“None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level and were fastened upon the waves that swept towards them.(48)” This first line of the story is very important because it means that they could not physically take their eyes off of the waves and the ocean to look up at the sky. If they were to do this they would be in danger of having a wave come and overturn their boat which could mean death. They need to keep their eyes o

n staying alive. This line also sets the tone of the story for establishing the idea of a conflict between humanity and nature. Humans cannot conceive or understand what is in the sky or above their heads. They cannot be certain or understand if it is Heaven, God, or clouds and the rest of the universe. But the sea and what is right in front of their eyes are conceivable because they have proof of it.. These everyday mundane things are the only things that they are really ever able to focus on. The characters’ lives are at the mercy of the sea which they are able to literally see, but they still are not able to see their fate, similar to the sky, which they cannot see.

The conflict between the cook, captain, correspondent, and oiler against the sea portrays one of life’s biggest and most difficult conflict’s to understand; the one which exists between humanity and nature. It has always existed and will always exist. Stephen Crane found this conflict to be prevalent in an even that occurred in his life and used that event to try and portray this conflict and nature’s indifference towards mankind to us in a way that isn’t harsh but that says it the way it is. Nature does not care about man, yet to us, nature makes all the difference.

The main idea and conflict between humanity and nature throughout this work is that nature is indifferent to man, yet man is dependent upon nature to stay alive. Everything that occurs in this piece returns to that main idea. The characters are tiny specks in comparison to the sea. The sea goes about doing its own thing not even noticing that they are on it. They can be compared to all humankind. They are the people of the world. The world continues each day without giving consideration to each specific person. The sea itself is our universe and the “open boat” is the stability that we constantly try to cling to every day of our lives. The characters were trying to hold onto the boat no matter what for stability in a sea full of up

Some topics in this essay:
Heaven God, Stephen Crane’s, Stephen Crane, humanity nature, conflict humanity, conflict humanity nature, captain correspondent oiler, cook captain correspondent, idea conflict humanity, correspondent oiler, idea conflict, washed shore, nature indifferent, nature’s indifference, extra hard, captain correspondent, individual apart,