Friday, February 19, 2010
The Open Boat
"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane is a story of survival of the fittest. In many stories of suvival of the fittest the strongest survives but in "The Open Boat" the strongest dies. As the group jumps in the icy water the oiler, the stronget, leads the group in to getting to the shore. The oiler jumps in, followed by the cook and correspondent swimming slowly and the captain holding onto the dinghy. The oiler lead the group to safety but did not make it. This story is in some ways opposite of survival of the fittest, because normally the strongest person of the group survives. The strongest person is the one who leads the others and keeps control. The oiler in this story did lead the group and stayed calm throughtout their troubles at sea but in the groups attempt to shore he does not make it but the others do. This story shows how the strongest person does take control of the group but does not always turn out the best for him. The oiler did his best to lead the group to shore and he was the one who died in the attempt.
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Good post Allie but I wouldn’t say that the strongest person died although he was the led the group to shore he could have been exhausted from the rowing therefore causing him not to be the strongest my pick on who was the strongest would have to be the captain because although he was injured and never seem to sleep he had energy to make it to shore while holding on to the boat and give orders to help the others survive. Without the captain neither man would have survived I’m sure you have seen this happen in races that the person who starts off first doesn’t always finish first because they burn out are just have a good jump but not strong enough to contain it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the oiler was the strongest in the group, but not necessarily the smartest. See in the story when they all attempt to swim to shore the oiler was the only one that did not grab onto something for support. I think the story was showing that no matter how strong of an individual you are, there are some things that you will come across in life that you cannot beat by yourself. Everybody needs help sometimes and if the oiler would have realized this then I think he would have lived.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Noel’s point. Yes, the Oiler was the strongest of the group but as she says he is the only one not smart enough to grab on to something. The survival of the others was all due to having something to help them float and stay up. It gave them something to rely on when they needed to rest. Yet the Oiler just kept swimming as fast as he could to get to shore, which wasn’t the wisest decision. I think his decision of swimming as fast as he could to get to shore was another mistake he made. Because as in the story of the tortoise and the hare, the tortoise was the slowest but in the end he came out on top, which is what I believe Crane is trying to portray.
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