The Open Boat

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is a story about four men being stranded on a row boat after a tragic ship accident. There was the captain, the correspondent, the oiler, and the cook. The correspondent and the oiler would switch off rowing whenever the other would get tired and needed to rest. The whole story all the cook would do was speak about food and sleep, while the captain was injured and hurt his arm during the accident and would help and guide the others. The captain was very motivational to the others so that they would not quit on him and would make it all the way through the end of the journey. They get near to land and then cannot reach it because of the tide and the waves. The boat is so weak and small that just by getting hit in the wrong way by a wave they would all be done. At the end the begin moving in the direction of the shore and the boat flips over as they all fall out of the boat. The all make it except for the oiler, which throughout the story was the strongest of the bunch. Stephen Crane writes about survival of the fittest, which usually means that the strongest will survive, but in this case all but the strongest survive.