“A Man Adrift on a Slim Spar” is a deterministic story that provides the reader with less description, yet much more powerful imagery. Crane uses words that create an emphasis on the rhythm but also through sound. Crane illustrates to us a lonely passenger on a voyage through the sea. An “assassin” if you would, with “A weary slow sway of a lost hand” (Crane). The man, much like mice, silently submits to the overbearing sea.
He is alone with nothing around him but the endless crests and the never ending green of the ocean water. He has no choice, nor and will to make one if he were given the opportunity. Crane also creates a vivid image of the waves crashing around the man. “The incessant raise and swing of the sea” (Crane) gives the illusion of massive waves moving to and from. As if they were being pulled into the heavens and dropped back down, crashing into the earth. He suggests that the man might be saved, by turning the oceans into spray and giving the man a gesture of pity. But this does not happen; once again suggesting the coldness of God.
The poem gives the reader a sense of darkness and despair. The vivid words move from line to line as you can image the beaten man floating adrift in the unforgiving ocean. The poem provides the reader with a much more visual experience. You aren’t left to think there is hope for the characters. “A Man Adrift on a Slim Spar” adheres to the classic naturalistic style of writing and gives focus to an indifferent universe.
Indifferent Universe is a literary style used to show unrelenting mother earth and its unconcerned attitude towards humans. It gives the reader an image of a bleak situation where regardless of the characters actions the unforgiving universe will continue to move on unaffected. It makes you think about how small you really are, in a sea of people and things where there is so much going on.
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