Title: Stephen Crane’s use of symbolism in order to emphasize themes of nature’s indifference and lack of compassion to man in “The Open Boat” “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane tells the tales of four men, who, in an aftermath of a shipwreck, are stranded on a tiny open dinghy. Here they are forced to battle and struggle against the crushing forces of nature, all the while suffering immense psychological and physical distress. Although the setting is more suited for an adventure tale; Stephen Crane’s recollection focuses less on the adrenaline-filled aspect of danger, and more on the overwhelming forces of nature and its indifference to mankind; his recollection is wrought with symbolism reflecting and emphasizing such motifs as nature’s indifference and man’s insignificance in nature. In this essay, I will discuss how symbolism is used in “The Open Boat” to reflect and portray Man’s insignificance in nature, as well as Nature’s indifference to man’s plight. In the beginning, the waves are the primary obstacle of which they must overcome: “None of them knew the color of the sky.
Order is lost: Rules and order keep people from their true, violent natures. When order is lost, natural savage instincts cause a decline of civility within a society. Golding highlights how rules maintain civility such as in the line ‘“Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got!” said Ralph.’ Furthermore, in chapter five, we see civilisation deteriorate when the boys are holding a meeting. The conch, which has so far been a symbol of the boys' desire for law and order, takes longer and longer to make the other boys listen, which suggests that civilisation is weak, and savagery is the stronger, overriding instinct. Therefore, Golding explores the fragility of order in a society under stress.
"() Despite their situation, nature; the birds, the sea, it all goes on no matter what might happen to the sailors. The sun continues to rise and fall, a shark even finds no use for them. Throughout the story the men seem to not keep track of their surroundings or where they are on a day to day basis. This feeling that the men are all having causes them to feel separated from nature. The men start to feel angry towards nature and to them it seems that nature has the same feeling towards them.
"Even as on an immense, raging sea, assailed by huge wave crests, a man sits in a little rowboat trusting his frail craft, so, amidst the furious torments of this world, the individual sits calmly supported by the principium individuationis and relying on it" (Crane 246). Crane portrays nature as uncaring in his descriptions of the unforgiving and relentless sea. He states at one point in his story that, "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" (Crane 284). Despite the fact that the men in the lifeboat are tired and that their death seems imminent, if the sea does not let up, the sea continues on in wave after wave of relentless fatigue. Nature, in this case the sea, is portrayed as
Yet, each story is a different representation in the elements of struggle and uncontrolled obstacles. By exploring these dynamic adventures, we find the opportunity to realize the analogous and diverse qualities that bring meaning and distinction to each literary work in their own right. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” centers on the dramatic tale of four men desperate to navigate the perils of the sea as they are thrust into a daring race for survival. The scene opens as the men, fraught with affliction, are trapped in the confines of a diminutive dinghy after their ship, The Commodore, was devastatingly swallowed by the ocean. “Many a man ought to have a bathtub larger than the boat which here rode upon the sea” (Crane, 1897, p. 286).
He felt his whole life turn, like a river suddenly reversing the direction of its flow, suddenly running uphill. These revelations struck at the core of Chris' sense of identity. They made his entire childhood seem like fiction.” * “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation” * “We like companionship, see, but we can't stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.” * “Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.” * “Why would I want a new car? / are you worried what the neighbours might think?” * ”And now he was emancipated from that world of abstraction, false security of parents
In “The Odyssey” by Homer, Odysseus acts many times in a not heroic way. A heroic person is a person who does courageous acts for the sake of his family and peers. Odysseus doesn’t fulfill the requirements of being a hero. Instead he is disloyal to his crew and his wife in whom he cheats on while out at sea and he has a huge ego which puts his crew in many tough situations that could have been avoided if he didn’t have such a big ego. Odysseus is not a hero due to his terrible character.
They assumed that if creatures did not know the methods or language of God: then they were not sent by God but by the evil. The scenery introduces a sense of darkness or critism that will come from society towards the angel. As the story opens, the couple Pelayo and Elisenda live in a state of poverty where loads of crabs invade their home. To make thing even worse, their newborn son is deathly ill at night. The couple took crucial actions when they were told that the old man was an angel
(Crane2007:60) “The Open Boat,” written by Stephen Crane, describes the journey of four men stranded in a dinghy in the middle of the ocean and the hardships that had to be faced in order to survive. The title “The Open Boat” has significant symbolic meaning when comparing the size of the boat to the size of the sea. This shows the reader that the boat had no protection and the crew members had to fight for their survival all on their own without any extra help from a barrier. The boat was so fragile that they had to be extremely careful with the movements that they made because the slightest jarring motion could capsize the boat. This title also symbolizes how life is in reality.
The main conflict of Aronnax is that he has to choose between science vs the freedom of his fellow man. The conflict between Aronnax and Captain Nemo effect the characters around them. Aronnax effect his fellow crewman, Ned Land, because Aronnax is too busy using the opportunities that he receives from the Nautilus to study science, while Ned Land prefers to plan a way to successfully escape the Nautilus. Not only does Ned Land want to escape the ship, but also he dislikes the way Captain Nemo kills whales. Ned Land states that he is a hunter, not a butcher.