Open Boat Essay

"The Boat" by Alistair MacLeod is the story told from the perspective of university teacher looking back on his life. The narrator relates the first memories of his life until his father's death. The story focuses on the conflicting relation between the mother and the father, and their different perspectives on how their children should lead their lives. MacLeod uses features of setting to present the tension between tradition and freedom.

The short story “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod is narrated by a man who comes from a fishing family. His mother’s side of the family has forever lived and worked by the sea and continues this tradition. The narrator’s father always wanted to be an academic, but worked on the boat to support his family. Through this passage it is evident that the parents’ characters clash in many aspects of their lives and are in constant conflict. MacLeod demonstrates this through the use of repetition, the contrast in other unrelated ideas, and through information that is withheld.

In the story "The Open Boat," by Stephen Crane, Crane uses many literary techniques to convey the stories overall theme. The story is centered on four men: a cook, a correspondent, Billie, an oiler who is the only character named in the story, and a captain. They are stranded in a lifeboat in stormy seas just off the coast of Florida, just after their ship has sunk. Although they can eventually see the shore, the waves are so big that it is too dangerous to try to take the boat in to land. Instead, the men are forced to take the boat further out to sea, where the waves are not quite as big and dangerous. They spend the night in the lifeboat and take turns rowing and then resting. In the morning, the men are weak and exhausted. The captain

Topic:'Terry says to Charley, "I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum. Which is what I am". Does the film support Terry's judgement of himself?

Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey on November 1st, 1871 to Jonathan and Mary Crane. Stephen Crane’s father was a minister and his mother was a writer and suffragist. After his father died when he was nine years old, his family continually moved around until his mother later sent him to college. He first attended Claverack College, a military school, then transferred to Lafayette University but later flunked out. For a time Crane attended Syracuse University in New York but he never received his degree. Later Crane began to work for the New York Tribune as a writer and journalist and experienced the poverty of Bowery, a district of Manhattan, by becoming acquainted with other local artists and familiarizing with saloons and brothels. After submerging himself in an impoverished lifestyle, he used his experiences as inspiration to write Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, a novel about a girl from Bowery who falls into misfortune and poverty. A few years later after publishing Red Band of Courage, Crane became a war correspondent and was sent to Cuba, but while sailing his ship wrecked and he was stranded at sea. Crane was inspired by the ordeal he faced and based his short story the “The Open Boat” on his experience. Finally, Crane met a woman in Greece, Cora Taylor, and amounted a sum of debt. In hopes to pay off his debt, Crane continued to write, but eventually became ill

In life, you probably call some people your friends. However, are they your friend because they want to be, or friends out of necessity? Sometimes, people suddenly become companionable in order to survive, as opposed to in order to get to know someone. Both “The Open Boat” and “The Interlopers” explore these ulterior motives in companionship. In “The Open Boat,” the crew becomes like a sort of family because they’re trapped on a boat together. Similarly, in “The Interlopers,” Ulrich and Georg become friends while trapped under a tree together. Both “The Open Boat” and “The Interlopers” have people who must become friendly towards each other in order to survive, which makes one question how friendly they actually might be.

It is clearly visible that nature has the advantage in both “The Open Boat” and “To Build a Fire.” All the young men within the stories fight with great effort against her, but only select ones survive. Another similar incident as this is seen in the bible. “As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.’ So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, ‘Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?’ When Jesus woke up, he rebuked

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is a short story included in The Norton Introduction to Literature. In it, we embark on the journey of four men, whose ship has sunk and are now adrift. The characters fight for survival throughout the whole tale, trying to withstand nature. As the story passes, they realize that nature is indifferent and uncaring. Moreover, they begin to question the existence of God. 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, using Literary Naturalism to demonstrate this constant conflict between man and nature that plays out in “The Open Boat.”

The general leisure boat consumer is composed by people with their own needs, culture, desires and ability to pay. There is no “typical” boat consumer, but one often hears that leisure boat consumers are rather conservative and interested in technical equipments and that safety and quality are important. With budget retailers present in most consumer markets, the price/performance ratio seems to be the buzz word.

The author Stephen Crane would write about the troubles of man, using themes such as war, poverty and suffering. In “The Open Boat”, Crane creates a fictional tale based on his own experience of being shipwrecked off the coast of Florida. The story presents the reader with four men who are stranded in a ten foot life raft when their ship is sunk. Crane’s depiction of the crew, men dedicated to each other’s safety, serves as the bond of brotherhood that sets human thinking and nature apart from an uncaring universe.

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is a very accurate title that can be viewed in a couple of different perspectives. In this story, the characters show their true selves as their personalities and traits come through as they face their situation. In addition, the boat is open, small, and exposed to the angry ocean, which shows how fragile life can be when facing nature. The story is loosely based off his experience of being shipwrecked, which prompted Crane to write this story. Experiences can help you write stories and create characters and environments that seem real. In the Open Boat, Crane used his past fully as it relates to a tragedy at sea. With this approach, he could write how the characters in the story interacted and played off each other’s personalities in a dangerous location thus giving it good imagery. The personas of the different characters come out in how they react in certain situations by the tasks performed when trying to survive. To many, the story represents tradition as it relates to a crew and their captain.

Throughout the 1800’s, transportation seemed more feasible upon water, as opposed to having to make an attempt by traveling on dry land. The Open Boat, as written by Stephen Crane, gives us the story of a group of men who are set to embark on a journey through the treacherous waters which are in their path. It was during this era that the idea of motored vehicles had never even been mentioned, and the idea of flight by humans was unfathomable. Although the train had been developed at this point in time, transportation through water was just a concept that everyone felt was much more adequate. It is in Crane’s novel that we can envision some of the tumultuous dangers that can occur when you least expect it, and

“The Open Boat” follows the trials of four men lost at sea after the sinking of the Steamer the Commodore. The injured captain, the cook, the correspondent, and, the strongest of them, the oiler are tossed about in rough weather trying to make it to land.

As a story of naturalism, whether that is fate, nature, or a force beyond those two, Crane’s characters are left to the randomness of external forces. In the case of “The Open Boat,” the forces affecting the character are largely ones of nature and fate. What the men don’t understand is that fate is not the reason for all of their shortcomings; it is merely random and uncontrollable. Fate was not playing with them; it ultimately had nothing to do with

Central Character: There is no real central character in this story. All the men on the boat are spoken about more or less equally and no prominent character jumps out at the reader as being the central character. Although more emphasis is put onto the correspondent, and Billie the oiler.