The Crane Stages

Gustavo Quintero
English 48B
February 21, 2008
Journal #25 Stephen Crane



Quote:
"These waves were most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall, and each froth-top was a problem n small oat navigation"(Crane 1000).


Summary:
The narrator is describing the size and power of the storm and the waves that the Captain and the crew is confronted with.



Response:
As we discussed in class on Wednesday this story evolves into separate stages. The above quote is an example of the early stages of the "Crane Stages". As the captain and his crew face the giant storm they all quickly realize that they are in the midst of a life and death survival situation. Early in the "Crane stages" is the stage where an individual curses the gods. Why is this happening to me? This question is posed as one confronts the survival situation they are in. It is crass and egotistic for a human to think that nothing bad should happen to them. What we fail to realize as humans, on this planet, is that we are not in control; Mother nature is. We cannot control the weather,earthquakes, tsunamis, nor the winds. So just how realistic is if for us to think that nothing bad happens to the good person. Such is the case for the crew on the ship. They all initially feel as if this should not be happening to them. This should be happening to another crew. Their justify this by asking why this would happen to a crew that has traveled so far on the sea and are within eyesight of land. As Scott said, " How hideous to die within sight of land". Is this not the first reaction that we would all jump to. For example if you have your car broken into or you use your wallet and find out that someone is using your credit card your first reaction is, Why me? Humans must think that nothing will bad will ever happen to us and that we are in control of our environment. What we do not realize is that bad things will happen to good people and we are not on control of our environment. as the story progresses we will see the rest of the stages that humans go through in a life and death situation.