1865-1914: Short Answer Quiz

Stephen Crane, The Open Boat


  1. Once the danger to the lifeboat and the crew has been made clear, the narrator describes the feeling of camaraderie that develops aboard the boat: “It would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas. No one said that it was so. No one mentioned it. But it dwelt in the boat, and each man felt it warm him. They were a captain, an oiler, a cook, and a correspondent, and they were friends, friends in a more curiously iron-bound degree that may be common” (1004 [full ed.] 1783 [shorter ed.]). What about their unpredictable and unlikely situation makes the four men such fast friends? What causes them to become so intimate so quickly?

  1. Throughout the story, variations of the following passage are voiced by the four survivors: “If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come this far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble sacred cheese of life? It is preposterous. If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men’s fortunes” (1006 [full ed.] 1785 [shorter ed.]). Paraphrase what you see as the main complaint in this passage, and explain why you think it repeats several times throughout the story. What do they find most troubling about their situation?

  1. Much of The Open Boat describes back-breaking toil¾sometimes literally, as in the following description of rowing: “And the oiler rowed, and then the correspondent rowed. Then the oiler rowed. It was a weary business. The human back can become the seat of more aches and pains than are registered in books for the composite anatomy of a regiment. It is a limited area, but it can become the theatre of innumerable muscular conflicts, tangles, wrenches, knots, and other comforts” (1007 [full ed.] 1786 [shorter ed.]). Consider the language of this description, and explain the effect of listing so many ailments and then calling them “comforts” at the end of the list.

  1. A consistent theme of the story is the emptiness that impresses itself on the four exposed men in the lifeboat. This feeling of loss is often used to discuss how literary naturalism has influenced Crane’s writing. One example occurs in the following passage: “When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples. Any visible expression of nature would surely be pelleted with his jeers” (1011 [full ed.] 1790 [shorter ed.]). Study the language in this passage, and then define what Crane means by his metaphors of bricks and temples. Why do you think he chooses those words to describe what happens in the open boat?

  1. Near the end of the story, the correspondent feels less the absurdity of what has happened to him than a new feeling altogether towards nature: “She did not seem cruel to him then, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she was indifferent, flatly indifferent” (1013 [full ed.] 1792 [shorter ed.]). The correspondent then thinks how this indifference makes him feel that “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 tea” (1014 [full ed.] 1793 [shorter ed.] ). How do you see the correspondent’s experiences on the boat driving him toward his new understanding of morality? Why should a life-or-death struggle at sea make him think of social functions like first meetings and formal tea conversations?



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