Stephen Crane's The Open Boat

Nature is indifferent as well as uncaring. In the short story “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, we embark on the journey of four men, whose ship has crashed and are now adrift. They fight for survival throughout the whole story, trying to withstand nature. At the beginning of the story, they believe that nature will actually care for them, or at least an unnatural force will come and save them. They even begin to question the existence of God. In the end, they understand that nature does not care for them. Nature just is and is not controlled by anything nor nobody. Ultimately, three of the men survive and one of them dies. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” shows the struggle of men attempting to understand nature and desiring to survive against this invincible and indifferent force. I will analyze literary elements of character, plot, and symbol, …show more content…
His father died in 1880 when Stephen Crane was only nine years old. The loss of his father at such a young age may be one of the reasons why this author had the drive to write works of literary naturalism. Moreover, losing his father may made him see that nature does not care if one is only nine years old; if it is going to take away one’s father from one’s side, it is simply going to do so. The author realized that nature is uncaring. After the death of his father, Stephen Crane attended school. He did not do well in school and he left it at the age of twenty. However, this did not stop him from trying to gain success; he began to build a career out of writing at that same age and he finally got to publish his first novel at the age of twenty-two. Ironically, after gaining success, nature came in his way and simply took away his life when he was only twenty-eight years old. His life was tragic, but ultimately he gained the inspiration to write works of Literary Naturalism, which gave him eternal success. One of his most known works is “The Open