How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
A high cold star on a winter's night is the word he feels that she says to him. Thereafter he knows the pathos of his situation. (6.5)
This is a pretty classic illustration of someone realizing the insignificance of one measly human life in the grand scheme of things. While sitting in a boat in empty vastness of the sea, the correspondent looks up at a tiny twinkling speck of light in the night sky and starts to understand that in the grand scheme of things, between the wide open sea and endless night skies, his life is pretty insignificant. So yeah, in case you weren't feeling small enough before, that'll do the trick.
Quote #8
On the distant dunes were set many little black cottages, and a tall white wind-mill reared above them. [. . .] The correspondent wondered if none ever ascended the tall wind-tower, and if then they never looked seaward. This tower was a giant, standing with its back to the plight of the ants. It represented in a degree, to the correspondent, the serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individual—nature in the wind, and nature in the vision of men. She did not seem cruel to him, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she was indifferent, flatly indifferent. It is, perhaps, plausible that a man in this situation, impressed with the unconcern of the universe, should see the innumerable flaws of his life and have them taste wickedly in his mind and wish for another chance. (7.2-3)
Wow, are you as surprised as we are? It's not every day you read a story that flat out says, "This is a symbol—pay attention, it's symbolic." So the windmill, with its back turned to the cottages, represents the indifference of the universe. Crane finds it cruel that the windmill would keep its (metaphorical) back turned and ignore the suffering beings on earth—do you agree? Let's think about it a little differently—it's like when our dog is barking for some reason, but you turn your back to it to ignore it. Sorry, Fido, it's not that we don't care about you, we just don't care about whatever you're barking about. At least, that's one way of thinking about it.
Quote #9
He did not pause swimming to inquire what manner of current had caught him, but there his progress ceased. The shore was set before him like a bit of scenery on a stage, and he looked at it and understood with his eyes each detail of it. (7.22)
Does the shore look like "scenery on a stage" because the correspondent has spent so long at sea that it doesn't seem real, or because he feels so separate from the natural world? It's also interesting that the narrator makes a point to mention that the correspondent doesn't bother asking questions about the current holding him, suggesting that he's mostly done complaining about nature messing with him. What a trooper.