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The Open Boat
Stephen Crane was an American poet, short story writer, and novelist who was famous for his notable works in the realistic tradition and American Naturalism and Impressionism. He is remembered by modern critics as the most innovative novelist of his time. He wrote several novels that being fictional give a real and different perspective of life ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"2585WPVD","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Crain)","plainCitation":"(Crain)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":372,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/JUHRI39A"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/JUHRI39A"],"itemData":{"id":372,"type":"webpage","title":"The Hectic Career of Stephen Crane | The New Yorker","URL":"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/30/the-red-and-the-scarlet","author":[{"family":"Crain","given":"Caleb"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,23]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Crain). The Open Boat by Stephen Crane is thought to be one of the known and finest stories ever written in the 80s where he talks about several things like optimism, desperation, disappointment, acceptance, gratitude, and determination. The story has been narrated by a third person who makes the story more interesting because it makes a person not only read the story but also listen to it. Despite the abundant characterizations of nature, including humanistic, animistic and god-like features, Crane makes it clear that nature is indifferent to human’s expectations. Through the story, Crane makes the characters understand the reality of nature and tells them that nature is not concerned about humans and humans have no control over nature and on their fate.
The Open Boat is primarily about the dynamics between man and nature. Humanity is represented by four men in the boat, a captain, correspondent, cook, and the oil trader. All these men try to defeat nature, but nature has full control over them. In the story, it is carefully noted that the control of nature is not due to a contempt or special concern of men. Instead, nature is completely indifferent to humans and puts "The Open Boat" in a literary movement known as American Naturalism which is a concept that humans cannot change their fate and focuses on nature's indifference to humans. Despite humans’ best efforts and struggles, The Open Boat demonstrates that humans do not have any control over nature.
In the story, the four men fight against nature to survive by traveling through rough waves of the sea with their tiny lifeboat, which seems like a fight they obviously cannot win. This process deprives them of energy and spirit and leaves them like "mummies". The men are simply at the merciful hands of nature. Cranes also compares how humans and nature that on land humans demonstrate their powers on the natural world by ruling over the animals. All the other things that are related to nature but become helpless once they come under the superpowers of nature like the men who are helpless on the sea and have nowhere to go, "The spray, when it dashed uproariously over the side, made the voyagers shrink and swear like men who were being branded". Therefore, the misunderstandings of man’s control over nature are unfortunately false because nature somehow shows its dominance over the voyagers just like the man who is branding a cow inland ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"p2GSMVzz","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Linhart)","plainCitation":"(Linhart)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":374,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/7TWJQGKV"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/7TWJQGKV"],"itemData":{"id":374,"type":"article-journal","title":"The role of nature in Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Kate Chopin's The Storm","source":"www.academia.edu","abstract":"The role of nature in Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Kate Chopin's The Storm","URL":"https://www.academia.edu/7088089/The_role_of_nature_in_Stephen_Cranes_The_Open_Boat_and_Kate_Chopins_The_Storm","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Linhart","given":"Igor"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,23]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Linhart). This human-against-nature dynamic is also reflected in the Caroline ES Norton's poem "Bingers on the Rhine" who joins the violent sea as a correspondent. He remembers the poem he heard in his youth which is about the death of a soldier who is trying to prevent bleeding in a vain by holding his hand over his heart. But his attempt to save his life is useless because nature has control over it. Likewise, the narrator notes that nature particularly fate has the power to drown people, and all that a human being can do in the face of this very real threat is to "shake his fist against the clouds" and to curse his fate which is an ineffective reaction to nature as in the case of soldier who clasps his chest so as not to die. The narrator in the story writes that the four men at the tiny boat are "at the mercy of five oceans” which makes an amazing difference in size and power between nature and humankind. When the correspondent sees a shark next to the board one night, he becomes terrified with a mix of fascination and horror, “The speed and power of the thing were great to be admired. It cut through the water like a gigantic and keen projectile".
