Understanding Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”

In Stephen Crane’s short story, “The Open Boat”, Crane takes us on a heroing adventure through the open seas, on a small dingy holding four men that have fled their sinking ship.  They have only each other and the crashing waves around them, their enemy.  This naturalistic story of survival of man against nature describes a scenario that can be understood in realistic terms. Even thought “The Open Boat” does seem very naturalistic, giving very descriptive plights of the unforgiving sea. Crane makes you feel like you are one of the castaways, fighting alongside the men, to stay afloat and find land before it is too late.  You feel the darkness of the sky and the bouncing of the jagged waves as they slosh you around the little boat.  The four main characters, the captain, the correspondent, the cook and Billie, the oiler all have their satirical indifference to the situation; some more so.  This reaction to their grave situation turns more desperate and you begin to feel empathy as they begin to reflect on their mortality.  Outwardly, though, the men crack jokes.  The constant rowing and gradient feel of exhaustion on the four men adds to the climax of impending doom.  Its increasing physical strain along with the violent environment puts into perspective man’s fragility in the universe.  Everyone on board has job to do and collectively they know they must work together in order to survive.  As the men push their way through the sea, they finally see land in the pin drop distance.  The men’s hope of rescue is all but dashed as it is realized the rescue station is abandoned.  Hope may be found when a single man on the shore sees them and twirls his coat around and around. But they quickly realize he isn’t part of any rescue. When the dingy crashes over, the men must swim to shore.   Billie takes heed and swims past all of them using all of his energy to reach land.  The others smartly use parts of the little boat as floats and row themselves at a steady pace.  This symbolic moment becomes realized as the men reach the shore only to find Billie dead; drowned by the sea.  The strongest of them did not survive.  Crane might be trying to tell us that when it is man versus nature, the universe is indifferent, but in the end was it survival of the fittest or was it divine intercession.