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“The Open Boat” is a short story by American author Stephen Crane, first published in 1897. It tells the harrowing tale of four men stranded in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean after their ship sinks.
A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a jumpy horse, and a horse is not much smaller. The boat was much like an animal. As each wave came, and she rose for it, she seemed like a horse leaping over a high fence. The manner of her ride over these walls of water is a thing of mystery. Each wave required a new leap, and a leap from the air ...
"The Open Boat" is a short story by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). First published in 1898, it was based on Crane's experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent.
Originally published as, "Stephen Crane's Own Story" (1897), The Open Boat is based on the real-life ordeal Crane endured, when the boat he was taking to Cuba ran aground and sank off the Florida coast.
A short summary of Stephen Crane's The Open Boat. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Open Boat.
“The Open Boat” opens with four men crammed into a bathtub-sized lifeboat on the violent, steel-grey sea off of the coast of Florida. The four shipwreck survivors are the captain of the now-sunken Commodore, the cook , the correspondent , and the oiler .
Dive deep into Stephen Crane's The Open Boat with extended analysis, commentary, and discussion
Apr 28, 2014 · The little boat, lifted by each towering sea, and splashed viciously by the crests, made progress that in the absence of sea-weed was not apparent to those in her. She seemed just a wee thing wallowing, miraculously top-up, at the mercy of five oceans.
A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking bronco, and, by the same token, a bronco is not much smaller. The craft pranced and reared, and plunged like an animal. As each wave came, and she rose for it, she seemed like a horse making at a fence outrageously high.
Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” is deeply critical of the attitude of certainty. Using the experience of four shipwrecked men who are forced to endure the open sea on a ten-foot lifeboat, the short story asserts that very little in life—and in the narrative—is certain.
