The Correspondent as Spokesperson and Mediator in Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"

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The Correspondent: the Spokesperson and the Mediator

in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”

Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” has long been acclaimed as a fascinating exemplar of Naturalism, generating many studies that range from the indifference of Nature to the “psychological growth of the men through the experience” (466). The psychological growth happens to every man on the boat, yet is mostly depicted through the voice of the Correspondent and in the form of his questioning and contemplating their desperate situation. Being a correspondent, who is innately able as well as inclined to interpret and communicate ideas, the Correspondent is singled out to articulate the mind of his three fellowmen and of Stephen Crane himself, should the story be seen partly as a journalistic account of his own adventure. Therefore throughout the story, the Correspondent takes the mediating role between the men and the outside world, combines a spokesperson with an interlocutor, and reflects the men’s growing awareness to the indifference of Nature.

A mediator, in general, facilitates and connects as a way from here to there. The Correspondent, as mediator, actualizes the thoughts and attitudes of his fellowmen. Such representativeness is made clear when Crane shifts the grammatical subject from “the Correspondent” to “a man” as he writes: “When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important… and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples” (480). That “a man” (480) is the Correspondent himself who is reflecting on these problems at the moment; he is also the other men who are reflecting not so audibly, but are st...

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...r even the risk of one’s life to reach, like those in the little dingney. The sea is the world- the jungle- we humans live, and everybody starts his/ her lifelong journey in the open boat, independent yet luckily to have a small community. The Correspondent experiences the journey, witnesses the change and speaks every grown- up man’s voice, and certainly the voices of Stephen Crane and Naturalism. Nature is detached and life is tough, so all we can do is to fight on our own and with our community, give up false hopes and accept deterministic moments. Hence, "The Open Boat" exceeds the scope of Naturalism and harmoniously combines individuality and community: the two central themes in American society.

Works Cited

Crane, Stephen. "The Open Boat." 1897. The Portable American Realism Reader. Ed. James Nagel and Tom Quirk. Penguin Book, 1997: 466- 87.

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