The Open Boat

Throughout my reading I have found that Crane uses many symbolic objects to depict true-life events. He uses symbols such as towers, animals, and waves. Crane leaves so much to the reader's imagination that the story can be considered magical and mysterious. The composition leaves many details up to the readers inference, however after further research a full picture to the events that transpired that cold January are uncovered.
"The Open Boat," is very rich in symbolism. Symbolism evokes or describes ideas and feelings through the use of symbolic images. In chapter seven of "The Open Boat," the narrator describes a tower. "It was a giant, standing with its back to the plight of the ants" (Crane 297). The tower represents many different things. To the men in the boat the tower may represent freedom, hope, or a win against nature. While to the reader the quote may mean something else. The narrator leads me to believe that "ants" represent people, and one would believe that ants are low on the food chain and meaningless insects. In comparison it is kind of like a fight against man and nature.
When reading the story you see how cruel the sea is to the men and what a struggle it is to survive in nature's pool. Then again, the men crave for comfort of land and its soothing certain ways. But in between land and sea sky's a tower that may mean hope and may mean death. Crane symbolizes the nature of waves as he alludes to the nature of human life. "A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats." Life parallels this statement. Just as the boat recovers from one wave, another is on the way. This is the same structure human life takes daily. Therefore Crane is alluding to the fact that by symbolizing the waves to life itself he is making a statement about how