Stephen Crane's The Open Boat

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People often go through life with the assumption that good things will happen to those who work hard and do good to others. This idea is found in various religions and is often an idea taught in schools. Stephen Crane is not a man who believes in this idea. In Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat,” the four men struggling for survival in the middle of the ocean come from different walks of life. Crane uses these static characters as tools to show that even though these men react differently to the sea and their situation, nature is unchanging and regards them as insignificant.
The flatness of these characters helps the reader understand that the actions of the characters do not affect how nature treats them. If the characters were all complex or dynamic, the reader’s attention would be pulled from the situation and focused more on each individual’s change. Crane went as …show more content…
Billie is completely dedicated and focus of his task. He is a worker, “steering with one of the two oars in the boat” (207). The oiler works the hardest of all the men in the boat. He is the one doing the most rowing, even though he “worked double watch in the engine-room of the ship”(211) before the vessel sank. Yet, he is the only one that does not reach the shore alive. On the other hand, the captain, injured and still dealing with the fact that his ship went down “[is] buried in that profound dejection and indifference” (207). The injured captain throughout the story does not do anything substantial on the dinghy except delegate tasks to the other more able men survives.This seemingly unfair result shows how nature does not care if you work hard. If the oiler changed and decided it was not worth the work or the captain suddenly decided that he

Stephen Crane's The Open Boat

In The Open Boat by Stephen Crane, he makes it clear that nature is unsympathetic to the troubles of man. That nature has no conscious while the men progress through the story and the lack of concern from nature becomes clear. The men in the boat often wondered why fate has brought them thus far, only to drown them. However, what they fail to grasp is that fate had nothing at all to do with it. The things that happened to the men were random and could not be controlled. The ocean, the wind, the sun…

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Stephen Crane's The Open Boat

The “Open Boat”, a short story written by Stephen Crane, was written to show readers how nature reacts to human activity. The point he is trying to make is that men, in fact, do not have any influence on nature. He makes this clear by how he describes the sea throughout the story, how indifferent it is about the condition the men were in. This is made clear by how the men perceived the sea. When they were first stranded, the described the waters as rough and relentless, while later, it is no longer…

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Indifferences In Stephen Crane's 'Open Boat'

1.The story begins in the middle of things, with the crew already stranded at sea. What details does Crane provide about the shipwreck and what does he leave out and why? “Open Boat” is about four men who get stranded at sea. There ship has been wrecked and the caption, oiler, cook and correspondence all find themselves on a lifeboat. With rough and raging seas, all four men work very hard to stay alive. When they finally find land they celebrate by smoking and drinking water only to come and…

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Human Suffering In Stephen Crane's The Open Boat

American author Stephen Crane often wrote about the plight of his fellow man, raising awareness about poverty, war, and human suffering. His short story, “The Open Boat,” is a fictional account of a terrifying experience in which Crane witnessed both suffering and self-sacrifice. In the story, four men are forced out to sea on a ten-foot dinghy when their ship sinks. Crane personifies natural elements like the clawing wind and pummeling waves to represent the uncaring and often malevolent universe…

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The Open Boat Analysis

one might possibly feel how the four men (the oiler, the captain, the cook, and the correspondent) in Stephen Crane's book, "The Open Boat," felt. These men rowed around the seas in a lifeboat trying to find land after getting shipwrecked. The men create a brotherhood after being in the boat for so long, the opposite feeling toward nature. They were rescued soon after they decided to tip the boat over to swim to shore. On the other hand, Sarah Orne Jewett's, "A White Heron," is about a girl named…

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Figurative Language In The Open Boat

the accurate description of detail. Stephan Crane's "The Open Boat" is a good interpretation of naturalism. This story is naturalistic due to the fact these men's lives are controlled by the sea and little mercy is shown. The sea is breaking the men down to little or nothing and showing their true flaws. In the story Crane uses imagery, figurative language, and mood to make naturalism more obvious throughout the story. Crane uses imagery in "The Open Boat" to show multiple perspectives and to give…

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The Open Boat

a shift from the formal, romantic writings of the late 1700’s to a realistic and often more pessimistic outlook on life. An example of one such work is The Open Boat by Stephen Crane. This short story is the epitome of naturalism through its use of relaxed, realistic writing, as well as man’s fate being in the hands of nature. The Open Boat is similar in writing style to the works of Mark Twain in that the dialogue resembles what would be heard in speech. While this work does not feature the vernacular…

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Stephen Crane's Impact On American Literature

According to dictionary.com, free verse is a form of poetry that does not follow a fixed pattern. After he published his poetry, he met Cora Taylor. Cora and Stephen married and moved to England. In England, Crane became friends with H.G. Wells, the famous author of The Time Machine, and many other famous authors. Some concluded that Crane’s greatest works besides Red Badge…

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Essay on The Open Boat

The Open Boat By, Stephen Crane The Open boat is a short story written and published in 1897. It was written by Stephen Crane, detailing his thirty hour experience stranded in the ocean, after the SS Commodore sank. Stephen at the time was a newspaper correspondent and was on his way to Cuba for a job. Crane along with three others survive the ship wreck after they boarded a small boat once they knew the Commodore was going down. Shortly after his rescue Stephen created a short story which he narrates…

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Stephen Crane Literary Realism

Stephen Crane Stephen Crane was one of America’s most realistic writers and his works have been credited with marking the best beginning of modern American Naturalism (“Stephen Crane” The meaning of naturalism by (“ Stephen Crane”) Dismissing realism as “the Drama of a broken teacup,” Frank Norris was just one of many writers seeking to document the harsh realities of American life in the transition from the 19th into the 20th century, as opposed to the trials of a parlor often described…

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