The Open Boat

“These waves were most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall, and each froth-top was a problem in small boat navigation.”

Crane uses personification and describes the ocean as immoral and savage; the men see themselves as being on the side of good in the battle of People Versus Nature. Crane also uses juxtaposition since the big waves contrast with the tiny boat.

“A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking broncho, and, by the same token, a broncho is not much smaller. The craft pranced and reared and plunged like an animal.”

Crane uses a simile to compare the boat to a wild Spanish horse. He reinforces the instability of the boat and uses imagery—precise language that creates a sharp picture—to illustrate the boat’s dizzying movements.

“‘Oh, well,’ said the captain, soothing his children, ‘we’ll get ashore all right.’”

The captain acts as a father figure to the other men on the boat, trying to comfort them as if they were his children. Crane turns the relationship between the men and the captain into a metaphor here, highlighting the broader theme of Community and Cooperation Versus Alienation.