Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"

Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"

Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" is a story about four shipwrecked sailors who try to reach land with one small boat (a dingy), two weak oars, and a water jug. In the story Stephen Crane gave each of these four men a different identity. There was a cook, a captain (who had only one good arm), an oiler, and a correspondent. While at sea each of these men had their own roles to play for their survival. The oiler and the correspondent took turns rowing, the cook bailed water out, and the captain led them all, while watching their surroundings. Eventually when the four men saw land an tried to approach it, they were oppressed by a variety of waves which they feared would remove (or destroy) their boat. To settle their fears they decided to wait out at sea in hopes that someone from the shore would see them and would come to save them. Eventually someone did see them, and this man seemed to draw other people to their attention, but no one seemed to try to help the shipwrecked sailors, and the crowd instead stood waving at the shove. However soon after the sailors were spotted, night fell, and the sailors felt tired. Luckily for the sailors, the waves died down and the sailors each took turns keeping the dingy afloat. Finally at morning the captain decided that the people on the hore were not going to save them, so he decided to try to reach the shore without help. The four then worked their way to the shore as a group until their boat capsized, after which they individually swam for land until rescued by the surrounding people. Finally at the end of the story three of the four men survived and the oiler drowned.

Perhaps an interesting thing to notice about "The Open Boat" is the multidue of harsh characters of this same story. The first and most obvious of these charaters was nature itself, which Crane personified in the "seven mad gods who rule over the sea." In this story the sea is described in a very gothic manner in which it constantly attacked the boat. At one point Crane described the waves saying that they, "seemed thrust up in points like rocks" (Crane 728). Crane's overall description of the ocean is that it is entirely cappable of killing these men, but due to the mere chance of fate, it does not drown them. The second noticable characters of indifference are the people watching on the shores. At first these men do not try to help the sailors, but instead just wave to them as they (the sailors) face the fear of drowning. Eventually, these men get a change of heart, but not until after the sailors had reached the shore. The final harsh characters of this story are the individual sailors (excluding the captain). While in the boat these sailors are all working as a team caring for each other, but once they left the boat, all of the (excluding the captain) turned to themselves and did not care about the others around them. This fact is most obvious when the correspondent is rescued, and his rescuer askes him what is next to him. The correspondent recognized the figure but instead focused on himself and left the oiler to drown. Thus the conclusion of the story is that men are both insignificant to the world and are also selfish to the point that they will usually not go out of their way to help save another human being.

If the world is supposed to be so indifferent towards these four shipwrecked sailors than why does it taunt them with death? The harsh waves, sleep, birds, and sharks all seem willing and waiting to kill these sailors.