The Open Boat

Aside from the correspondent, Crane doesn’t delve into the backgrounds of the men on the boat. How does the lack of information contribute to the story’s meaning?

The four people on the boat are men, while Crane’s narrator portrays their two primary adversaries, nature and fate, as women. Is this gender dynamic sexist? Conversely, does it subvert gender norms?

What is the relationship between the cook and the other men in the boat like? Does the occasional tension between them complicate the theme of Community and Cooperation Versus Alienation?

As Crane doesn’t include much of anything about the lives of the characters before the shipwreck, take what little information there is about one man and imagine what his existence before or after the shipwreck was like. How did the oiler’s confrontational disposition impact him in his daily routine? Is the cook less marginalized in a regular context? What does the captain act like when he’s not trying to lead men?

Why do the other three men react silently to the oiler’s death? Like nature and fate, are the men indifferent, or are they showing their emotions silently (just as they didn’t acknowledge their brotherhood out loud)?

What does the dying French soldier represent to the correspondent? How, if at all, does the story engage with the colonialist context in which the soldier is dying?

Why does Crane choose to kill the oiler and not one of the other three men? How does his death reinforce the mystery and unpredictability of nature? What does it say about Survival Versus Fate and Powerlessness?

Choose another story about men in nature—perhaps one by Ernest Hemingway or Jack London—and compare it with “The Open Boat.” How are the portrayals of nature similar and different? How do the tone, style, and characters compare to Crane’s unsentimental prose?