“The Open Boat” is a short story of endurance, suffering, and redemption. The story focuses on four interesting sailors on a journey towards survival. They try their best to overcome the adversities of the water and the raging storm. Crane focuses on man's constant struggle to control his own life. “The Open Boat” is what some call nonfiction fiction. It is generally considered simple fiction, but many lean towards its non-fictional quality. Crane wrote the story based on his real-life experience of a shipwreck that he tragically endured. The Commodore, as the ship was called, fell victim to the waves and Crane just happened to be one of its friends. He wrote 2 articles based on this tragedy, but “The Open Boat” became the best way for him to visualize his fight. The correspondent is the fictional form of the writer himself. Crane didn't focus on the correspondent as much as he focused on the tanker. Billy Higgins is the only character in the short story who is named in the story. The tanker gets its name from Crane's memory of the sailor's death. “The Open Boat” itself presents all of these thoughts and facts in one frame. “The Open Boat” offers forms of analysis through characterization models, shipwrecks and autobiographical information. “The Open Boat” uses characterization to analyze the forms of survival that come from the characters in the realistic fiction short story. The tanker, the correspondent, the captain and the cook all embody the different personalities dealing with the shipwreck. According to Joseph, the story's characterization features four characters who were mistreated by nature during a devastating shipwreck. The correspondent, the captain, the cook and the escaped tanker are the maj...... middle of paper ......10. Gale Literary Resources. Internet. January 14, 2014.Hodgins, Nikki. “Annot character.” pagepanthers.wikispaces.com. Np, and Web. February 19, 2014. .LaFrance, Marston. "'The affair that pleased him.'." A reading by Stephen Crane. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971. 192-242. Rep. in News Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Flight. 129. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Library Resources. Internet. January 14, 2014. Metzger, Charles R. “Realistic Devices in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat.” » The Midwest Quarterly 4.1 (October 1962): 47-54. Rep. in News Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Flight. 70. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Gale Library Resources. Internet. January 14, 2014. “The Open Boat.” Review of a short story. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Flight. 70. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Gale Library Resources. Internet. January 14. 2014.