In his short story, "The Open Boat," Stephen Crane shows us a Universe totally unconcerned with the affairs of humankind; it is an indifferent Universe in which Man has to struggle to survive. The characters in the story come face to face with this indifference and are nearly overcome by Nature's lack of concern. They survive only through persistence and cooperation. The story opens with four men, known simply as the captain, the oiler, the …showed first 75 words of 444 total…

…showed last 75 words of 444 total…to them that their situation is hopeless. At one point, one of the men asks the captain if he thinks they will make it, to which the captain replies "If this wind holds and the boat don't swamp, we can't do much else." Statements like these, along with Crane's journalistic prose, show the futility that the men feel in the face of indifference, yet it also makes evident the fact that there is still hope