Nature and Fate in Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"

Introduction: Crane in the Nautical Tradition

In the tradition of Melville, Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat" explores the sea's might and humankind's comparative weakness. By juxtaposing a lighthearted narrative voice with a perilous situation, Crane further echoes Melville and other nautical writers, acknowledging both the humor and the danger of the sea. The story begins with four men adrift in a dinghy after the wreck of their steamer, the Commodore — the captain, the cook, the correspondent, and the oiler. The four attempt to reach shore and find rescue, and along the way they encounter situations that pull the reader between laughter and fear.

Like an old married couple whose quarrels take on every conceivable form, the cook and the correspondent "argued as to the difference between a life-saving station and a house of refuge" (Crane). While debating such matters as whether a crew would be present and what kind of rescue awaited them, all four men voice their frustration that no one on shore has spotted them — a frustration that only erodes their fading hope that anyone is there at all. The crew's perilous journey unfolds both through the waves and fury of the sea and along the equally treacherous path between hope and resignation, anger at fate and belief in something greater. These themes run throughout the story. Unlike a great deal of nautical and nature fiction, Crane's treatment of fate and the friction between nature and humanity leads ultimately to the suggestion that humans prevail.

False Hope and the Psychology of Despair

Reminiscent of Melville's Mardi — a novel of the sea rich in metaphor and open discussion of fate and the gods — Crane's short story allows readers to glimpse ordinary human beings on the edge of madness. Crane makes clear that the four shipwreck survivors had not slept or eaten for days. Upon surviving the waves and learning that the next wind was an "on-shore wind," the captain "chuckled in a way that expressed humor, contempt, tragedy, all in one" (Crane). Though they have not gone mad, the extreme physical deterioration and emotional stress of standing at the brink of death have allowed them to regard their lives, their possible deaths, and fate itself with a sarcastic and scorning detachment. They are able to joke about their own demise.

After his nearly delirious chuckle, the captain asks, "Do you think we've got much of a show now, boys?" (Crane). In response, "the three were silent, save for a trifle of hemming and hawing. To express any particular optimism at this time they felt to be childish and stupid, but they all doubtless possessed this sense of the situation in their minds." Despite this private acknowledgment, however, "the ethics of their condition was decidedly against any open suggestion of hopelessness" (Crane). The four men are therefore living an existence that compels them to perform false hope even as they feel only despair — a contradiction hard enough on their spirits without the additional burden of being alone at sea with nothing but a bucket to bail water and equally despairing companions.

Fate as a Capricious Force

In this way, and through the passages in which the four men directly confront the idea of fate, Crane foregrounds one of his central themes. The men remain outwardly hopeful about their fates while inwardly resigning themselves to the worst; and as time wears on, they address fate directly, blaming it for their predicament and for the sheer absurdity of the manner in which it seems intent on killing them. Their collective musing is rendered as follows:

"If I am going to be drowned — if I am going to be drowned — if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life? It is preposterous. If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men's fortunes. She is an old hen who knows not her intentions. If she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it in the beginning and save me all this trouble. The whole affair is absurd… But no, she cannot mean to drown me. She dare not drown me. She cannot drown me. Not after all this work" (Crane).

This extended interior monologue not only highlights Crane's theme of fate but also illuminates his theme of nature and the way in which men are overpowered by forces figured as the sea. The men did not drown at the moment of the shipwreck; they are now convinced they will die when safety is almost within reach. Their insistence that "she cannot drown me. Not after all this work" (Crane) reveals how completely they have personified both fate and nature into a single, capricious, feminine antagonist. In the men's view, nature and fate are virtually indistinguishable: if nature holds the power to drown, she must be the same force that governs fortune. They feel as though they are being toyed with — granted one last glimpse of human civilization before being reminded of nature's ultimate superiority.

Conclusion: Humanity's Qualified Victory

Although Crane's final sentence of "The Open Boat" is as grim as his first, his themes of fate and nature have been deployed in such a way as to show humanity as ultimately victorious in its battle against indifferent natural forces. Throughout the story, the men are driven repeatedly to the edge of madness by fate and nature, which they experience as cruel and capricious. Yet in the end, three of the four survive — not through luck or a change in the weather, but through the intervention of other human beings. Despite the one casualty that nature and fate claim, the final score favors humankind.

In this respect, "The Open Boat" stands apart from much of the naturalist fiction of its era. Where naturalism often insists on humanity's helplessness before an indifferent universe, Crane allows the universe its indifference while still finding room, in the collective warmth of the rescuers on shore, for a qualified but genuine assertion of human resilience and solidarity.

Works Cited

Crane, Stephen. "The Open Boat." Read Books Online, 2009. Accessed 17 January 2008.