Stephen Crane's The Open Boat - Essay Example

The second element is that heroes are survivors. Being a hero is an active and living state. Individuals that die in the process of performing heroic acts are not heroes. They are deceased. A hero accomplishes the great feat and lives to tell the tale. Common people die in the course of attempting heroic actions. While this definition of heroism may to some seem narrow or even disrespectful to individuals and characters that have died while performing heroic and selfless deeds, the intention could not be further from the truth.

It is simply an attempt in my mind to differentiate and distinguish between actions that are heroic and the personification of individuals and characters that can be categorized as heroes. In Stephen Crane’s short story The Open Boat, four characters are presented in the most precarious of circumstances. Their ship has sunk and they are all together in a small dingy struggling to make landfall. Mountainous wave beset their craft in a relentless effort to swallow them into the sea. The four characters are the captain, who was injured in the sinking of the main vessel, the cook, the least ranking and most common among the men, the oiler and the correspondent.

What becomes clear upon a close reading of The Open Boat is the fact that this is a story entirely bereft of heroes. Certainly, the men find themselves in a difficult spot that requires heroic actions or the part of all. Billie the oiler was coming off of working a double shift just before the ship went down. He found himself at sea rowing for land for two days without proper rest and having had very little to eat before sinking. Yet he never hesitated to take his turn at the oars when it came time to spell the others so they could get some rest.

Indeed, the correspondent, the night before making landfall called on him many times so that he could rest. Billie selflessly and heroically rowed while the others slept. Cook was more than happy to do the drudgery of bailing while the correspondent and the oiler rowed. He had no desire for status or for any position of notice. It could be said in modern terms that he was a “team player” silently and obediently do the most menial yet important tasks. The correspondent selflessly kept watch through the night, when the ominous presence of death embodied by the figure of a great shark, came to circle the small craft.

And finally, there was the selfless guidance of the captain who waded through the personal tragedy of losing his beloved ship in an unflagging effort to continue to command the crew of the dingy as best he could. His experience was all that gave the crew hope at times and he obliged their needs for hope instead of bowing to hopelessness. But heroic deeds do not a hero make. In order to really consider any of the characters heroes by the proposed definition in this essay, the motivation of these actions must be explored.

The final night, when the correspondent is wrestling with Fate, when he is struggling with fatigue and hopelessness, the one thought that comes to him is profoundly selfish. He wanted to live. I would be nice to continue to live even though dying might just be easier. There was not one thought for his fellow crewmembers. He wanted to live and he would strive to make it so. This every-man-for-himself mentality is nicely characterized by the departure from the boat onto the shore. On the captain’