Who is a hero in the open boat?

Answer 1

I feel that you can argue for three of the four characters being heroes in this story, namely the Captain, the Oiler and The Correspondent. How we define a 'hero' effects who we can consider for the post also.

The Captain can be considered a hero because he leads the men through the adverse conditions. He has been injured and has suffered the significant trauma of losing his ship, but continues to remain authoritative and competent throughout. We can consider the Captain as the hero of 'The Open Boat' for these reasons.

A stronger argument could be made for the character of the Oiler. The Oiler works the hardest of all the characters and, furthermore, has perhaps the greatest excuse to be exhausted. He worked a double shift in the boiler room previous to the wrecking of the ship but still carries on rowing uncomplainingly. He is a hero because of the sacrificial heroism of his actions. As an aside he can be considered a tragic hero, due to the very unfair way in which he perishes, the man most deserving to live instead dies, tragically so.

The last candidate is the correspondent. His character can be seen as the central figure in my opinion. His thoughts are generally the most accessible to the audience throughout. His character is also analogous to Crane himself and his real life ordeal at sea as a war correspondent. Therefore we could perhaps see him as a hero, not by dint of his actions (though he works hard) but instead his role in the story as pseudo-narrator, font of thought and his links to the real world author..