Story: “The Open Boat,” 1897 Author: Stephen Crane (1871-1900) Central Character: There is no real central character in this story. All the men on the boat are spoken about more or less equally and no prominent character jumps out at the reader as being the central character. Although more emphasis is put onto the correspondent, and Billie the oiler. Other Character: The cook: bails water from boat.
Billie the oiler: steers and rows boat, is the only of the men that does not make it alive to land. The correspondent: Also helps steer and row boat. Injured captain: gives commands to the crew as he lies against the water-jar speaking with a low and calm voice. Unnamed people on land: Coat swinger, naked man, etc.
Setting: A 10 foot dinghy floats upon a rowdy ocean near the coast of Florida in January in the late 1800’s. It seems that everything on the sea is grey weighing heavily on the feeling of the men. There is a tired and frustrated feelings among the men as they want to leave the boat and return to land, although, Billie and the cook provide some humor when referring to the blasted oars and to pie. Narrator: The author, 3 rd person, omniscient point of view.
Events in summary: (1) Four men have survived from a sunken steamer and are stuck in a 10 ft steamer out at sea some where near the coast of Florida. (2) The Injured captain lay over the water-jar giving orders to the correspondent and Billie the oiler letting them know how to steer and row the boat. The crew makes its way to Mosquito Inlet light where they believe that there will be a house of refuge. (3) Seagulls taunt the crew, one in particular trying to land on the captain’s head. This kills the crew’s optimism about the wind blowing ashore.
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The oiler and the correspondent continue to row switching off when the other is tired. (4) The captain then spots a lighthouse on the horizon, like a small dot. The captain decides to use his jacket and an oar to make a sail to let the men rest. No one spots the boat and they find it curious, assuming that no one must be looking out the window out to the sea. They deicide to got back to sea to avoid the risky surf.
(5) The wind dies down and the men spot some more people on the shore. There is a van or a boat of some sort, and a man that is swinging his coat. They don’t actually try to help the crew they just wave and watch from afar. The crew is discouraged yet again, and head out into the water. (6) The crew dozes off except for the correspondent who is bugged by a shark in the night. After swearing into the sea the correspondent remembers a rhyme from his childhood that he once did not care about but now does.
The captain awakes and the oiler and the correspondent switch spots. (7) The crew notices a village on the shore with a windmill. The men prepare to jump from the ship and swim ashore. The captain holds onto the boat afraid he will drown.
A man appears on the beach naked and helps the men onto the shore. Everyone makes it except for Billie the oiler who is found face down in the sand dead. Tone: Crane has the ability to create multiple tones all in one passage. The tone seems to be a tad dreary and tragic do to the fact that at any moment the men could all be drowned.
Although, when there is dialogue there is more of a straight forward and comic tone that demonstrates the increasing friendship that is apparent to the reader, although the men refuse to mention it. This tone is important because, Crane makes his characters out to be helpless against the element of nature and it’s over bearing on them. Thus, this bond between the men is the only thing they have to overcome the environment. Style: One thing that Crane has been known for is his use of imagery and similes in his writing. His use of Imagery and detail bring a repeating setting like the ocean, more to life. The reader is able to form a vivid picture in their mind with the Crane’s use of adjectives and colors.
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Ernest Miller Hemingway was one of the most famous American authors because of his simple style yet complex psychological analysis. The Old Man and the Sea is just one example of this typical Hemingway style. The novella won the Pulitzer in nineteen fifty-three and the Nobel Prize for Literature in nineteen fifty-four. It has remained popular since the publication in nineteen fifty-two because of ...
This style contrast with that of when the characters are speaking. When dialogue occurs, the text seems very simple and rudimentary where as when no dialogue is used the text is far more detailed and alive. Crane’s use of similes makes it so one can possibly relate or have a better understanding of what is occurring. For example how he describes riding in the dinghy like riding a bucking bronco. Irony: The ironic ideas in this story are those of perhaps after all the work the men have gone through that they would be allowed to drown before they were able to set foot on land again.
Crane constantly pushes us toward accepting the bleak proposition that life is a brutal struggle for survival in which there are no certainties of success. This is demonstrated through the quotation: If I am going to be drowned-if I am going to be drowned-if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life? … She dare not drown me. She cannot drown me. Not after all this work (Crane 222).
In the end it is the strongest man, Billie the oiler that dies.
The weakest and also most worried to die, the injured captain, is one if those who survives. Theme: The themes present in this story are those of, fighting for a goal, brotherhood, indifference and most importantly Naturalism: man versus nature. Crane was known for incorporating an idea of naturalism into his stories. One can see the idea of naturalism in “The Open Boat” in that the men’s environment is against them.
The ocean, the gulls, the sharks, the weather. Crane drives the point home that nature is indifferent to the men and that this angers the men of the boat with the following quotation: When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples. Any visible expression of nature would surely be pelted with his jeers (227).
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Throughout my reading I have found that Crane uses many symbolic objects to depict true-life events. He uses symbols such as towers, animals, and waves. Crane leaves so much to the reader's imagination that the story can be considered magical and mysterious. The composition leaves many details up to the readers inference, however after further research a full picture to the events that transpired ...
Symbols: The symbols that are important in “The Open Boat,” are those of the sea, the sea gulls, the shark, the windmill, and the rhyme of the dying soldier. All these symbols exemplify the naturalistic idea that nature is indifferent to men. The sea is hostile making every effort to turn over the boat; gulls sit comfortably in groups on the water while the sea tries to attack the men.
The shark finds no use for the men, the correspondent views the windmill as a symbol of nature in that it is neutral and unconcerned by the men’s destiny sitting on the lonely shore. The characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. The correspondent remembers a rhyme from his childhood, and he feels pity for the dying soldier mentioned in that verse. This verse never seemed important to him before, but now being menaced my nature and being alone in the cruel world he understands the soldiers situation. Evaluation: I enjoyed this story, because it had many different kinds of criticism that could be applied to it. Especially that of biographical criticism because it based off at true story that actually happened to the author himself.
It was also nice to see the characters grow, as friends and as men. I also really enjoyed the style of writing and the use of similes, imagery, and detail. These really painted a picture in my head. Works Cited Crane, Stephen. “The Open Boat.” An Introduction to Fiction. X.
J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. New York: Longman 2005. 215-233.
