"Poet and biographer John Berryman suggested that there were three basic variations, or "norms", of Crane's narrative style.The first, being "flexible, swift, abrupt and nervous", is best exemplified in "The Red Badge of Courage", while the second ("supple majesty") is believed to relate to "The Open Boat", and the third ("much more closed, circumstantial and 'normal' in feeling and syntax") to later works such as "The Monster".