Essay Comparing The Seventh Man And The Open Boat
The 7Th Boat
Comparison/Contrast Paper
Written by Ashley Sonntag
Sonntag 1
Ashley Sonntag
COMP II
11:00-11:50
10/1/14
The 7th Boat Every year, an unreported amount of people die at sea or from ocean-related causes. Drowning, salt contamination and other ailments cause an assortment of problems for sea-loving people, as well as hurricanes, typhoons, and disasters like erosion. Some even believe what once belonged to the sea always belongs to the sea and she will take what is rightfully hers. In both “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami and “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, the parallels of a harsh and unforgiving ocean are clearly presented by the tone and the setting of either piece. However, the impact of the ocean …show more content…
's clutches are presented in very different ways throughout either piece. To open, the visual cues and tone of both pieces set the mood as entirely somber and even foreboding. In “The Seventh Man”, Murakami highlights the “black nothingness” of the sky as the Seventh man illustrates his story to the people in the room(1). This has an oppressive feel and makes the reader feel overburdened by darkness. On the other hand, the way that Crane describes the atmosphere in “The Open Boat” is presented as “None of them knew the color of the sky”(1), indicating that the four men are occupied in keeping the boat afloat and fighting for their lives for it. In both stories the absence of color in the sky signifies the dreary and foreboding feel of the story, as well as the fact that neither protagonists can accurately describe the sky 's color, and mention its difference from normal. One can almost imagine both
Sonntag 2 stories playing out as if they were in a black and white film, with the atmosphere the language presents in specific ways. Both the people on the boat and the Seventh Man experience a dulling of their senses and this further heightens the image of helplessness. In both stories, the images of waves are described “barbarously”(1) and “colossal”(2), giving the reader a sense of the tremendous power in the ocean and the waves along with it. In “The Seventh Man”, the protagonist experiences loss in two huge waves that tear his entire life apart, while in “the Open Boat”, wave after continuous wave tired out the crew of the boat and make it less likely with each passing wave that they will make it ashore safely. The parallel here is both protagonists’ inability to handle the overbearing situation brought to them by the merciless sea. Ocean Safety is lightly highlighted in the beginning of both stories in that the ocean is an untamed beast and must be treated with extreme caution. However, while “The Seventh Man” centers around this specific wave that he experiences as a young boy that wrecks through his future life, “The Open Boat” revolves around the relentless ocean and the four men 's inability to predict and properly deal with the waves constantly flowing over the four of them as they try to get ashore. Furthermore, personification of the ocean and its waves are littered throughout both stories multiple times. Both stories almost depict the ocean as a sort of being that is working towards taking the protagonists under and smothering them out of existence, and the characters see it that way and fear it as such.
Sonntag 3
As each slaty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and it was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean, the last effort of the grim water. There was a terrible grace in the move of the waves, and they came in silence, save for the snarling of the crests. (2)
This is personification that Crane uses to amplify the despair that these characters, and himself, felt while encountering the great sea. The adjectives used here are very aggressive and indicate the way that the men in the boat fear for their own lives. “Outburst”, “grim”, and “snarling” are harsh words that bring out the cold and abrupt fear that ruins through the men encountering each frothing wave. In "The Open Boat", as all of the men are trying their hardest to keep the boat afloat long enough for them to get ashore, the oiler is really starting to wear down. Presumably, he had been working in the bowels of the ship and tried to keep the ship afloat for the longest time- so long that he was the last person off of the ship. Whereas, in "The Seventh Man", his best friend 's fear and confusion caused K to be swallowed up by the sea, and the Seventh Man 's survivor 's guilt reigns strong. He entirely believes that he is the sole reason that the sea pulled K in when he was young, how he shouldn 't have asked him to come out to the breakwater and walk along the beach with him. These deaths are similar in the sense that the waves took them in but they are mostly very different. K had no idea what was going to hit him until the very last second, no way to be able to avoid it, while on the other hand, the oiler had be avoiding death the entire span of the story and succumbed to its clutches due to his lack of perseverance and
Sonntag 4
exhaustion.
