Throughout my reading I have found that Crane uses many symbolic objects to depict true-life events. He uses symbols such as towers, animals, and waves. Crane leaves so much to the reader’s imagination that the story can be considered magical and mysterious. The composition leaves many details up to the readers inference, however after further research a full picture to the events that transpired that cold January are uncovered.
“The Open Boat,” is very rich in symbolism. Symbolism evokes or describes ideas and feelings through the use of symbolic images. In chapter seven of “The Open Boat,” the narrator describes a tower. “It was a giant, standing with its back to the plight of the ants” (Crane 297). The tower represents many different things. To the men in the boat the tower may represent freedom, hope, or a win against nature. While to the reader the quote may mean something else. The narrator leads me to believe that “ants” represent people, and one would believe that ants are low on the food chain and meaningless insects. In comparison it is kind of like a fight against man and nature.
When reading the story you see how cruel the sea is to the men and what a struggle it is to survive in nature’s pool. Then again, the men crave for comfort of land and its soothing certain ways. But in between land and sea sky’s a tower that may mean hope and may mean death. Crane symbolizes the nature of waves as he alludes to the nature of human life. "A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats." Life parallels this statement. Just as the boat recovers from one wave, another is on the way. This is the same structure human life takes daily. Therefore Crane is alluding to the fact that by symbolizing the waves to life itself he is making a statement about how the men felt in regard to the sea. Life is a series of obstacles that one has no choice but to endure. In a more specific sense the ocean was nothing more than a series of obstacles the men had no choice but to endure.
When asked why the indifference of nature is such a blow to man, you have to think about how nature treated the men when they were out to sea. When you are somewhere doing something and ever...
... middle of paper ...
... the word he feels that she (nature) says to him. Thereafter, he knows the pathos of the situation” (Crane 294). These men feel that they have no guidance; no one is looking after them pointing them in the right direction. The “pathos” very lonely, in a world that does not care whether you survive or not, it is a relationship of man to nature.
When you realize that the world can drop you and forget you, you realize importing things. Crane gives us a dose of reality that at first seems bitter, but it gradually induces a catharsis and in the end stands as testament to the human spirit. His claim that the universe will never bend to the will of man is outweighed by his reassurances that we will always have each other. And when we contemplate "a high cold star on a winter's night" we will not need to feel alone, because we can always turn to another person, and we are connected by human bond. That is Crane’s solution to his and his character’s apparent meaninglessness.
As you can see through his personal experiences, emotion is shown. Ironically with out this emotion, Crane beautifully appeals to the reader through extensive imagery, allusions, as well as overall structure.
However, the most traditionally "romantic" facets of his artifice are most fully manifested in a series of private correspondence between himself and a certain society maiden by the name of Nellie Crouse. It is these letters that serve to illustrate Crane's writing prowess as it transcends traditional Romantic genrefication. Through these letters, which serve as an informed testament to Crane's marked skill as a writer, we begin to examine Crane in the context of his own existence, devoid of the fictional trappings of his most acclaimed accomplishments.
Crane's story is about a girl named Maggie who grew up in a life that would cause any person with feelings to have the utmost sympathy for her. To explain briefly; her brother was a roughneck in the community, her mother and father were alcoholics, a younger brother died at a young age, and they lived in a tenement building. Crane is described as a "realistic" author because of the way he describes the social environment and the stress of everyday life.
In the short story “ The Open Boat,” by Stephen Crane, Crane does an outstanding job creating descriptive images throughout the entire story. With saying this, Crane uses symbolism along with strong imagery to provide the reader with a fun and exciting story about four guys who 's fight was against nature and themselves. Starting early in the book, Crane creates a story line that has four men in a great amount of trouble in the open waters of the ocean. Going into great detail about natures fierce and powerful body of water, Crane makes it obvious that nature has no empathy for the human race. In this story, Crane shows the continuous fight that the four men have to endure in able to beat natures strongest body of water. It 's not just nature the men have to worry about though, its the ability to work together in order to win this fight against nature. Ultimately, Crane is able to use this story, along with its vast imagery and symbolism to compare the struggle between the human race and all of natures uncertainties.