Even nature being in its innocuous form has complete control over man. If a seagull lands on the captain, he cannot scare her off because he fears the boat will overturn with his powerful movements which obviously the boat cannot tolerate. Thus, the captain must let the bird sit on his head hesitantly and endure it so that the bird can sit on his head as long as he wants. They are totally under the control of nature as the elements of nature hinder men's progress towards the seashore, "A changed tide tried to force them southward, but the wind and wave said northward”. Regardless of the actions and words of men on the boat, the temperament of the waves changes constantly and in this ultimate show of indifference between nature and humans, a big wave overturns the boat which results in the death of the oiler, but another big wave drives the correspondent safely ashore ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"9CcbH6RT","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Schober)","plainCitation":"(Schober)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":376,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/ECBR9UVU"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/ECBR9UVU"],"itemData":{"id":376,"type":"article-journal","title":"\"A Problem in Small Boat Navigation\": Ocean Metaphors and Emerging Data Epistemology in Stephen Crane's \"The Open Boat\" and Jack London's \"The Heathen\"","container-title":"Studies in American Naturalism","page":"70-88","volume":"12","issue":"1","source":"Project MUSE","DOI":"10.1353/san.2017.0004","ISSN":"1944-6519","title-short":"A Problem in Small Boat Navigation","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Schober","given":"Regina"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017",11,3]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Schober).
At the beginning of the story, the sea hisses, growls and bucks like an animal but later it just “paces to and fro”. In reality, the sea does not change at all, and it's only the perception of the men that changes about the sea means that this is way nature behaves in reality The unchanged activity of clouds, gulls, and tides shows that nature does not behave differently in light of the men's struggle for survival.
Crane reinforces the idea that nature is indifferent to man by showing that it is as fortuitously hurtful as helpful. As in the story, they experience an unexpectedly good turn in the form of a favorable calm night or wind for every malicious mood man suffers. Cranes observe the fact that people seem to get help from nature but also destroys the concept of nature as an aggressive force. Nothing highlights this point as much as the final rescue of correspondent by nature and he must accept the fact that what put him at risk saved him.
Even after the men reach the land, the indifference of nature continues to go along with them as the shore welcomes correspondent, the cook, and the captain and for these people, shore means survival and safety. But for the oiler who is dead, the shore can only offer “sinister hospitality of the grave”. Therefore, the correspondent understands that nature is not cruel; rather, it is indifferent to humans’ expectations ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"AGDkOHQv","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Colvert)","plainCitation":"(Colvert)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":377,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/YL2ISQZA"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/YL2ISQZA"],"itemData":{"id":377,"type":"article-journal","title":"STYLE AND MEANING IN STEPHEN CRANE: The Open Boat","container-title":"Texas Studies in English","page":"34-45","volume":"37","source":"JSTOR","archive":"JSTOR","ISSN":"0364-8656","title-short":"STYLE AND MEANING IN STEPHEN CRANE","author":[{"family":"Colvert","given":"James B."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1958"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Colvert). He uses the words “cruel, beneficent, wise or treacherous” for nature. It seems that Cranes shows nature as the representative of God and his indifferences to mankind like in the story the correspondent observes high and cold star in the sky that communicates an idea of God and his indifference. He understands the fact that there is not one God who is involved in the affairs of men but at the same time he denies his very own understanding by saying that “ 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?”.
The relationship of man with nature is perhaps the most important element in the story as men no longer think that universe intentionally makes them suffer. They realize that it is completely indifferent to what happened to them. After this realization and surviving at the seashore, the men finally see themselves as "interpreters" of nature. In this way, Crane shows and asks his readers to let go of their pride and should feel blessed about what they have and what nature offers to them. They should accept the fact that they are nothing but tiny creatures in front of nature and their indifferences have what put them in trouble. Its nature holds vast extreme powers and can put a big impact on mankind.
Work cited
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Colvert, James B. “STYLE AND MEANING IN STEPHEN CRANE: The Open Boat.” Texas Studies in English, vol. 37, 1958, pp. 34–45. JSTOR.
Crain, Caleb. The Hectic Career of Stephen Crane | The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/30/the-red-and-the-scarlet. Accessed 23 Nov. 2019.
Linhart, Igor. The Role of Nature in Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Kate Chopin's The Storm. www.academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/7088089/The_role_of_nature_in_Stephen_Cranes_The_Open_Boat_and_Kate_Chopins_The_Storm. Accessed 23 Nov. 2019.
Schober, Regina. “‘A Problem in Small Boat Navigation’: Ocean Metaphors and Emerging Data Epistemology in Stephen Crane’s ‘The Open Boat’ and Jack London’s ‘The Heathen.’” Studies in American Naturalism, vol. 12, no. 1, Nov. 2017, pp. 70–88. Project MUSE, DOI:10.1353/san.2017.0004.
