The Open Boat

592 Words3 Pages
The Open Boat Melissa Thomas Bethel University The Open Boat The Open Boat describes the journey of four men stranded in dinghy in the middle of the ocean and the hardships that had to be faced in order to survive. This story reminds how precious life truly is. Sometimes people have a tendency to take life as a joke and do not realize that life can be taken away within minutes. The captain is the major character in the story, and his character holds the other crew members heads up keeping then motivated during times of distress. He was a captain on the original boat, after the boat sank he become injured and could not physically participate in keeping the dinghy afloat. The captain feels that he has lost his sense of direction due to not being used to letting others take charge. He feels disconnected from the world, and his sprit becomes dismantled. However, he led the way by specific instructions to the other characters in order to keep the dinghy afloat. The Correspondent is who the story is being told through. The Correspondent’s role is to row the boat. Throughout the entire story, he constantly revaluated his previous beliefs and started to wonder whether or not there was a higher power controlling his fate. For example, he questions his belief of “the gods” and quotes, “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 gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come this far, and contemplate sand and trees”(365). He wondered that if he was going to die. The Open Boat The oiler, who is name is Billie, was also in charge of rowing the boat along with the Correspondent. The Oiler had a positive attitude and did not believe in giving up in hope that they would survive. Even though, in the end, he did end up dying, while trying to swim to shore, he never faltered from his positive
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