Quote:
“Meanwhile the light-house had been growing slowly larger. It had now almost assumed color, and appeared like a little gray shadow on the sky” (Crane, 1004)
Summary:
This is the first real sight of the light-house. All the men are focused in this figure that appears as a shadow in the sky. This means they are approaching land, and that makes them hopeful.
Response:
This a very interesting quote, first because of the way Crane describes the light-house, and second because the four men put all their hopes in this “gray shadow” which is a reason to keep rowing the boat and not giving up.
Crane says “a little gray shadow on the sky” which has color, however, in the first sentence of the story, he says “None of the new the color of the sky” (1000). This shows that these men have gained hope, and they are finally looking at the sky, they are finally seen the color of freedom, of hope. Before seeing the shadow of the light house, they only knew the colors of the sea, because knowing the changes in the sea was what kept them alive and they did not care about the sky.
“Meanwhile the light-house had been growing slowly larger. It had now almost assumed color, and appeared like a little gray shadow on the sky” (Crane, 1004)
Summary:
This is the first real sight of the light-house. All the men are focused in this figure that appears as a shadow in the sky. This means they are approaching land, and that makes them hopeful.
Response:
This a very interesting quote, first because of the way Crane describes the light-house, and second because the four men put all their hopes in this “gray shadow” which is a reason to keep rowing the boat and not giving up.
Crane says “a little gray shadow on the sky” which has color, however, in the first sentence of the story, he says “None of the new the color of the sky” (1000). This shows that these men have gained hope, and they are finally looking at the sky, they are finally seen the color of freedom, of hope. Before seeing the shadow of the light house, they only knew the colors of the sea, because knowing the changes in the sea was what kept them alive and they did not care about the sky.
I think the sky represents the freedom and happiness they cannot reach, they ignore the sky because they are focusing in surviving, that is all they want, but once they see this light-house, hope fills them and makes them wonder what the sky is like. They wonder about the colors of the sky, and this means that they have become aware that freedom and happiness can be reached, because they can be safe by putting their hopes in reaching this light-house. However, this freedom and hope is only a grey shadow, it has “almost assumed color” but is not something real yet. There is something restraining them from being totally hopeful, and that is reality.
I think this quote shows human nature, and Crane is portraying one characteristic of people, which is that we are all too focused in our own lives and our own tasks. People do not want to hope for something unless they can see a clear result in front of their eyes. They do not want to believe in god or in a greater being if it is not shown in front of them, and I think that is was this Light-house symbolizes.
1 comment:
20/20 Excellent analysis.
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