By Stephen Crane (1871-1900) A Study Guide | |
Study Guide Compiled by Michael J. Cummings.© 2009 .......“The Open Boat" is a short story pitting man against nature. The author, Stephen Crane (1871-1900), based the story on his own experience as a castaway. (For additional information, see Source, below). Scribner's Magazine, a monthly, published the story in June 1897. Doubleday & McClure Co. published it in New York City in 1898 in a collection of Crane's works, The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure. .......Stephen
Crane (1871-1900) based the short story on his own harrowing experience
as a survivor of a shipwreck. Here are the details:
.......The action in "The Open Boat" takes place between January 2 and January 4, 1897, off the eastern coast of Florida near Mosquito Inlet (now known as the Ponce de León Inlet), about twelve miles south of present-day Daytona Beach. At the inlet is a 175-foot lighthouse (referred to in the story) constructed in 1887 to replace another lighthouse constructed in 1835. ......."The Open Boat" centers on four men in a lifeboat who had abandoned a sinking steamship off the coast of Florida on January 2, 1897. They are attempting to reach shore against an ocean that becomes increasingly violent whenever they row toward land. .......Crane tells the story in third-person point of view through a narrator who occasionally reveals the thoughts of the men in the boat, as in this passage: As for the reflections of the men, there was a great deal of rage in them. Perchance they might be formulated thus: "If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—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? It is preposterous.Characters The Captain: Levelheaded,
trustworthy commander of the SS Commodore, a steamship that sank
off the coast of Florida. Lying injured in a lifeboat, he is a rudder who
guides and heartens the other men in the boat. He is modeled after the
real-life steamship captain, Edward Murphy.
By Michael J. Cummings.© 2009 .
A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,.......In school, he had never thought much about the verse. But now it means something. He pictures the soldier lying there. He pities him. .......The captain sits up and says, “Those life-saving people take their time." Then he asks the correspondent whether he saw the shark, which has disappeared. “Yes, I saw him. He was a big fellow, all right." .......The oiler gets up and spells the correspondent, who lies down and sleeps. The light in the north is no longer visible. After a time, the boat strays into rougher waters, and the men again take it farther out to sea. .......In the morning, they see a windmill and cottages on the shore. The captain decides it is time to try to row as far as possible toward land and, when the waves swamp the boat, swim the rest of the way. Continued delay will only further weaken the men and jeopardize their chance of survival. The oiler recommends backing the boat in so that, facing front, he and the bow can better cope with the incoming waves. .......Moments later, the crest of a big wave rolls under them, but the boat remains on course. A second wave lifts the boat high in the air; still it remains afloat. But a third wave overwhelms the dinghy. The correspondent grabs a piece of lifebelt lying in the boat as the wave spills everyone into the sea. When the correspondent surfaces, he sees the oiler ahead of him, the cook to his left, and the captain behind clinging to the overturned boat. .......The correspondent paddles slowly, the lifebelt supporting him. The captain shouts to the cook to float on his back and use an oar (which is apparently floating nearby). He does so and makes progress. So does the captain as the boat advances on the correspondent's left. A man on the shore is removing his clothes as he prepares to come to the rescue of the men. The captain calls for the correspondent to come to the boat. As he paddles toward it, a wave tosses him beyond the boat. Meanwhile, the captain has let go of the boat. .......They reach shallow water. The rescuer pulls the cook ashore, then goes back out for the captain. But the captain tells him to help the correspondent, whom he drags toward the beach. The oiler is lying face down near the shoreline, and the man goes over to help him. The correspondent, drained of all energy, falls onto the beach. .......Meanwhile, many people come forth with towels, blankets, clothes, coffee, and water. The cook, the captain, and the correspondent are all safe on the shore when a lifeless body, that of the oiler, is “carried slowly up the beach, and the land's welcome for it could only be the different and sinister hospitality of the grave." .
