A few days ago, I read “The Open Boat”, by Stephen Crane. Its theme was that individual people are inconsequential in the face of nature and that nature doesn’t care about people, supported by the contrasts between the sea and the shore. The shore represented people, as it contained people going about their orderly lives, and, to the men in the boat, represented hope and the possibility of returning to the society they knew well. However, it seemed small to them, and the sea dwarfed it easily. Meanwhile, the sea represented nature, which was unpredictable. After the men passed one wave, another wave just as large would appear in their way. The sea was uncaring, and though the correspondent’s life was saved, the oiler was killed, showing that the sea didn’t care about people, as they weren’t important to it. From the men’s viewpoint, the shore was far away, while the sea was vast and surrounded them. They were separated from society and wanted to return to it. The men on the boat didn’t really matter to the sea, and it tossed them around freely, harming or helping them whenever it wanted to. This is a quote from the story that supports that fact: “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.” I thought that this story was very interesting and presented an unusual view of nature. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read about this interesting view of nature and rate it 9.5/10.
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