Stories "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane and "The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad

The compelling sea stories “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, and “The Secret Sharer” by Joseph Conrad, are about men on the open water experiencing a journey they are not properly equipped fort. The captain in “The Secret Sharer” is a very different character than the captain in “The Open Boat.” The captain of “The Secret Sharer” has characteristics more closely related to those of the correspondent than he does to the captain of “The Open Boats” He is out of his element; he is working jobs on the ship not fit for a captain; not respected by his crew; is unprepared for the journey that awaits him; as well as experiencing a sense of strangeness in all his actions.

Although many people say that the strongest connection seen between characters in the two stories is between both captains, the true major character connection is between the correspondent of “The Open Boat” and the captain of “The Secret Sharer”.

When breaking down the story and diving deeper into each character, it is clear to see how close the connection between the captain of “The Secret Sharer” and the correspondent of “The Open Boat” is, The captain of “The Secret Sharer”, just like the correspondent of “The Open Boat”, is out of his element, not prepared for a leadership role, struggling through a major life journey, working himself to exhaustion, and feels a very strong comradery to the other man he comes in contact with throughout the story.

On multiple occasions he expresses his feelings of abnormality on board.

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The captain of “The Secret Sharer” is very lonely throughout the story, as he struggles to assert himself as a captain worth being respectedt. With this in mind we are able to draw a connection to the correspondent examining the relationships between the men on the boat Like the correspondent the captain is overwhelmed by this sense of strangeness on board.

He is not used to this type of environment and feels as though his is out of place in everything he does “1 had been appointed to the command on a fortnight before, Neither did I know much of the hands forward. All of these people had been together for eighteen months or so, and my position was that of the only stranger on boar ”. Here the captain is expressing his feeling of loneliness and how he does not know if the crew will follow his lead on his firstjourney as captain of the ship Just as the correspondent does the captain subconsciously questions the relationships between the men on board. “The correspondent, pulling at the other oar, watched the waves and wondered why he was there”. In both stories the crew is already comfortable with each other and have already established themselves as comrades amongst the seal We can see how both the correspondent and the captain feel uncomfortable in their current situation while the rest of the crew respects one another, and does not yet have a strong bond to either character.

In regards to their relationships to the other men neither of them have yet asserted himself as an experienced seaman, and thus experience an oddness out on the water with the rest of the crew on board This strong sense of loneliness within each character is seen predominantly when they are alone aboard the ship, and feeling their insignificance amongst the immense universe, The tide of darkness flowed on swiftly; and with tropical suddenness a swarm of stars came out above the shadowy earth, while I lingered yet, my hand resting lightly on my ship’s rail as if on the shoulder of a trusted friend. But, with all that multitude of celestial bodies staring down at one, the comfort of quiet communion with her was gone for good.

The captain of “The Secret Sharer” is standing alone on board staring at the sky, and as he does this he realizes his insignificance to the rest of the universe. When he talks about the multitude of celestial bodies staring down, he is speaking of the stars and of how small one man is to the rest of the universe. “when is occurs to man that nature does not regard him as important, and she feels she would not main the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples”. The correspondent shows how miniscule one life is to the rest of nature on both the planet and in the universe.

Both characters experience this feeling of insignificance due to their lack of comradery with the rest of the crew Elias Schwieler; Centre for Teaching and Learning (UPC), Stockholm University supports my points when he says that the captain’s realization of being completely alone is brought on by the immenseness of the sky and the sudden appearance of the stars, and how the universe, represented by the night stars, is as unknown to him as the situation he is faced with onboard. With this intention we are able to connect both characters and their sense on insignificance as well as their feelings of abnormality and loneliness on the watert “And after this devotion to the commander of the boat there was this comradeship that the correspondent, for instance, who had been taught to be cynical of men, knew even at the time was the best experience of his life”. Comradeship between correspondent and crew/captain and Leggat.