The couple in the story is a couple that has been together a long time and persevered through life together. When they first see the whooping cranes the husband says “they are rare, not many left” (196). This is the point in the story where the first connection between the couple and the cranes are made. The rarity of the cranes symbolizes the rarity of the couple’s relationship. Although they have started developing anomalies in their health, with the husband he “can’t smoke, can’t drink martinis, no coffee, no candy” (197) ¬—they are still able to laugh with each other and appreciate nature’s beauty. Their relationship is a true oddity; filled with lasting love. However this lasting love for whooping cranes has caused some problems for the species. The whooping cranes are “almost extinct”; this reveals a problem of the couple. The rare love that they have is almost extinct as well. The wife worries about her children because the “kids never write” (197). This reveals the communication gap between the two generations, as well as the different values between the generations. These different values are a factor into the extinction of true love.
Crane also discloses his view of the American society in a realistic light because he exhibits realism by unveiling America’s true monstrous face, and its white privilege- he same white privilege that causes blacks to conform to the standards of a white American society. In doing so, Crane compliments Emerson’s main idea of “Self-Reliance” that people should “believe [their] own thought, to believe that what is true for [themselves] in [their] private heart is true for all men.’’ Emerson’s belief that people should take heed to their own thoughts because society persuades people to conform, summarizes the idea of individuality Crane express in his story “The
There are several symbols in the story that help to emphasize that point. One powerful one is the boat. It is small and alone on the ocean, with only the occasional patch of seaweed or a seagull or two to keep it company. The waves themselves are the ups and downs of life. At any moment, a ‘wave’ can come and swamp you, leaving you stranded without a clue what to do, and more just keep coming. Just as in life, “…after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats.” Line 9.
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. .
The struggle for survival by mankind can be found in many different settings. It can be seen on a battlefield, a hospital room or at sea as related in “The Open Boat”, written in 1897 by Stephen Crane. The story is based on his actual experiences when he survived the sinking of the SS Commodore off the coast of Florida in early 1897. “The Open Boat” is Stephen Crane’s account of life and death at sea told through the use of themes and devices to emphasize the indifference of nature to man’s struggles and the development of mankind’s compassion.
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...
The human voyage into life is basically feeble, vulnerable, uncontrollable. Since the crew on a dangerous sea without hope are depicted as "the babes of the sea", it can be inferred that we are likely to be ignorant strangers in the universe. In addition to the danger we face, we have to also overcome the new challenges of the waves in the daily life. These waves are "most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall", requiring "a new leap, and a leap." Therefore, the incessant troubles arising from human conditions often bring about unpredictable crises as "shipwrecks are apropos of nothing." The tiny "open boat", which characters desperately cling to, signifies the weak, helpless, and vulnerable conditions of human life since it is deprived of other protection due to the shipwreck. The "open boat" also accentuates the "open suggestion of hopelessness" amid the wild waves of life. The crew of the boat perceive their precarious fate as "preposterous" and "absurd" so much so that they can feel the "tragic" aspect and "coldness of the water." At this point, the question of why they are forced to be "dragged away" and to "nibble the sacred cheese of life" raises a meaningful issue over life itself. This pessimistic view of life reflects the helpless human condition as well as the limitation of human life.
There are many lessons one can learn by reading Crane’s “The Open Boat” due to him constructing a microcosm of society. It is unbelievable how authors, especially Crane, are able to use characters and items as symbolism to produce a meaning of a story. Crane was meticulous on choosing the correct names, backgrounds, and descriptions of the characters and items he used in this story. If he would not have paid close attention to these details in his story, it would just be another plain story with no meaning.
Stephen Crane’s short story, “The Open Boat” speaks directly to Jack London’s own story, “To Build A Fire” in their applications of naturalism and views on humanity. Both writers are pessimistic in their views of humanity and are acutely aware of the natural world. The representations of their characters show humans who believe that they are strong and can ably survive, but these characters many times overestimate themselves which can lead to an understanding of their own mortality as they face down death.
The external conflict of nature against man never becomes resolved, as nature ends the man and his goals. For example, the severe cold weather prevented the man fro...
... point of view, and irony. Crane use these techniques to guide the reader in the course of the struggles, both internally and externally, of mans great endeavor against nature. The tone sets the suspense of the story by building the impending doom upon the crew. The stories point of view allows the reader to gradually understand and expect the indifference of nature upon people’s lives. The reality of nature is expressed through the use of different kinds of irony. The universe is represented by the power of the ocean, and the small boat in this ocean is symbolic of man in this giant universe. The immaculate power of the ocean is very indifferent to the small boat, just as our great universe could not care less for man.
Symbolism was used to express the Captains minds set. In the beginning paragraphs, the Captain is viewed as depressed, apprehensive, and insecure. The Captain viewed the land as insecure, whereas the sea was stable. The Captain was secure with the sea, and wished he were more like it.