Overcoat

"The Open Boat" written by Stephen Crane consists of a lot of repetitions, most of them coming from the four men's dialogues. One of the object repeated in this story is a coat, a type of clothing with sleeves, usually worn over something. At first, an overcoat is worn by the captain, offering him protection and warmth in the middle of the ocean. The overcoat, then, is suggested and is used as a sail:

"I wish we had a sail," remarked the captain. "We might try my overcoat on the end of an oar and give you two boys a chance to rest." So the cook and the correspondent held the mast and spread wide the overcoat(Bohner and Grant 343).

This coat is used as a device to make their traveling a little more efficient: by using it so, the four stranded men were able to get closer to the shoreline. After they were able to see the land, "The correspondent[,]...in the top pocket of his coat,...found therein eight cigars [and] with an assurance of an impending rescue shining in their eyes, [they] puffed at the big cigars"(Bohner and Grant 344). The coat then, is used as a provider for the cigars, which the men were trying to relax their feelings with. However, because they seemed they were relaxing and enjoying themselves, the people on the shore do not get a conception that the men are stranded. A man, who sees the dingy with the four men in it, waves his own coat:

"That ain't a flag, is it? That's his coat. Why, certainly, that's his coat."
"So it is. It's his coat. He's taken it off and is waving it around his head. But would you look at him swing it"(Bohner and Grant 346-47).

This coat, is used as a object of torture for the men. The four men, at first, takes it as a signal for rescue. It wasn't so, however, and they end with nothing, at least at the moment. Coats, which protected, helped, soothed, and tortured them, nevertheless, is discarded of, at the end when a man tries to save the men: "Presently he saw a man running along the shore. He was undressing with most remarkable speed. Coat, trousers, shirt, everything flew magically off him" (Bohner and Grant 354). Showing the uselessness at that time. The repeated use of the object, each time for different purposes, shows the possibility of one thing or one person: it depends on how one uses something, or does something at specific events or happenings. Also indicating that important things could be completely useless at times.