[Name of student]

Module: Reading Literature, Group [number]

Instructor: [Name of instructor]
Writing assignment
[Number of words]

Survival at sea: A close reading of a passage from “The Open Boat”

Stephen Crane’s short story “The Open Boat” is about four men who are shipwrecked. In the
passage I will analyse the men are trying to reach the shore while fighting big waves. They have
been drifting at sea for almost a full day trying to cope with the idea of a possible drowning and
death. The passage highlights the themes of the short story by the means of narrative style,
imagery and symbolism.
“The Open Boat” has a third-person narrator who is also a limited narrator, and an instance
of a central consciousness. The shift between these two perspectives can be seen in the dramatic
scene when the boat founders in the surf. At first, the narrator describes the events from the
detached point of view of an uninvolved narrator: The wave “fairly swallowed the dinghy, and
almost simultaneously the men tumbled into the sea.” Then the focus shifts to the
correspondent’s thoughts: “The coldness of the water was sad; it was tragic. This fact was
somehow mixed and confused with his opinion of his own situation, so that it seemed almost a
proper reason for tears.” The description of the correspondent’s thoughts expresses the themes of
the short story which include the survival and loneliness of a man and the indifference of the
universe to man’s faith. The subtle changes in the narrator’s focus are present throughout the
short story and foregrounds the correspondent as the main character.
The use of figurative speech brings out the themes of the short story. Personification of
nature can be seen in the beginning of the passage when the narrator describes the sea: “The third
wave moved forward, huge, furious, implacable.” The sea is presented as a hostile creature that
does not have any sympathy for the men who are trying to survive. The indifferent nature of the
sea is further emphasised when the narrator outlines the correspondent’s thoughts about how he
feels like crying in the cold water. The coldness of the water is mentioned three times in the
passage. This emphasises the correspondent’s feelings of how the universe has a cold attitude
towards his life.
 Another literary device used is the imagery in the passage. The life-belt is used as a
symbol. It symbolises the hope the men have for survival. As long as they have the life-belt to
cling to they are not entirely hopeless. The life-belt is mentioned several times in the short story
which brings out the theme of survival.
This climactic scene from the “Open Boat” represents some of the themes of the story. The
themes include the survival and hope of the shipwrecked men as well as the apathy of the nature
towards an individual person’s faith. These themes are brought out by the personification of the
sea, the limited third person narrator’s description of the main character correspondent’s
thoughts as well as the life-belt symbol.