Amber Andrus
Dr. Cain-Calloway
English 1302
19 February, 2015
Community
Community is a major theme in both the story “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane as well as “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Although both stories have different characters, setting, and plot the reader can easily see that community is a significant part of their success as a group.
In the story “The Open Boat” there are several characters that make up the community, the Oiler, the Captain, the Correspondent, and the Cook. The men share the common interest of survival. In order for the community to survive, each member must be willing to bring his individual contributions to the community. These men are all spoken of equally in the story. There is no prominent character and the author uses a dire situation to show that without togetherness no one would make it. The people on shore don’t understand how much danger the men on the boat are in which shows a miscommunication between two different communities. In the end they realize they cannot count on anyone but themselves. Crane describes the community best when he says “They were a captain, an oiler, a cook, and a correspondent, and they were friends-friends in a more curiously iron-bound degree than may be common.”(193) this sentence tells us that their experience of being on the boat strengthened their community. Once the men decided to abandon ship the community falls apart and it becomes every person for himself.
Along with the characters the setting also helps to establish community. They are in a very small boat. If they had been on a larger boat they may not have even spoken to one another but because they were forced to be in such small quarters they had to get along and were able to communicate properly and be an effective community. They were on turbulent water which shows that it was not ideal circumstances. They were fighting for their lives and each person had that fear of death and uncertainty which helped to grow them closer to one another. Their chances of survival would have been much smaller if they did not have each other. In the story “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” the community is made up of the drowned man who they name Esteban, the women, men, and children of the town. The characters are a community after Esteban intervenes. The children are the first to find Esteban and they are a community because they spend all afternoon playing with Esteban. The women clean him up, sew clothes for him, and imagine together what his life must have been like. The men go to neighboring towns to find out where he lives. Everything they do surrounding Esteban is a community effort. When the people find out Esteban has no family they give him a new family and all the townspeople are now related to Esteban, and to one another.
Along with the
