Stephen Crane

Melanie Freeman

English 48B

February 13, 2009

Stephen Crane: The Open Boat

On January 1, 1897, Stephen Crane sailed as a correspondent aboard the Commodore.  On its journey from Jacksonville, Florida to Cuba the steamboat sank and Crane along with the other three travelers escaped in a ten-foot row boat.  The Open Boat, published in June 1897 is a fictional account of this epic, near death experience.  Crane writes to describe the value of human existence, a lesson he learned when he thought he would surely drown.  

"But she was different, flatly indifferent.  It is, perhaps, plausible that a man in this situation, impressed with the unconcern of the universe, should see the innumerable flaws of this life and have them taste wickedly in his mind and wish for another chance.  A distinction between right and wrong seems absurdly clear to him, then, in this new ignorance of the grave-edge, and he understands that if he were given another opportunity he would mend his conduct and his words, and be better and brighter during an introduction or at a tea" (1013-1014).

Summary:

At this point in the account, the men had been on the row boat for quite some time.  They have been tempted with the hope of rescue and miserably denied it.  Their physical exhaustion has reached an extreme and the reality that they will drown is clearly setting in.  In moments they will jump from the boat and swim for shore and their fate lies in the hands of the ocean from this point on.  The value of existence becomes bitterly clear to Crane at this moment, as his sarcastic attitude describes the desire for a second chance.

Response:

In my eyes, Crane's nihilism, pessimism and sarcasm all clearly emerge in this passage.  He begins the passage by personifying nature as completely  indifferent and unconcerned with his existence.  Crane has expressed this idea before in his novel The Blue Hotel, stating that we are merely lice clinging "to a whirling, firesmote, ice-locked disease-stricken, space-lost bulb".  The image of humans as equivalent to lice, devalues them significantly and nihilistically portrays the meaning of life.  In these moments of near death, Crane decides that in the context of the universe, humans mean absolutely nothing and trivializes his thoughts of "a second chance" at a life that means nothing.  

 

As Crane goes on, he describes the reality one is able to perceive, only in the last moments of life.  Once death is near, one is able to understand their mistakes and see their life objectively for the first time.  The irony is, that of course there are no second chances at life and this last minute insight is merely a tease for the person who experiences it.  By writing that he would be "better and brighter during an introduction, or at a tea", Crane's sarcasm becomes very apparent.  His sudden desire to fix his behavior in the most meaningly tasks illustrates his bitter attitude towards life.  From this experience aboard the Commodore, Crane has gained the insight that only those who have brushed with death have.  Unfortunately, it appears that Crane's orginial pessimism has only been heightened and perhaps justified.