Meet the Cast
The Correspondent
The correspondent may or may not also be the narrator. (He is.)
He also may or may not be Stephen Crane himself. (He is.)
So, is there any difference between the three? (Yes.)
This story i...
The Oiler
The oiler is the only character in "The Open Boat" whose name
is mentioned in the story—it's Billie. While all the other characters,
including our narrator, remain anonymous, Crane has the oiler...
The Captain
There's a lot going on with the captain—we can't forget, on top of
being stuck in a lifeboat, he just lost his entire ship to the sea. Since the
story is told from the correspondent's perspective...
The Cook
We like the cook, he just seems like a good guy to us, you know? We
feel kind of bad for him, too. The poor guy, he should be in the kitchen,
cooking us up some delicious dinner, but instead he's s...