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Examples Of Figurative Language In The Open Boat

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Jared Fodness Professor K. Magee English 210, Section U914 4 February 2016 Puffs of Hope In “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, symbols and figurative language are seen as the oar, the shark, the cigars, and the boat. The oar is symbolized as the men’s salvation. While out in the dingy, the narrator discloses information about the oar. “It was a thin little oar, and it seemed often ready to snap” (Crane 246). The only way the four men survive their shipwreck is if the oar does not break. Without the oar, they have no ability to row the boat ashore and to safety. The weakness of the oar also shows that the crew needs to be mentally strong to persevere to get out of the boat and onto dry land. If either the oar or the men were to snap, they would not survive the ocean. The shark represents a change in how the world is viewed. While the correspondent was rowing, he noticed a shark and sparked up a conversation with the captain. “’Did you see that shark playing around?’ ‘Yes, I saw him. He was a big fellow, all right.’ ‘Wish I had known you were awake’” (Crane 261). Even though …show more content…

After the boat capsizes, Crane shows the reader the importance of the hanging onto the boat and surviving, “Presently the boat also passed to the left of the correspondent, with the captain clinging with one hand to the keel” (264). The men must hang onto the boat for survival, even though the boat is constantly in danger of sinking. Eventually the boat does sink, but it survives long enough to get the men safely ashore besides the oiler. This shows that humans are always threaten by the chance of the world overwhelming them. The open top of the boat helps show what the boat epitomizes. Since the men are unprotected from the open top, they have to accept any unforeseen events that are out of their control. The boat shows the reader that the men are not in control of anything, they just have to hang on and hope they

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