Journal #21 Stephen Crane: Near-Death Experience Bonding!

QUOTE:

“To express any particular optimism at this time they felt to be childish and stupid, but they all doubtless possessed this sense of the situation in their mind. A young man thinks doggedly at such times…so they were silent” (Crane 1002).


SUMMARY:

The men from the sunken steamer are attempting to escape the rough seas in a ten-foot dinghy. They feel hopeful about making the trip back to land, but they don’t want to seem impractical if they don’t survive.


RESPONSE:

The men are feeling a roller coaster of emotions as they try to row towards land, and each phase in their escape seems to have a different trial for the men to endure. They are first arguing about life-saving stations and houses of refuge, which seems premature, especially after the oiler points out where they are located in the ocean. When the men work together to figure out what seems like a system for successfully rowing through and over the waves, they are practically attacked by seagulls. The men become completely annoyed with the continual ordeals that are only a nuisance to them, in what seems like a boundless journey. They never consider giving up though, so they begin to happily support every suggestion towards reaching the shore.

I guess in a situation like this, letting the seagulls, waves, or sweltering sunlight really get to them would cause the men to go insane. The drive to keep pushing on is their motivation, since they don’t want to possibly “jinx” this detour, and they can’t let their minds become caught up in other thoughts. Crane conveys the anxiousness throughout the entire text though, so even when the men are keeping themselves very composed considering the circumstances, I still can’t imagine how uncomfortable and horrible the conditions of their craft are.

It makes sense for the men to be almost confused about how to react in this life-threatening experience. So many contrasting emotions affect them, along with the sense of being “in it together,” which brings everyone closer together as essential parts of a machine. I think this supports the idea that near-death experiences bring people together, like family or even in marriage.