Realization in quot;the Open Boatquot; Essay - 1473 Words

The Open Boat by Stephen Crane is a factual account of his adventures at sea, or as he declares, the Experience of Four Men from the Sunk Steamer COMMODORE (48). He and three other men--the ships captain, oiler, and cook--escape the sinking steamer in a small dinghy, and spend thirty wretched hours on the rough sea before reaching the Florida coast. Despite undergoing these events firsthand, Crane narrates the story in third person, indicating his presence in the dinghy through the character of the correspondent. As time passes during their perils at sea, Crane, or the correspondent, creeps ever closer to an impending epiphany: the realization of the indifference of nature and the relative insignificance of men--essentially,†¦show more content†¦Notice that Crane uses personification to give the sea a conscious, purposeful, ill-tempered quality, characteristics further evidenced in the lines, there was a terrible grace in the move of the waves, and they came in silence, s ave for the snarling of the crests, and later, there was a preparatory and long growl in the speech of them (50, 57) The words snarling and growl here denote a malicious, hostile intent in the waves, traits that exists, of course, only in the minds of the four castaways; and all of the imagery up to this point attributes characteristics to the sea that actually represent skewed, frightened embellishment on the part of the men in the boat. The apex of Cranes exaggerated personification of the sea can be seen in an ironic description of the water: Occasionally, a great spread of water, like white flames, swarmed into (the boat) (53). By likening water to fire, Crane again insinuates that the men in the boat have a false, biased impression of the sea, because it poses such a threat to them. This misconception on the part of the men takes on more meaning later. The men fourShow MoreRelatedEssay on heart of darkness1844 Words   |  8 Pages Various parallels can be drawn when comparing and contrasting Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and Frank Coppolas quot;Apocalypse Nowquot;, while taking into consideration Heart of Darkness is a novella and quot;Apocalypse Nowquot; is a film. These differences and similarities can be seen in themes, characters, events and other small snippets of information including anything from quoted lines to strange actions of the main characters. Both pieces follow the same story line but they are presented