More Subjects
The Open Boat
[Name of Writer]
[Name of Institution]
Stephen Crane has created an immersive narrative that probes and explores four men’s quest for survival after a ship wreckage. The story begins at sea with vivid descriptions of apprehension. Four men in a small dinghy fight the enormous sea and its waves in their attempt to get to land alive. There are varying degrees of dejection and hope continuously juxtaposed against each other as the dangerous journey at sea unfolds. The passage is an intense plot that signifies the extent to which man would go in order to survive. It also portrays resolve and conviction in the face of relentless nature. The perpetual insignificance of man as opposed to the cruelty of nature has also been highlighted. Various themes all come together to become this story that Stephen Crane penned after his own struggle for survival at sea before washing up at the Daytona Beach.
This story is significant because it incorporates impressionism with naturalism in a way not previously done by the author. Stephen Crane was a journalist and his works had a specific tinge of realism to them. The narrative presented in ‘the open boat’ goes against this pattern to present the story and its various scenes from the unreliable and shifting perspectives of its characters. Yet the clarity of the unfolding events and the detail about the environment also invokes naturalism.
It begins with the declaration that the four men in the dinghy did not “know the color of the sky”.CITATION Cra98 \l 1033 (Crane) The text continues to imply that the men were so focused on the grey waves that continued to crash with their boat that the only way for them to know the color of the sky was through the way the waves shone. A juxtaposition is made with “all the men knew the colors of the sea”. CITATION Cra98 \l 1033 (Crane) Impressionism is therefore clearly introduced and established right in the first paragraph of the story. Readers can expect to read a text that narrows the view of the world down to that of the perspective of the characters and nothing else. Moving forward, as the men make out a “pin-like figure” and later a “grey shadow” of the lighthouse, their hope ignites towards it. Disappointment follows when the lighthouse fails to serve its expected purpose. There is a sequence in the story as the characters all take turns identifying objects and people on the faraway beach. This part of the story solidifies the acute lack of objectivity in the passage. Everything conveyed to the reader has already passed through the subjective lens of one of the four men on the boat before it becomes a part of the narrative. The reader has to feel angry as the rage of the characters is relayed to them.
“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?” CITATION Cra98 \l 1033 (Crane)
Therefore, when the opinions of the characters about what they see on the beach change, the reader has to depend on their perspectives and change opinions as well. The boat becomes an omnibus, the refuge house becomes a winter resort and the man waving a flag at them eventually becomes just an idiot waving his coat. The despair after failing to attract help and the hopelessness of turning to sea is later juxtaposed with a reignition of hope at the two lights in the horizon which guides the men. Their final fight for survival culminates in people coming to their rescue and the crew makes it to land; missing one member.
As the primary argument here is that the story is a piece of impressionist fiction, its characters play a crucial role as they are, in fact, the storytellers. There is a cook who bails the small boat while the oiler and the correspondent row the boat taking turns at it. The injured captain lies down in a corner. Each character has a specific voice which echoes throughout the story and gives its own standpoint for the events that are to happen. The cook has a questionable memory regarding the presence of a house of refuge on the beach that they are hoping to wash up on. Although the man himself is confused, his companions latch on to his claims and hope for those claims to be true. When the men continue to comment “funny they haven’t see us,” CITATION Cra98 \l 1033 (Crane) they are referring to the same crew of the house of refuge they were not sure even existed. This is also the character with the job of bailing the boat. Therefore, it depicts the desperate hope men will cling to when they are up against a universe trying its best to kill them. The injured captain is a personification of conviction. Although unable to move or do much to help his companions, the Captain is perfectly steadfast in giving orders to the men on how to prevent the boat from capsizing. He is awake even during the deadly night and a source of courage for the other men. The captain holds onto the overturned boat with one arm to make it to the shore. The only person who cannot make it to the shore alive is oiler or Billie. This man is primarily carrying out the duty to oar the dinghy. His labor is extensive and mostly without rest. His character is only described by virtue of his hard work. Nature is shown as merciless when his experience cannot save him from his fate.
The character most profoundly explained is the correspondent. He is also the point of view most frequently used to give the impressionist theme of the story its color. His aura is despondent from the beginning. The first sentence that summarizes the essence of this character is that he “wondered why he was there”. CITATION Cra98 \l 1033 (Crane) The most important quality of the correspondent throughout the story is the fact that he was frustrated with and loathing every second of their journey for survival. He assists the oiler in oaring the dinghy and is not himself as much of a natural at it. That amplifies the gloom in his personality. When he cannot make out the lighthouse, it describes the pessimism and the urgency to get out of the terrible situation he is stuck in. As night rolls in and the correspondent has to take turns between sleeping and oaring, he is described to have slept for only “a moment before a heard a voice, calling his name”. His masked fear of being alone in facing a shark is followed by oaring mistakes that bring cold showers on the men in the boat for which he apologizes. This character climaxes during the swim towards the beach when he is stuck in a current and for a few moments, contemplates whether it would be better to let go. “Drowning must really be a comfortable arrangement – a cessation of hostilities”. CITATION Cra98 \l 1033 (Crane)
Therefore, the whole story and various themes in it all serve to prove that it is a indeed a story told from the perspectives of its characters and hence principally goes against other works that Stephen Crane has created.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Crane, Stephen. The Open Boat: And Other Tales of Adventure. Doubleday & McClure Company, 1898. Print.
More Subjects
Join our mailing list
© All Rights Reserved 2024