SOURCE: Munson, Gorham B. “Prose for Fiction: Stephen Crane.” In Style and Form in American Prose, pp. 159-70. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1929.

In the following essay, Munson outlines the plot of “The Open Boat” and provides a stylistic analysis of the story.

The Importance of Tone

So much has been said about le mot juste and so little about le ton juste! Yet failure or success in writing depends more upon the latter than upon the first. By an edifying accident, in the collection of Stephen Crane's short stories known in the Modern Library series as Men, Women, and Boats, his greatest short story, “The Open Boat,” was immediately followed by his worst failure, “The Reluctant Voyagers.”

The plot of “The Reluctant Voyagers” was good. Two men bicker with each other at the seaside; they swim out to a raft and bask there; in...