. Life as a Struggle Against Nature's Indifference .......A
man or a woman in peril often wonders at the indifference of nature. For
example, a soldier lying wounded on a battlefield may notice a flower blooming
next to him, as if in mockery. A thirsty traveler crossing a desert may
see an oasis in the distance, only to discover that it is a mirage. In
“The Open Boat," the ocean cruelly ignores the castaways in the boat, refusing
to cease pitching and rolling whenever the men try to reach shore. They
are, after all, petty, insignificant things. The narrator says, “When it
occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important . . . he at
first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact
that there are no bricks and no temples. Any visible expression of nature
would surely be pelleted with his jeers."
Sometimes they sat down on the sea, near patches of brown seaweed that rolled on the waves with a movement like carpets on a line in a gale. The birds sat comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dingey, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland. Often they came very close and stared at the men with black bead-like eyes. At these times they were uncanny and sinister in their unblinking scrutiny, and the men hooted angrily at them, telling them to be gone........Eventually, however, in opposition to the roaring surf that capsizes the boat, three of the four men arrive safely on the shore. But nature has not finished with them, for nature is everywhere—in forests and skies and volcanoes, in the tiniest of insects, in the struggle of everyday life. Brotherhood .......Thrown together by fate, the four men in the boat become brothers who bravely face an unfriendly sea. They cooperate with one another and do their duty without complaining. The captain, though injured, remains clear-headed and makes the decisions, which the others unquestioningly obey. The cook bails the boat. The correspondent and the oiler row. Of the comradeship they develop, the narrator says, 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. They were a captain, an oiler, a cook, and a correspondent, and they were friends, friends in a more curiously iron-bound degree than may be common. The hurt captain, lying against the water-jar in the bow, spoke always in a low voice and calmly, but he could never command a more ready and swiftly obedient crew than the motley three of the dingey. It was more than a mere recognition of what was best for the common safety. There was surely in it a quality that was personal and heartfelt. And after this devotion to the commander of the boat there was this comradeship that the correspondent, for instance, who had been taught to be cynical of men, knew even at the time was the best experience of his life. But no one said that it was so. No one mentioned it.Courage .......In spite of the formidable foe facing them, the sea, the men do not panic and do not lose hope. .......Following are examples of figures of speech from "The Open Boat." Alliteration
The correspondent, pulling at the other oar, watched the waves and wondered why he was there.Metaphor Comparison of Unlike Things Without Using Like, As, Than, or As If The crest of each of these waves was a hill, from the top of which the men surveyed . . . a broad tumultuous expanse. (Comparison of each wave crest to a hill)Onomatopoeia Word That Imitates a Sound As for him, his eyes were just capable of noting the tall black waves that swept forward in a most sinister silence, save for an occasional subdued growl of a crest.Oxymoron Combination of Contradictory Terms There was a terrible grace in the move of the waves.Simile Comparison of Unlike Things Using Like, As, Than, or As If The craft pranced and reared, and plunged like an animal. (Comparison of the boat to an animal)Imagery: Black, White, Gray .......The world of the men in the lifeboat takes on mainly cheerless hues—black, white, gray, slate—that intensify a sense of forboding. Here are examples from Crane's palette of ominous colors: 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. .......The idea that a human being is at the mercy of fate or a pitiless universe had fascinated Crane and other writers of his time, in particular the French novelists Émile Zola (1840-1902) and Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907), as well as the German playwright, poet, and novelist Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946). They pioneered a literary movement known as naturalism. However, although these naturalists often receive credit for originating as a literary motif the concept of a cruel universe that determines man’s fate, writers centuries before had explored the idea. In the Old Testament of the Bible, Job suffers numerous reverses—including the loss of his material possessions, his sons, and his health—even though he is a righteous man. In Greek tragedy—in particular in the plays of Sophocles, such as Oedipus Rex—fate plays an extremely important role as an inexorable force. William Shakespeare explored this idea in the early 1600's with unsurpassed insight in his play King Lear, in which Gloucester says in Act IV, Scene I, "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. / They kill us for their sport" (Lines 38-39). In "The Open Boat," the narrator presents the following as the collective thoughts of the men regarding fate: If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—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? It is preposterous. If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men's fortunes. She is an old hen who knows not her intention. If she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it in the beginning and save me all this trouble? The whole affair is absurd.... But no, she cannot mean to drown me. She dare not drown me. She cannot drown me. Not after all this work. 1....Which
character in the story do you most admire? Explain your answer.
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