Indifference to Anxiety in Cranes The Open Boat Essay example -- Open

Indifference to Anxiety in Cranes The Open Boat In novel years, critical response to Stephen Cranes The Open Boat has shifted dramatically, focusing less on the tales philosophical agendas than on its epistemological implications. The boloney no longer stands as unless a naturalistic depiction of natures monumental indifference or as simply an existential affirmation of fifes absurdity. Instead, we have slowly come to realize a new level of the text, one that, according to Donna Gerstenberger, explores mans limited capacities for knowing reality (557). Gerstenbergers conclusion that the tale may be best viewed as a story with an epistemological emphasis, one which constantly reminds its reader of the impossibility of mans knowing anything, even that which he experiences (560), is further developed by Thomas L. Kent If we insist that the text be interpreted naturalistically, if we insist, that the text must have some sort of overarching meaning --- even a meaning that shows the u niverse to be existentially absurd --- we place ourselves in the same boat as the deluded castaways who felt that, they could then be interpreters. On both the narrative and extra-textual levels, the subject of The Open Boat is epistemology, and the text suggests that meaning in the universe is secondary to mans ability to preceive sic it. (264) Building upon the insights of Gerstenberger, Kent and others, l hope to show bow the structure of The Open Boat creates an epistemological dilemma, moving the reader from a position of epistemological indifference to a state of epistemological anxiety. Four key moments in the story create this shift from indifference to anxiety first, in Section 1, the opening sentence... ...st way allowing us to know what it is they are now interpreters of, Crane highlights more than our own inability to achieve interpretation, to gain access to knowledge. Rather, he has placed us in such a position that we must shed our casual indifference to our epistem ological failures and embrace, unwillingly perhaps, the anxiety that will view all of our efforts to read lifes impenetrable meanings. WORKS CITED Crane, Stephen. The Open Boat. The University of Virginia Edition of the Works of Stephen Crane Volume V, Tales of Adventure. Ed. Fredson Bowers. Charlottesville UP of Virginia, 1970. Gerstenberger, Donna. The Open Boat An Additional Perspective. Modern Fiction Studies 17 (1971-72)557-561. Kent, Thomas L The Problem of Knowledge inThe Open Boatand The Blu Hotel. American Literary Realism 14 (1981) 262-268.