Murakami focuses on the after effects of K 's death to the Seventh Man, while "The Open Boat" is almost entirely focused on the immediate action that occurs while the men fight for their lives on the sea. The Seventh Man has serious trouble with every-day life after the ordeal and ends up moving away from the sea and never goes back to his hometown until many, many years afterward. The ending of "The Open Boat" almost seems anticlimactic in compared to the other story, since it cuts off with many questions therein unanswered. What happens to the remaining men? Are they too wracked with survivor 's guilt in the oiler 's death? At least Murakami begins and closes the story with the protagonist being there and in an older state, helping the reader understand the long-term effects of something that devastating happening to the Seventh Man at a young …show more content…
age. "The Seventh Man" lacks in a long sequence of events that "The Open Boat" is praised for, while it excels in areas that "The Open Boat" does not: leaving hidden meanings to be interpreted by the reader as well as giving a good depiction of grief and feelings of despair. “The way I see it, the true fear for us as human being is not terror as such,” the man said after a little while. “Terror certainly exists there....It manifests itself in various forms, and from time to time overwhelms our very existence as human beings. But the most fearful thing of all is to turn your back on that fear, to close your eyes to it. By doing that, we end up alienating the very most essential part of our make-up. In my case--it was a wave.”
Sonntag 5
The Seventh Man explains a wide variety of things in a short speech, like the actual scale of the fear that ran his blood cold the day K was taken out to sea, and puts a life lesson or morale into it.
The wave is the entire reason that he is the way that he is when telling the story, because it has impacted his life so greatly. He shows that even though he was frozen by the fear and had no way of escaping it he did learn, eventually, how to live with this immovable fear. In "The Open Boat" the men almost seem like this is a frivolous matter- they even go so far as to get mad at the people that they believe are coming to save them. They just sat back and relaxed in the boat, smoking cigars like arrogant aristocrats instead of making a last ditch effort and trying their absolute hardest to swim and make it to shore. Doing nothing is doing something in this situation, as it cost a member of the crew his life. I 'm sure if they 'd tried earlier in the morning they would have been able to save the exhausted oiler from his untimely and unnecessary death. Time is certainly of essence, especially when each passing second drained the tiniest bit of the oiler’s energy and ultimately led to his downfall. I think that, over all, Murakami brings his piece to an end very fluidly, and brings closure to the readers about the main character finally getting some sleep. He makes sure to offer a proper explanation to the events proceeding his life-changing event, while "The Open Boat" is a very
entertaining tale that makes you think twice about making timely decisions, and focuses more on the real way that the event plays out. Both stories lapse over a period of time: in Murakami’s case, a stressful lifetime and in Crane’s, a lonesome night.
Sonntag 6
Works Cited/References
1. Murakami, Haruki. "The Seventh Man." Geocities. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.geocities.jp/yoshio_osakabe/Haruki/Books/SeventhMan-E.html>.
2. Crane, Stephen. "The Open Boat." WSU.edu. WSU, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.
<http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/crane/open.htm>.
Comparison/Contrast Paper
Written by Ashley Sonntag
Sonntag 1
Ashley Sonntag
COMP II
11:00-11:50
10/1/14
The 7th Boat Every year, an unreported amount of people die at sea or from ocean-related causes. Drowning, salt contamination and other ailments cause an assortment of problems for sea-loving people, as well as hurricanes, typhoons, and disasters like erosion. Some even believe what once belonged to the sea always belongs to the sea and she will take what is rightfully hers. In both “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami and “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, the parallels of a harsh and unforgiving ocean are clearly presented by the tone and the setting of either piece. However, the impact of the ocean …show more content…
's clutches are presented in very different ways throughout either piece. To open, the visual cues and tone of both pieces set the mood as entirely somber and even foreboding. In “The Seventh Man”, Murakami highlights the “black nothingness” of the sky as the Seventh man illustrates his story to the people in the room(1). This has an oppressive feel and makes the reader feel overburdened by darkness. On the other hand, the way that Crane describes the atmosphere in “The Open Boat” is presented as “None of them knew the color of the sky”(1), indicating that the four men are occupied in keeping the boat afloat and fighting for their lives for it. In both stories the absence of color in the sky signifies the dreary and foreboding feel of the story, as well as the fact that neither protagonists can accurately describe the sky 's color, and mention its difference from normal. One can almost imagine both
Sonntag 2 stories playing out as if they were in a black and white film, with the atmosphere the language presents in specific ways. Both the people on the boat and the Seventh Man experience a dulling of their senses and this further heightens the image of helplessness. In both stories, the images of waves are described “barbarously”(1) and “colossal”(2), giving the reader a sense of the tremendous power in the ocean and the waves along with it. In “The Seventh Man”, the protagonist experiences loss in two huge waves that tear his entire life apart, while in “the Open Boat”, wave after continuous wave tired out the crew of the boat and make it less likely with each passing wave that they will make it ashore safely. The parallel here is both protagonists’ inability to handle the overbearing situation brought to them by the merciless sea. Ocean Safety is lightly highlighted in the beginning of both stories in that the ocean is an untamed beast and must be treated with extreme caution. However, while “The Seventh Man” centers around this specific wave that he experiences as a young boy that wrecks through his future life, “The Open Boat” revolves around the relentless ocean and the four men 's inability to predict and properly deal with the waves constantly flowing over the four of them as they try to get ashore. Furthermore, personification of the ocean and its waves are littered throughout both stories multiple times. Both stories almost depict the ocean as a sort of being that is working towards taking the protagonists under and smothering them out of existence, and the characters see it that way and fear it as such.
