Analysis Of The Open Boat

American author, Stephen Crane often wrote about different predicaments that his fellow men encounters. “The Open Boat” is a fictional account of his experience as a correspondent shipwrecked while on expedition to the Cuban revolutionaries in 1897 (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/stephen-crane) where he spent over 30 hours on a life boat with three other passengers. This realistic story depicts how four men are forced onto a 10 foot dingy after their ship sinks. Crane takes a realist approach when describing the natural elements such as unsettling winds and the raging seas which represent the uncaring and unforgiving nature of life. Clearly, Crane narrates the role as the correspondent, while he provides dialog to provide an understanding on how the other passengers are feeling. “The Open Boat” demonstrates that man cannot survive the natural elements and hardships while isolated in the sea without an understanding of nature.

“The Open Boat” uses vivid metaphors to enhance both the magnificent, yet overwhelming nature of the sea. Crane successfully illustrated a situation that isolated the four men, encouraging them to use the elements of the sea that they do not understand. The four men are stranded and isolated, with no help except what they are

Therefore, nature does not have any feelings toward the four men if they lived or died. Nature was not sympathetic to their situation. In the first line of the story, Crane said “none of them new the color of the sky” (Perkins 103), this symbolized that the occupants of the boat did not understand nature. Crane used this sentence to show that the occupants did not understand nature and what it could or could not do to their situation. Crane uses different symbols in nature to prove that the men were not connected to nature and if they would have been more connected, their outcome may have proved to be