Open Boat

Nature is still indifferent to the man's presence because the weather would be the same regardless if the man was there. The man does not seem to be experienced enough to be able to survive what nature throws at him. He ignores everything that makes it obvious that it is extremely dangerous to travel. He was warned once by the old man to keep out of the cold and then warned again by nature after he fell into the snow. Yet he still goes out into the cold. The man falls through the snow and builds a fire under a spruce tree which causes the snow in the tree to melt and snuff out the fire. When the man made a second mistake, everything that happened became his fault because he was warned yet his still insisted on traveling. Yet Nature does not do all these things to the man. He did not have the instinct to know that he could possibly fall into the snow or the fact that building a fire under a tree was not a good idea. These unfortunate events just happen. Even though the man has methods to survive, he is at fault for being out in the cold because he decided to travel instead of having the instinct to stay out of the weather. The man does not lacks the intellect to know that all these events would happen as a result of his mistake, but lacks instinct to understand the consequences of his actions.

In "The Open Boat," the men were in a situation that they did not choose to be in, yet they were. The four men cannot conquer nature, but must find ways to survive together and adapt to the situation. They had to continuously work, and work together for one mistake could lead to their death. This is evident in the opening sentence "None of them knew the color of the sky." The statement implies that they could not see the sky because they had to devote all of their attention to the waves attacking their 10-foot dingy. The men feel that Nature is toying with them because they are still alive and the waves persist without any signs of stopping. After one wave passes, they must prepare for another. Even though is seems that the waves are relentless on their attacks on the boat, Nature is simply indifferent to the men in the insignificant boat because of the fact that the waves would be there whether the men were present or not.

Unlike the man in "To Build a Fire," the men in "The Open Boat" instinctively know exactly what they have to do together to survive, while the man does almost everything wrong and cannot even help himself. Nature in "The Open Boat" seems to attack the men without haste, although the events just happen to the men because they are just there. On the other hand, Nature in "To Build a Fire" simply watches the man make his mistakes and is not out to get him, while the dog does what is instinctively correct to survive. The man in "To Build a Fire" puts himself in situations that he could have easily avoided, while the men in "The Open Boat" are