Fear. There were five of us on the boat, me, my younger brother Ian, my cousin Dylan, my dad, and our fishing captain whose name I don’t remember but was a heavier-set guy with a cheery attitude, like a fisherman version of Santa Claus. It was early in the morning, the sun was just rising, and I felt a slight chill for the first time since my family and I arrived in Georgia, courtesy of a light breeze combined with the morning’s cool air. Looking back, the ride was quite beautiful, our small fishing boat perfectly centered on the canal between Jekyll Island where my family was staying, and the Georgia mainland. Pine trees lined the shore, the water shimmering from reflections of the sun, we even saw a group of dolphins playing in the distance. …show more content…
I prayed that day that I wouldn’t have to encounter the creature that I feared, but I guess not all of your prayers can be answered. I have always had a weird fascination with fear. What it is, why it happens, and how to overcome it, I have spent many hours of my life just thinking about the concept of fear and how something you cannot see impacts everyone's life. Asking questions like, “Why do some people have different fears than others?” Or “Do people's fears stem from experiences in their life, or are they born with those specific fears?” But most of all, I continually find myself coming back to this one specific question that has no doubt not just been pondered by me, but many people across the world, “How do you overcome fear?” When trying to explain fear's purpose, in my eyes it’s relatively simple. Although I’ve never researched to see if my hypothesis is true, I have long assumed fear itself is just chemicals being released into our brains, to keep us out of danger and preserve our lives for as long as
Fear is a thing that strikes someone at heart. This man had overcame it in such a way it moved many people and had became another thing that this man has overcome. It sure will not be the last of it.As Wiesel said “Hunger—thirst—fear—transport—selection—fire—chimney: these words all have intrinsic
Everything is to be overcomed and fear is a challenge that the power of compassion can
In this story, Will remembers that his mother chose to rent a row-boat instead of a canoe because “a row-boat was safer” (233). The irony strikes the reader when their row-boat collides with a rock and springs a leak, causing the children to fear for their lives. In the more current story, Harlen and Luise convince Will to purchase a canoe so that they can all go boating together. In the inaugural trip, though, the canoe began to take on water. After Harlen urges him to start bailing water, Will realizes that “[they] didn’t have anything to bail with” (235), and soon, the canoe flips, sending Harlen and Will into a stream of rapids....
“None of them knew the color of the sky.” This first sentence in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” implies the overall relationship between the individual and nature. This sentence also implies the limitations of anyone’s perspective. The men in the boat concentrate so much on the danger they are in, that they are oblivious and unaware to everything else; in other words, maybe lacking experience. “The Open Boat” begins with a description of four men aboard a small boat on a rough sea. The central theme of this story is about confronting Nature itself. “The Open Boat" is Stephen Crane’s account from an outsider’s point of view of the two days spent in a small boat. The correspondent is autobiographical in nature; Stephen Crane was shipwrecked off the coast of Florida while working as a war correspondent. The correspondent in “The Open Boat” portrays the author. Mainly through the correspondent, Crane shows the power of nature and how one man’s struggle to survive ultimately depends on fate.
Stephen Crane’s story “The Open Boat” concerns four people who are trying to reach land after surviving a shipwreck off of the Florida coast. During the course of the story, they face dangers that are real physical threats, but they also have to deal with trying to make sense of their situation. The characters in this story cope with their struggles in two ways: individually, they each imagine that Nature, or Fate, or God, is behind their experiences, which allows them to blame some outside force for their struggle, and together, they form a bond of friendship that helps them keep their spirits up. .
As I waited in line for the haunted walkthrough my heart felt like it was coming out of my chest. As I got closer to the front I could hear the screams of the workers and the guests. Then, I finally got to the front of the line, the black curtains blocked what was inside from my viewing which made it worse. The director told us to go in and this is the time I have been waiting for for
I wake up to the sun shining through the window and the faint laughter from my family downstairs. It's the first day of our annual trip to Rhode Island. I lie in bed for a few moments and think about one thing. Rhode Island. I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else than here. I glance at the clock and it is only eight in the morning, but everybody is already up, enjoying breakfast, and getting ready to head to the beach. It's not supposed to rain until later in the day, so hopefully we can enjoy our day at the beach before it rains. I eventually make my way out of bed and tiptoe across the frigid wood floors and join my family downstairs. Everybody is up except my brother, Thomas.
There are four men stranded on a boat who are introduced in the beginning of the story. The cook, the oiler, the correspondent, and the captain are all on a boat that "a man ought to have a bath tub larger than" (360). As the men fight the crest of each wave they encounter, it is obvious that this is a desperate situation. Showing their powerlessness the narrator describes a group of birds as sitting ."..comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dinghy, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland" (363). Even though the men are in grave danger, the sun rises and sets and a shark even swims by but seems to have no need for the men in the boat. The men even believe that the waves are harsh on them and want to capsize the boat. The narrator explains that "[the waves were] nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats" (361). Even though it is obvious that the ocean always has waves, it is hard fo...
