The Raft Theme

Theme
The theme of the story, “The Raft,” is whenever you are in a tough situation, never give up. The main character, Robbie, went through many tough situations throughout the story. An example would be when Robbie was “Fighting with every kick, every ounce of reserve I had left, the light got brighter, closer ,and i reached up”(Bodeen page 41). This quote shows how Robbie didn’t give up and saved herself from drowning. That's why I believe the theme of “The Raft” is whenever you are in a tough situation, never give up.

Conflict
There are many conflicts in this story. An example would be when Robbie was, “... in a raft in the middle of the ocean with no food or water, not knowing whether anyone would ever find us.” (Bodeen page 58) This quote was when Robbie was out on a raft in the middle of the ocean, and she wanted to know what was worse than being on a raft in the middle of nowhere and no chance of anyone knowing you were lost at sea.This conflict is woman vs. environment. “You’re not real! You’re dead! You were dead when I shoved you out of the raft.” (Bodeen page 171) This quote highlights a women vs. self conflict. Throughout the story Robbie talked to Max even though he was dead and in order to keep herself alive she had to throw max overboard to stop a leak. Her worst fear was being by herself and she conquered it by throwing max of the raft and in the water.

This is an example from the story, “Take this yellow raft and go to the edge of the plane, we need to jump, Max says. I immediately see the oxygen tubes drop from the ceiling, I needed to jump. I can't do it, I shouted. The plane is about to crash you need to jump, now, Max was yelling over the sirens. My feet were glued to the floor. Right then Max pushed me out of the plane.” This quote is from pages 31-33. I believe this is suspense because the reader doesn’t know what is going to happen