The Open Boat

Passage that's only about relationship of man and nature

Can you give me one or two passages that illustrates the relationship between man and nature in the open boat with its explanation ( the explanation of the passage) 🙏

Asked by
Last updated by jill d #170087
Answers 1
Add Yours

"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 narrator

In this passage, the narrator captures the men's experience of being adrift amid violent waves that threaten to swamp the boat. The first two clauses capture the boat's nauseating rocking movement, which is then contrasted with a description of the waves in the third clause. Though the waves are made of liquid, the diction likens them to hard, pointed rocks. This metaphoric language better illustrates the water's strength and fearsomeness.

"None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them."

The narrator

The story's opening lines are significant because they establish the existential conflict that disturbs the correspondent. He and the other men are so preoccupied with the threat of the waves that they do not allow themselves to look up. The suggestion that they do not know the color of the sky establishes a tone of uncertainty. "The color of the sky" stands in for the existential thoughts the correspondent considers throughout the story. To look up at the sky is to risk missing a wave that is coming over the side of the boat. The correspondent is torn between paying attention to the waves, necessary for his survival, and the loftier speculations on the fate of humanity in an indifferent universe, which threaten to inspire a sense of hopelessness.

Source(s)

The Open Boat