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"The Open Boat"

Answer the following questions based on Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat."

1.) What is the point of view of "The Open Boat"?

 

Answer: "The Open Boat" is written in objective point view, which is a version of third person. Crane gave a journalistic style to his writing that provides the reader with facts but not personal details of the four men.

2.) Provide an example of imagery, language that appeals to the senses, in the short story.

 

Answer: "The waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all the men knew the color of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks." The imagery suggests the time of day because slate is a dark gray color. The images appeal to sight.

3.) What is being personified in the sentence below?

"The black waves were silent and hard to be seen in the darkness."

 

Answer: Waves are given the human characteristic of being silent.

4.) Read the sentences below. What type of figurative language is added and what effect does it have on the story?

"There was a long, loud swishing astern of the boat, and a gleaming trail of phosphorescence, like blue flame, was furrowed on the black waters. It might have been made by a monstrous knife."

 

Answer: The word "swishing" is an onomatopoeia. "Phosphorescence" means a light that is given off at low temperatures and caused by the absorption of radiations like light and continues for a noticeable time after these radiations have stopped. The light is being compared to a blue flame using the connecting word "like." That means it is a simile. The sound being "furrowed on the black waters" suggests that the sound digs into the water's crevices (which water doesn't have) and makes a home; this is a metaphor. Another example of metaphor is "monstrous knife." Crane has used rich imagery and detail in just two sentences. The imagery allows the readers to visualize the scene in their minds. Readers can place themselves in the setting with the characters in this terrifying situation.

5.) Place the events in the order they occured in the story.

a) The captain gave his coat to the cook and correspondent to make a sail.

b) The captain saw the lighthouse on Mosquito Inlet.

c) The men exchange addresses.

d) The correspondent saw the lighthouse.

e) The ship sank.

f) The first morning arrived.

Answer: e, f, b, d, a, c

6.) Place the events in the order they occured in the story.

g) A man on the shore waved his coat at the men in the boat.

h) People came with blankets and coffee.

i) The second morning arrived.

j) The man on the shore saved the correspondent.

k) The correspondent saw that the oiler had drowned.

l) The lifeboat sank.

Answer: g, i, l, j, k, h