In “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, there are a few examples of man versus nature. There are a few ways in which nature is at odds with the sailors on their dinghy. The most obvious is their struggle to survive at sea.
The sailors in the story are in a small boat in the open ocean; their larger ship sank, with most of the crew onboard. They have been at sea for nearly two days when the story starts, and the sea itself is rough and harsh—they risk capsizing and drowning all the time. Crane describes the waves and sea as follows:
These waves were frightfully rapid and tall; and each boiling, white top was a problem in the small boat.
The boat cannot compete with the height and danger present in the waves, and as a result, the men are in constant danger of death. The cook’s main job on the small boat is bailing out the water that is continually filling the bottom. The sea also presents other natural dangers to the crew, like starvation, dehydration, and predators like sharks.
The correspondent, one of the crewmen on the small boat, has a moment to reflect that nature isn't really against the men; instead, it is indifferent to their struggles and problems. The sea doesn’t care for them, and that is part of why their danger seems so terrible:
It represented to the correspondent the calm of Nature against the struggles of the individual—Nature in the wind, and Nature in the sight of men. Nature did not seem cruel to him then, nor kind, nor dangerous, nor wise. But she was not interested, completely not interested.
The idea that it is indifferent to the struggles of humankind makes nature seem even more sinister. A person or animal has a motive; it attacks or steals for a specific reason. Nature in its indifference hurts and helps indiscriminately, and that chance is disconcerting. The men have to contend with the existential dread of knowing that their fate is in the hands of random chance rather than in their control.
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