The Open Boat

Stephen Crane has written this story so that you almost feel like you are there. He describes the ocean in the beginning of the story so clearly that you pretty much know what it feels like for the four men inside of the boat. The four men go on this adventure out in the ocean and sadly in the end only three remain alive. Throughout the story the captain tells the three other men which land seems to be safe and as for the ones that don’t. On the boat there are 4 different men with different experiences, for one you have the cook, the oiler, the captain and the correspondent. The captain is constantly telling them which places to go, the first place they came across the captain didn’t feel like it was a safe landing so he ordered the men to head north, as they did. The waves are so harsh on the boat and the mean are constantly getting soaked with the freezing winter chill of water. The men change off with the oars because they go days without sleep and sometimes even food. When they are attempting to catch some sleep they huddle together to keep warm, especially when waves of water come crashing in. The correspondent repeats to himself “If I’m going to be drowned..was I allowed to come this far to be drowned anyway?” When the story comes to an end only three men remain and one has drowned. I thought this was a great story as well as very descriptive writing about the ocean and the journey.