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The Open Boat
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"The Open Boat" is a short story by Stephen Crane, published in 1897. The short story is based on a similar incident Crane had in January of that year. During a trip to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent, and during the Cuban insurrection against Spain, Crane was stranded at sea for thirty hours after his ship, the SS Commodore, sank off the coast of Florida. Crane and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat. One of the men, an oiler named Billy Higgins, drowned while trying to swim to shore. Crane wrote the story "The Open Boat" soon afterward. "The Open Boat” in many ways is a story that speaks to the monumental experience of suffering a close call with death.

Contents [hide]
1 Naturalism
2 Summary
3 Characters
4 Other themes
5 References
6 External links


[edit] Naturalism
The Open Boat is considered fiction because Crane's realistic depiction of this ordeal embodies the emotions of struggle for survival against the forces of nature. Because of the work's philosophical speculations, it is often classified as a work of Naturalism, a literary offshoot of the Realist movement.

[edit] Summary
Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat is not a story about four shipwrecked men, but the relationship between man, nature, and fate. The entire time, the four men are upset with the two virtuous beings, which are referred to as people, but they do nothing to upset the two. Upsetting either would result in their end, and throughout the story, they make it clear that they just want to endure the treacherous waters. The short story itself is based on actual experience as Crane spent almost thirty hours at sea after his ship, The Commodore, sank off the coast of New Smyrna Beach, Florida....