In “The Open Boat” Stephen Crane provides a better view on natures indifference to man and man’s insignificance in the universe. The four characters in the story experience this first hand when they are shipwrecked and are stranded in the middle of the vast ocean. Through use of the setting, characters and repetition Crane portrays this theme perfectly. First, the setting provides visual imagery on how insignificant and helpless the four characters are compared to their surroundings. They are at the mercy of the ocean and go where nature takes them without much of a fight. This is very apparent when the correspondent exclaims “A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that
