such is also the interpretation that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inReview of International American studies Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 73 - 83
Main Author Fruzińska, Justyna
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego 2014
University of Silesia Press
Subjects
Anthropology
Comparative Study of Literature
Culture and social structure
Language and Literature Studies
Other Language Literature
Social Sciences
Studies of Literature
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Summary:The sea (or ocean) in American literature and culture is marked by a distinctive ambiguity. On the one hand, and quite expectedly, the sea voyage can be a maturation experience: such is the case of Humphrey Van Weyden, the protagonist of London’s “The Sea Wolf”; such is also the interpretation that the Disney Company chooses to present in its animated adaptation of R.L. Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”. However, it is also a space of the opposite experience: one that accommodates remarkably immature characters. Be it in the person of captain Delano in Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’, or the eponymous Billy Budd, it is a site welcoming naive and escapist heroes, those who do not want to or cannot adapt to the demands of land society.
ISSN:1991-2773
1991-2773