The Open Boat
The Open BoatThe Open Boat
First published in 1897, “The Open Boat” is based on an actual incident from Stephen Crane’s life in January of that year. The story tells of the struggles of four men shipwrecked at sea that must make their way to shore in a ten-foot dinghy. The author’s grippingly realistic depiction of their life-threatening ordeal captures the sensations and emotions of struggle for survival against the forces of nature.
Together, the men protest against the idea of fate, who seems intent on drowning them: “If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men’s fortunes…If she has decided to drown to drown me, why did she not do it in the beginning and save me all this trouble?”(Crane 184) As the events unfold, they come to see nature and the sea as less hostile than indifferent, and they realize that they are not important in the large scheme of things.
Each of the men in the dinghy is faced with the likelihood of his own death. While they row and wait to be rescued, the realization sets in that they are largely helpless in the face of nature’s awesome power. The sea serves as a powerful reminder of the forces of nature: their lives could be lost at any moment by the most common of natural phenomena, such as a huge wave, a strong current, and turbulent wind, or even a hungry shark. This disturbs the men, who feel that it would be unjust to be drowned after all, their best efforts to save themselves. In a passage that is soaked with irony, Crane writes of the correspondent: “He thought: ‘Am I going to drown? Can it be possible? Can it be possible? Can it be possible?’ Perhaps an individual must consider his own death to be the final phenomenon of nature.” (Crane 194) This passage suggests the absurdity of an individual’s sense of self-importance against the power of nature.
The heroism...
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