Indifference of Nature Versus Virtue of Man in "The Open Boat" Although he failed to reach the tender age of twenty-nine, late-nineteenth-century American author Stephen Crane published innumerable works of notoriety during his lifetime. A poet, impressionist, journalist, social critic and realist, Crane often rebelled against the religious and social norm of the era through his writings. In one of his later works, "The Open Boat," Crane chronicles the experiences of four shipwrecked sailors maneuvering …showed first 75 words of 1214 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1214 total…descriptions of relationships. The men share an indefinable bond, and somehow this camaraderie pulls them successfully through the ordeal. The fact that one of the men ultimately dies is irrelevant; the story would be tragic only if all the men died because of the lack of humanity. Although the boundless universe will never succumb to the will of man, man will always have the companionship of one another. Although nature is indifferent, man is not.