Name Nikki Hodgins
Date April, 2008
Track initial impressions of characters and then note the final outcome for each character in the conclusion of “The Open Boat”, citing passages from the text that reveal elements of their character.
Character
Captain
Cook
Description
Like the father of the group.
Everyone consults him before making decisions. He is a calm old man that seems to have earned the respect of his crew and I think this excerpt of the storey gave me a good idea of who he is “ The hurt captain, lying against the water-jar in the bow, spoke always in a low voice and calmly, but he could never command a more ready and swiftly obedient crew than the motley three of the dinghy. It was more than a mere recognition of what was best for the common safety. There was surely in it a quality that was personal and heartfelt.”
The most cheerful of
Strengths/
Weaknesses
Weakness:
He puts others before himself:
ex: “He dragged ashore the cook, and then waded toward the captain, but the captain waved him away, and sent him to the correspondent.”
Fate of Character
He is the second one to make it to shore. The cook used the man on shores help, but the captain made it on his own. the group. The cook seems to be the only one on the boat with a positive attitude. He tries to look on the bright side of things while the rest of the group only focuses on their terrible situations and all the possible bad outcomes. egs.
All right, captain," said the cheerful cook.” The cook's head
Strength:
His positive outlook must have been what kept the cook going to the end. To me, being able to look on the positive side is much harder than being negative, so it shows he has mental strength.
The cook was the first person to be dragged ashore by the man on the beach. was on a thwart, and he looked without interest at the water under his nose. He was deep in other

scenes. Finally he spoke. "Billie," he murmured, dreamfully, "what kind of pie do you like best?" the cook thinks of other things, while all anyone else can focus on is drowning. He also seems to be used as comic relief when he says such things as “ correspondent The correspondent seems to become the main character of the storey. I later come to find
This is because he is the author of the storey; he just doesn’t portray himself through the first person point of view. He and the oiler seem to do the most work on the boat as they are the rowers.
Coincidentally I also see the correspondent and the oiler as the most pessimistic people on the boat. The correspondent complains throughout the storey about how he hates the task of rowing instead of just accepting the fact that that is what he needs to do in order to survive. For example he is the only one complaining in this part of the storey: The correspondent wondered ingenuously how in the name of all that was sane could there be people who thought it amusing to row a boat. It was not an amusement; it was a diabolical punishment,…. He mentioned to the boat in general how the
He let the situation get to him too much. He didn’t have any hope in this situation.
Towards the end of the storey he was thinking about the dying soldier that would never go home, and thinking to himself that he should just give up and drown.” In his struggle to reach the captain and the boat, he reflected that when one gets properly wearied, drowning must really be a comfortable arrangement, a cessation of hostilities accompanied by a large degree of relief, and he was glad of it, for the main thing in his mind for some moments had been horror of the temporary agony.” In this sort of situation, most people would be fighting for their life, not considering giving up. If that large wave hadn’t
The correspondent ended up making it to shore after a bit of struggle with the help of the man from the shore.

Oiler amusement of rowing struck him, and the weary-faced oiler smiled in full sympathy. Previously to the foundering, by the way, the oiler had worked double-watch in the engine-room of the ship come, he might not have made it to shore.
The most well equipped to survive at sea. Not only is he strongest and the best at rowing, but he suggests most of the plans to the Captain about the next action they should take, which the
Captain then in turn decides to follow. Proof that he is strongest is “ The oiler was ahead in the race. He was swimming strongly and rapidly.” A suggestion he makes to the captain is “The oiler took the oars. Over his shoulders he scanned the surf.
"Captain," he said, "I think I'd better bring her about, and keep her head-on to the seas and back her in." "All right, Billie," said the captain.”
I think that the biggest weakness of the Oiler was that he overworked himself.
After working double watch in the engine room of the ship, he hadn’t gotten much sleep or food, and the captain warned not to
“spend himself”, and yet he rowed after he was tired, barely giving himself a break.
“ The plan of the oiler and the correspondent was for one to row until he lost the ability, and then arouse the other from his sea-water couch in the bottom of the boat. The oiler plied the oars until his head drooped forward, and the overpowering sleep blinded him. And he rowed yet afterward.
Overworking himself probably caused him to tire out in the end.
Ironically, although he did seem the strongest of the group, he ended up being the only one who dies in the end
(possibly because he was working the hardest to row the boat and keep the others alive).