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Why build up all of these themes of nature and how it takes what it wants without bias, only to have the men survive? Could Cane have been furthering his view that nature truly doesn’t have a preference or was he purposefully bringing hope back into the story?

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In Stephen Crane's The Open Boat, Crane manifests ideas of surviving the odds, perseverance, and the non-discriminate and cold ways of nature. An oiler, captain, cook, and correspondent survive a ship wreck and are left in a dingy to fight for survival against the heartless and vast ocean. Multiple times throughout this journey, it is said "if I am going to be drowned, 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 578) This was said and repeated because even after sailing the ocean and making it not so far from shore, they had still not been saved. I believe Crane's message was that nature does not discriminate, making it "close enough" does not matter. Nature cannot accept "close enough". Despite the bleak outlook, the exhaustion, and the hopelessness, the men continued to fight and ended up surviving.