Student Question
How does Crane's descriptive writing enhance the effectiveness of "The Open Boat"?
Quick answer:
Crane's descriptive writing in "The Open Boat" enhances the story's effectiveness by adding dramatic tension and a sense of isolation. The opening line, "None of them knew the color of the sky," immediately creates tension and intrigue. Crane's use of metaphor, such as describing waves as "jagged" like rocks, introduces danger. Additionally, the description of waves moving with "grace" and "silence" envelops the characters in a profound isolation, heightening the story's emotional impact.
An example of Crane's description opens the story and illustrates how
description adds to the story's effectiveness. First, Crane's description adds
dramatic tension. The first descriptive line, "None of them knew the color of
the sky" immediately adds dramatic tension. The reader asks, "Who? Why not? How
is that possible?" As a result, an impossible situation full of dramatic
tension is instantly opened up before the reader. This adds to the
effectiveness of the story because, first and foremost, Crane wants the reader
to feel--along with the characters--the power of the impossible situation they
are in at sea in their open boat.
The dramatic tension is heightened later in that same paragraph when Crane
writes that the sea's "edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in
points like rocks." In this implied metaphor (the sea is rocks), which embodies contrast between the fluid sea and crushingly hard rocks,...
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Crane introduces danger and imminent peril. This metaphorical description adds to the effectiveness because in the opening paragraph the reader is thus thrust into a situation of grave crushing danger.
Another example occurs a bit later on. The narrator describes how the waves
come. He says they come with "grace" in "silence":
There was a terrible grace in the move of the waves, and they came in silence, save for the snarling of the crests.
This description wraps the men and the waves in a blanket of silence. This adds to the effectiveness of the story by creating a deep and impenetrable isolation around the men--an isolation bred in soundlessness. We know, even if we know little else about the ocean, that it has a mighty roar. To remove this and replace it with silence removes the men from common experience and embeds them in unreachable isolation.