Stephen Crane  “The Open Boat”

significance of the title—openness of ocean, exposure to Nature; lack of barrier or wall between human and nature

you can’t artificially segregate yourself from Nature

Humanism: opposite of theism (belief in deity centered universe—deity reveals itself through divine revelation); focuses on human capacity for knowledge and reasoning (“proper study of mankind is man”—Essay on Man by A. Pope)

Christian humanism—intelligent design

secular humanism—materialism (denial of spiritual realm, reliance upon sensory reception and human cognition/observation as defining “the real”)—logical positivism (scientific method is only road to truth/reality)

naturalism—everything can be explained by natural causes and laws through observation

Crane has scientific detached observation, very keen descriptions of sight/sounds/etc.

pathetic fallacy—imputing to inanimate objects feelings, cognizance, awareness,

learn about characters through observation (external—Show, not tell)—Crane shows crazy helplessness of situation through visual images such as the cook’s unbuttoned dangling vest—in the face of death, he responds with an ironic quip—laughing in face of danger

oiler—doing his duty

correspondent—hopeless?  existential moment?  why?  what’s the meaning of this terrible situation?  why is he here—i.e., in nature? foil to oiler (strength/hope/unthinking vs. despair/over-thinking

captain—despair, lost, injured

cook needs hope to survive and keep fighting (naivete)

correspondent—pessimistic, needs to know/face the worst

oiler—focused on present—realist/naturalist—not into imagining scenarios—human jabber of no use

Crane ends section I with no editorializing or exposition—no Victorian sentimentality—use of dialogue to carry the story

sea gulls represent the impenetrable nature of natural order—not subject to human understanding or reason

what brings out human connection—the basic need to survive—not some abstract philosophy about life or common religious beliefs—the ultimate brotherhood of man is based in naturalism

collective moment of realization—questioning the whole metaphysical/natural order of things—Fates (not God)—don’t blame God (fearful?) perhaps self-censorship of Crane?  “seven mad gods who rule the sea” to blame?  All these “gods” are fictional

the breakdown of human communication—man on shore waving his jacket—undermine humanism—language itself breaks down (sacrosanct ideas in humanism)

impressionistic writing—we see the impressions of the characters as they see/discover what’s happening

reaction to shark (beautiful to behold, but not horrific any longer having come face to face with the reality of nature/mortality—having lost human pretensions of human superiority)

enter into an acceptance of the world as it is—correspondent can no longer “think”

oiler dies “Billie”—no justice, reason in universe, why does he die?

what does it mean to be an interpreters of the sea?  they understood nature as nature, not as a human construct or idea