Final answer:
The theme reflected by the last sentence in Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" is that only the lucky survive. The story exhibits Naturalist elements by depicting the characters at the mercy of an indifferent nature, and their survival is attributed to chance rather than strength or intellect. The correct option is D.
Step-by-step explanation:
The last sentence of the excerpt from Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat" likely reflects the theme D. Only the lucky survive. This theme aligns with the Naturalist perspective portrayed throughout the story, emphasizing the characters' struggles against a nature that is indifferent to human suffering.
Features of Naturalism in "The Open Boat" include the focus on the characters' grapple with the sea's impartiality, their lack of control over their situation, and how they are depicted as insignificant in the face of nature's vastness.
Billie the Oiler is likely the only man named to bring a sense of individuality amid the universal struggle against nature. The correspondent realizes the profoundness of their shared experience, leading to the epiphany that such a struggle, despite its horrors, was a pivotal experience in his life.
Regarding the correspondent's despair in wanting to throw bricks at the temple, it symbolizes the futility of railing against a universe that proves insensible to human efforts and desires. Nature in "The Open Boat" is characterized as a powerful, indifferent force, often hostile, that the survivors can neither comprehend nor overcome.
Finally, the last line in "The Open Boat" suggests a shift in the survivors' perspective where, after enduring the sea’s relentless challenges, they feel a profound connection to life's struggle and become 'interpreters' of the raw force of nature that they faced. The correct option is D.