Quote:
“The correspondent wondered ingenuously how in the name of all that was sane could there be people who thought it amusing to row a boat. It was not an amusement; it was a diabolical punishment” (Crane, 1004)
Summary:
This quote for “The Open Boat” of Crane, is the beginning of the agonizing pain the correspondent suffers from rowing the boat. By that point he realizes people must be crazy to find rowing a boat amusing. In this case he sees this activity as the worst punishment in the world.
“The correspondent wondered ingenuously how in the name of all that was sane could there be people who thought it amusing to row a boat. It was not an amusement; it was a diabolical punishment” (Crane, 1004)
Summary:
This quote for “The Open Boat” of Crane, is the beginning of the agonizing pain the correspondent suffers from rowing the boat. By that point he realizes people must be crazy to find rowing a boat amusing. In this case he sees this activity as the worst punishment in the world.
Response:
This quote talks about physical punishment, it is nothing but realism what Crane is showing with this description of how painful and terrible can it be to row a boat. Even though my first impression was to think of this quote only as a way of the correspondent to complain about how hard it was to row a boat, I have understood something else. I think Crane was trying to express the mental pain and the suffering the correspondent experiences by rowing a boat with no final destination, with not real hope of reaching ashore or being safe.
Rowing a boat is a sport or can be amusing, however, for the correspondent is the worst punishment sent from hell. This punishment reflected physically in his muscles and back, is not other than the representation of the punishment being inflicted in his own spirit. Punishment to his own spirit because he is rowing in the middle of the sea, he cannot reach the shore and he is tired, just too tired that rowing the boat has become a mechanical task, which only hurts him. However, I am sure that if the boat was getting closer to the shore and he had the certainty that they would reach this shore, then he would do his best to keep rowing this boat.
Plus, the moving of the boat is like life itself, Crane is using the Naturalist philosophy to portray life as a constant movement that is painful but if you stop then you will die. This is exactly what the boat crew is doing, in different ways; they need to keep alive and keep on moving, even though is painful and up to that point hopeless.
This quote talks about physical punishment, it is nothing but realism what Crane is showing with this description of how painful and terrible can it be to row a boat. Even though my first impression was to think of this quote only as a way of the correspondent to complain about how hard it was to row a boat, I have understood something else. I think Crane was trying to express the mental pain and the suffering the correspondent experiences by rowing a boat with no final destination, with not real hope of reaching ashore or being safe.
Rowing a boat is a sport or can be amusing, however, for the correspondent is the worst punishment sent from hell. This punishment reflected physically in his muscles and back, is not other than the representation of the punishment being inflicted in his own spirit. Punishment to his own spirit because he is rowing in the middle of the sea, he cannot reach the shore and he is tired, just too tired that rowing the boat has become a mechanical task, which only hurts him. However, I am sure that if the boat was getting closer to the shore and he had the certainty that they would reach this shore, then he would do his best to keep rowing this boat.
Plus, the moving of the boat is like life itself, Crane is using the Naturalist philosophy to portray life as a constant movement that is painful but if you stop then you will die. This is exactly what the boat crew is doing, in different ways; they need to keep alive and keep on moving, even though is painful and up to that point hopeless.
1 comment:
20/20 True: "Crane is using the Naturalist philosophy to portray life as a constant movement that is painful but if you stop then you will die."
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