First let us look at how Stephen Crane uses symbolic language in the story of "The Open Boat". Symbolic language is used in the “The Open Boat” to set the tone or the mood, as well as, the setting of the story and gives us insight to the hopeless feeling the men were experiencing while trying to survive after being shipwrecked. For example, “As each slaty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and it was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean, the last effort of the grim water.” He describes the color of the sea as a “slaty wall of water”. Slaty is the color of slate, which is a dark and murky grayish blue color, is used to describe the sea. Dark colors are used often by writers to give the audience a feeling of danger, the unknown and forbidding. Used in this content, we see the men being surrounded and isolated by the dark water, which has obstructed their view of their surroundings and is now their enemy during the entire trip towards land. Another example in the same sentence is “the last effort of the grim water”, which illustrates or symbolizes the life and death struggle that went on between the men and the elements of the dark, relentless and uncaring ocean. One can image the ocean as the grim reaper doing battle with the four men, who are by now isolated from all civilization and are fighting helplessly against the elements of the vast ocean, which seems to want to swallow them up. This is a frightening image or symbol of death that is ever present during their struggle to reach land.
The second element of literature that Stephen Crane used was metaphors. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as if it were another. In other words a metaphor compares two things that are dissimilar but suggests a likeness between them. For example, Stephen Crane wrote, “ A seat in his boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking bronco”. One can image how the men, in their tiny dinghy, were being tossed about violently upon the waves of the ocean just like a cowboy on a bucking bronco at a rodeo. Another example, which is one of my favorite metaphors in this story, is the phrase “to nibble the sacred cheese of life”. Life being precious and not to be taken lightly was a gift. This lesson was learned early on in the story by the four men during their trip towards safety. They came this far and fate was dangling their life in front of them. At this moment would their lives be taken away from them or they will survive this ordeal as each wave threatens to topple their tiny craft over. This again strongly emphasizes that life and nature is seldom fair and is often cruel and uncaring.
The third element of literature used by Stephen Crane is irony. Irony is a situation or statement characterized by a significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. The four men found themselves shipwrecked and slowly made it towards land. Once near land, the people on shore spotted them. The people on land thought that the four occupants were out at sea purposely and did not realize the peril they were in. They waved to the four men, who were hanging on for dear life and never bothered to question why they were there. One would think that if a lighthouse were nearby that someone would scan the ocean occasionally, especially if a report of a shipwreck was reported off their shore several miles away. Another ironic situation was the fate of the oiler and the cook. The oiler rowed the boat most of the time and he also was the strongest swimmer and yet he died. Whereas the cook, who did nothing except bail water and was very portly, survived the ordeal. This again shows how unfair life can be.
In the story of "The Open Boat", Stephen Crane uses symbolic language, metaphors, and irony to give us a colorful and suspenseful story of four shipwrecked men out at sea. By using these elements of literature, we feel their anxiety and hopelessness as they struggled to survive against the ocean and her inhabitants. The theme man verses nature is one of the main themes of this story and gives us a good look at how uncaring and often cruel nature really is.
