Representations of Social Darwinism in Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat and Guy De Maupassant’s Ball of Fat

Social Darwinism is a term promoted by the 19th century British philosopher, Herbert Spenser, who simply claims to apply biological concepts of natural selection and ‘survival of the fittest’ theory to sociology and politics. In his article, The Social Organism (1860), Spencer compares society to a living organism and argues that just as biological organisms evolve through natural selection, society evolves and increases in complexity through analogous processes. In fact, Spencer's major work, Progress: Its Law and Cause (1857), was released two years before the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. However, the term ‘Social Darwinism’ is still attributed to Charles Darwin in today’s scientific world since Spenser’s theories in sociology bear many similarities to those of Darwin’s in biological science. Therefore, Spenser is criticized by most Darwinists for misusing Darwin’s scientific theory and for applying his ideas in a way that Darwin would certainly object to. In these contexts, the present study sets out to examine representations of social Darwinism in selected short stories in order to highlight victimizing nature of its applications within the modern society. To do so, first, Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat (1897) is going to be analysed to illustrate the struggle for survival in a fierce natural environment and its symbolic resemblance to human’s competitiveness in the capitalist social order. Then, Guy De Maupassant’s Ball of Fat (1880) is going to be examined to show human kind’s greedy nature and ordeal of hypocrisy in the 20th century French society. In both examples, the main aim of this study is going to be to emphasize portrayals of how implications of the social Darwinism result in tragic ends and victimize those who are regarded to be the least suitable to the modernizing society.