The story "The Open Boat" is sad and depressing, but at the same time it shows how people can bond together through any circumstances and secure a bond that will stand many tests. In "The Open Boat", we learn of four survivors from an earlier sinking of their boat. The men are struggling to survive in their little dingy and all of them must work tirelessly, nonstop in order to keep the boat afloat. The men are: an oiler, the captain, the correspondant, and the cook. While the other three men work, the captain directs the dingy from the head.
As the story progresses the men find land. They rejoice and celebrate their feat! The correspondant even shares his last four cigars with his "brothers". However, the water is so rough and because there is no one out to help them ashore, they can't row ashore. Finally, the men believe they see a lone man on the shore. They wait out the night in hopes that help is coming to their rescue, but of course no one comes.
When morning comes, the captain suggests that the group get as close as they can and then it is each man for himself to swim to the shore. As the men make a break for it in the icy waters, a man plunges into the water from the shore to help save the men. Three of the men survive, but the oiler was not so lucky.
In this story, I learned that it is important to trust other people. Humans all have an innate desire to live. Sometimes, the only thing you have in life to live for is the hope that everything will get better. Throughout having hope though, you have to act. You cannot wait for others to come and row your boat ashore, you have to fight. You have to show an inner strength for never giving up during the hard times.
It is easy to give up and it is also easy to let someone else do the hard work for yourself. In the story the men had worked so hard and then wanted others to finish the jobs for them. No one came. However when they showed that they wanted to fight for their lives, help came. It was a battle to live but three of the four men were lucky.
Sometimes you're going to be that one man who doesn't get what you have worked hard for. It doesn't mean that you put in less effort or didn't deserve it, it just means you didn't have the luck that time. In this story, the luckless man would be the oiler. He worked just as hard as the rest of the men, but didn't get pulled ashore.
Question: Have you ever been that one person who didn't get what they deserved? How did it feel?
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