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Cook
The life-saving man is the person who notices the four shipwreck survivors swimming toward the shore. After saving the cook, he tries to help the captain, who points him toward the correspondent first. He is also the first person to discover that the oiler drowned. The only time he speaks is to exclaim “What’s that?” at the sight of the oiler lying face-down in the shallow water. The life-saving man is completely naked and shines “like a saint” with a “halo” above his head—praised by the narrator and characters for how he goes out of his way to help other people.
Life-saving man Quotes in The Open Boat
The The Open Boat quotes below are all either spoken by Life-saving man or refer to Life-saving man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part VII Quotes
He was naked, naked as a tree in winter, but a halo was about his head and he shone like a saint.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, the narrator describes the man who wades into the water to save the men. The man is compared to an angel and a saint—the first and only significant references to Christianity in the story. Given Stephen Crane’s Christian upbringing and subsequent rejection of religion, along with all the references to mythology throughout “The Open Boat,” this reference to angels and saints feels out of place. However, upon closer look, the passage doesn’t suggest that the man is a divine savior. Instead, the man is a fully human savior, as emphasized by his nakedness. The man’s halo may Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore.
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Life-saving man Character Timeline in The Open Boat
The timeline below shows where the character Life-saving man appears in The Open Boat. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part VII
The correspondent notices what looks to be a life-saving man running across the shore and stripping off his clothes. Just then, a massive wave sweeps...
(full context)
The life-saving man on the shore who had been running and undressing lugs the cook to shore and...
(full context)
The life-saving man suddenly cries out, “What’s that?” and points, and the correspondent tells him, “Go.” In the...
(full context)