Sonntag 3
As each slaty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and it was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean, the last effort of the grim water. There was a terrible grace in the move of the waves, and they came in silence, save for the snarling of the crests. (2)
This is personification that Crane uses to amplify the despair that these characters, and himself, felt while encountering the great sea. The adjectives used here are very aggressive and indicate the way that the men in the boat fear for their own lives. “Outburst”, “grim”, and “snarling” are harsh words that bring out the cold and abrupt fear that ruins through the men encountering each frothing wave. In "The Open Boat", as all of the men are trying their hardest to keep the boat afloat long enough for them to get ashore, the oiler is really starting to wear down. Presumably, he had been working in the bowels of the ship and tried to keep the ship afloat for the longest time- so long that he was the last person off of the ship. Whereas, in "The Seventh Man", his best friend 's fear and confusion caused K to be swallowed up by the sea, and the Seventh Man 's survivor 's guilt reigns strong. He entirely believes that he is the sole reason that the sea pulled K in when he was young, how he shouldn 't have asked him to come out to the breakwater and walk along the beach with him. These deaths are similar in the sense that the waves took them in but they are mostly very different. K had no idea what was going to hit him until the very last second, no way to be able to avoid it, while on the other hand, the oiler had be avoiding death the entire span of the story and succumbed to its clutches due to his lack of perseverance and
Sonntag 4
exhaustion.
Murakami focuses on the after effects of K 's death to the Seventh Man, while "The Open Boat" is almost entirely focused on the immediate action that occurs while the men fight for their lives on the sea. The Seventh Man has serious trouble with every-day life after the ordeal and ends up moving away from the sea and never goes back to his hometown until many, many years afterward. The ending of "The Open Boat" almost seems anticlimactic in compared to the other story, since it cuts off with many questions therein unanswered. What happens to the remaining men? Are they too wracked with survivor 's guilt in the oiler 's death? At least Murakami begins and closes the story with the protagonist being there and in an older state, helping the reader understand the long-term effects of something that devastating happening to the Seventh Man at a young …show more content…
age. "The Seventh Man" lacks in a long sequence of events that "The Open Boat" is praised for, while it excels in areas that "The Open Boat" does not: leaving hidden meanings to be interpreted by the reader as well as giving a good depiction of grief and feelings of despair. “The way I see it, the true fear for us as human being is not terror as such,” the man said after a little while. “Terror certainly exists there....It manifests itself in various forms, and from time to time overwhelms our very existence as human beings. But the most fearful thing of all is to turn your back on that fear, to close your eyes to it. By doing that, we end up alienating the very most essential part of our make-up. In my case--it was a wave.”
Sonntag 5
The Seventh Man explains a wide variety of things in a short speech, like the actual scale of the fear that ran his blood cold the day K was taken out to sea, and puts a life lesson or morale into it.
The wave is the entire reason that he is the way that he is when telling the story, because it has impacted his life so greatly. He shows that even though he was frozen by the fear and had no way of escaping it he did learn, eventually, how to live with this immovable fear. In "The Open Boat" the men almost seem like this is a frivolous matter- they even go so far as to get mad at the people that they believe are coming to save them. They just sat back and relaxed in the boat, smoking cigars like arrogant aristocrats instead of making a last ditch effort and trying their absolute hardest to swim and make it to shore. Doing nothing is doing something in this situation, as it cost a member of the crew his life. I 'm sure if they 'd tried earlier in the morning they would have been able to save the exhausted oiler from his untimely and unnecessary death. Time is certainly of essence, especially when each passing second drained the tiniest bit of the oiler’s energy and ultimately led to his downfall. I think that, over all, Murakami brings his piece to an end very fluidly, and brings closure to the readers about the main character finally getting some sleep. He makes sure to offer a proper explanation to the events proceeding his life-changing event, while "The Open Boat" is a very
entertaining tale that makes you think twice about making timely decisions, and focuses more on the real way that the event plays out. Both stories lapse over a period of time: in Murakami’s case, a stressful lifetime and in Crane’s, a lonesome night.
Sonntag 6
Works Cited/References
1. Murakami, Haruki. "The Seventh Man." Geocities. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.geocities.jp/yoshio_osakabe/Haruki/Books/SeventhMan-E.html>.
2. Crane, Stephen. "The Open Boat." WSU.edu. WSU, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.
<http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/crane/open.htm>.