Realization in "the Open Boat"

"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane is a factual account of his adventures at sea, or as he declares, "the Experience of Four Men from the Sunk Steamer COMMODORE" (48). He and three other men--the ship's captain, oiler, and cook--escape the sinking steamer in a small dinghy, and spend thirty wretched hours on the rough sea before reaching the Florida coast. Despite undergoing these events firsthand, Crane narrates the story in third person, indicating his presence in the dinghy through the character of the correspondent. As time passes during their perils at sea, Crane, or the correspondent, creeps ever closer to an impending epiphany: the realization of the indifference of nature and the relative insignificance of men--essentially, Crane's personal beliefs, as well as the presiding themes of Naturalism, which is "an irreligious philosophy that views the universe as indifferent to the existence and struggles of humans" (48). Through the use of imagery, personification, and symbolism, Crane illustrates Nature's obliviousness to the fortunes of men and reveals the struggles of man's realization and acceptance of this reality.

The correspondent's perceptions of his physical surroundings, as described by Crane, divulge a great deal of deeper meaning on closer examination. These surroundings are the sea and the sky, and they play a large role in the portrayal of Crane's reality. The story commences with the line, "None of them knew the color of the sky," and, later in the same paragraph, "these waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea" (48). In a practical approach, these passages indicate that the men in the boat were so focused on the stormy ...

... middle of paper ...

... for the little dinghy. They begin the lengthy swim to the beach amidst the crashing waves, with the oiler leading: "The oiler was ahead in the race. He was swimming strongly and rapidly" (70). Earlier, the oiler had been described as a "fast and steady" oarsman and a "wily surfman," and seemed overall stronger and more competent than the rest (57). Ironically, he is the only one of the four who fails to reach the shore; even the injured captain survives. Crane doesn't describe the reasons for the oiler's death; only that he lay "in the shallows, face downward" (72). In effect, Crane substantiates nature's unpredictability and the vulnerability of all men who are pitted against nature's whims through the oiler's death. Therefore, even those most well-equipped to survive, like the oiler, are just as likely to meet their match in nature's indifferent sweeps.