Quote:
“If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, why in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?" (Crane, 1006)
Summary:
This is the thought of all four men told out loud by Crane. The narrator says that that is what they must be thinking, since once they saw the shore and the possibility of being safe, they had to go back to open sea, because the boat was going to crash.
“If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, why in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?" (Crane, 1006)
Summary:
This is the thought of all four men told out loud by Crane. The narrator says that that is what they must be thinking, since once they saw the shore and the possibility of being safe, they had to go back to open sea, because the boat was going to crash.
Response:
This quote is one maximum expression of the self-centered world we live in. In this case, these four men are asking “why?”, a question that will never be fully answered, but there they are these men, asking why do they have to be confronted with death if they tried so hard, like saying “why me?”. This quote shows the despair against the “injustice” of human life, where everyone is going to die sooner or later and the world will go on, without telling you why we died.
Also, this quote is a complain to the gods, to the supernatural being that seems to rule the world and hold everyone’s fate in their hands. It is like is determined who will live and who will die, and men who are clinging to life, refuse to accept this reality. They don’t want to die because they tried really hard to reach shore, they want to rebel against the fate that awaits them, and they want to challenge their reality. At this moment there is a psychological struggle, where these men are trying to fight against their hopeless fate and their own will to survive.
Furthermore, Crane is portraying another human characteristic, which is failure. When men try hard to do something and when they are about to reach this goal, they fail. At this moment, their first complain is against god, because they are not looking at themselves, they blame the gods for their failure, and they don’t realize yet that they need to look at themselves and understand why did they fail. I guess sometimes we want to blame it on someone else, and when is and death situation, all we have left is to cling into faith or into believing there is someone greater than ourselves that will reward us for our efforts, in this case by not letting the crew die.
This quote is one maximum expression of the self-centered world we live in. In this case, these four men are asking “why?”, a question that will never be fully answered, but there they are these men, asking why do they have to be confronted with death if they tried so hard, like saying “why me?”. This quote shows the despair against the “injustice” of human life, where everyone is going to die sooner or later and the world will go on, without telling you why we died.
Also, this quote is a complain to the gods, to the supernatural being that seems to rule the world and hold everyone’s fate in their hands. It is like is determined who will live and who will die, and men who are clinging to life, refuse to accept this reality. They don’t want to die because they tried really hard to reach shore, they want to rebel against the fate that awaits them, and they want to challenge their reality. At this moment there is a psychological struggle, where these men are trying to fight against their hopeless fate and their own will to survive.
Furthermore, Crane is portraying another human characteristic, which is failure. When men try hard to do something and when they are about to reach this goal, they fail. At this moment, their first complain is against god, because they are not looking at themselves, they blame the gods for their failure, and they don’t realize yet that they need to look at themselves and understand why did they fail. I guess sometimes we want to blame it on someone else, and when is and death situation, all we have left is to cling into faith or into believing there is someone greater than ourselves that will reward us for our efforts, in this case by not letting the crew die.
1 comment:
20/20 Good point: "they blame the gods for their failure, and they don’t realize yet that they need to look at themselves and understand why did they fail."
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