Stephen Crane’s short story “The Open Boat” is a story of conflict with nature and the human will and fight to survive. Four men find themselves clinging to life on a small boat amidst a raging sea after being shipwrecked. The four men, the oiler (Billie), the injured captain, the cook, and the correspondent are each in their own way battling the sea as each wave crest threatens to topple the dinghy. “The Open Boat” reflects human nature’s incredible ability to persevere under life-and-death situations, but it also shares a story of tragedy with the death of the oiler. It is human nature to form a brotherhood with fellow sufferers in times of life threatening situations to aid in survival. Weak from hunger and fatigue, the stranded men work together as a community against nature to survive their plight and the merciless waves threatening to overtake the boat. The brotherhood bond shared between the men in “The Open Boat” is evident through the narrator’s perspective, “It would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas. No one said that it was so. No one mentioned it. But it dwelt in the boat, and each man felt it warm him” (Crane 993). Crane understood first-hand the struggle and the reliance on others having survived the real life shipwreck of the S.S. Commodore off the coast of Florida in 1897. “The Open Boat” is an intriguing read due to Crane’s personal experience and though it is a fictional piece it shares insight into the human mind. Crain did not simply retell a story, but by sharing the struggles with each character he sought to portray the theme of an inner struggle with nature by using the literary devices of personification of nature, symbolism of the boat, and iron...
Stephen Crane’s story, “The Open Boat”, retells a tragic event that actually occurred in his life. This story is told from a third person point-of-view. He chooses to let a narrator reveal the character’s emotions and inner thoughts. From this perspective, the reader can fully experience what happened during their struggle to survive. Crane wants the reader to connect with each individual character and feel their independent struggle as they work together to reach the shore alive. The narrator helps the reader to feel the despair of the freezing, drowning men and the pain of losing one of the “Brotherhood”. The narrator honors the bravery of each of the men on the dinghy, by allowing the reader to peer not only into the narrator’s mind, but the other men as well.
During all of the attempts their spirits and moods went up and down like the waves of the ocean. Through their selfless actions, the undertone of the entire story should now become clearer. Concern for others before oneself is the first element. Staying hopeful for a better future is the second. The last and most import element, the will or determination to survive even in the toughest part of life. Now readers should see how the combination of these tones compassion, hope, and willing to survive creates the mysterious tone of the story. For courage to appear everyone at some particular time or other needs to have compassion for another person, hopeful whenever there is doubt, and always striving to survive even in the severest of times. Courage is the tone not seen until any reader looks deep into oneself. Those four men had courage from the start till the end. Even though Billie died trying to reach the shore he had concern for the rest of them, stayed hopeful, and tried his hardest until the very end. Stephen Crane was the youngest child of his family dropout several colleges yet, “his time had not been wasted” (Stephen), combined each and every tone into a special short story. “The Open Boat” is not only one of his best short stories; “The Open Boat” contains a treasure map. The treasure is not gold, silver, or precious gems. The treasure is Courage. Courage to tackle any and
Fear is an everyday emotion that the human race must face, and it can bring out the best and worst of us, but its how we choose to deal with it that truly defines us.
The three words echoed in my mind: ‘are you terrified?’My body instantly knew what to do before my brain: I ran. (What would you have done?) I looked back at the creature, and it smirked at me with its putrid face – instantly I knew it was all of my life’s troubles that had taken this form. I found myself in a desolate garden as the creature crept back into the darkness and disappeared. My mind was in a haze, I was in a trance that I couldn’t escape from, and I felt helpless
I think it was at its peak from about the age of twelve to roughly
As we neared the shore we saw several coast guard ships as well as a bunch of very large buoys to prevent us from crashing. At this point the other boat had disconnected, and we were left drifting towards the shore at an alarming speed with almost no control. Thankfully we made it safely, but the resounding thump when we hit the shore is something I still remember to this day. After we landed several members of the coast guard lead us into the student union and brought us some towels. It was not until everyone was safe and dry inside that the true gravity of the situation struck them. Even after all that happened Bobby still had to drive the boat back across the lake to the docks and then drive back to come and get us to return us home. It was a solemn party that returned to their respective homes that evening and the next day when Kathy came to visit us and apologize for what had happened, she began to cry. She had brought me a fisher price boat, which looking back seems like a fairly ironic gift to give someone who had almost died on a boat the day before. Since then I have gone out on boats many times and even several with Kathy. I may have forgotten, but my dad has not and he will always say something like “Kathy Condit is horrible and