Yea it just all depends on the way the teacher assigned it you can maybe try doing something like a new paper for each paragraph or something idk
The author of the story is implicating that this person is a “hard lump of clay” or a “hard glinty coal” in the sentenc. Notice how in both of these examples they mention the word hard, and an object that is dull. They <em>could</em> be saying that this person was hard to befrend, talk to or whatever the content is and that they seem like a dull person.
For example, let’s call them Henry.
”Henry was a hard person to get to know, he was always very dull.”
The idea that Crane tried to explain is the idea of conquering your fear. Throughout the story, these men sought to overcome their fear of dying in the middle of the ocean. Fear is one of the human emotion that men often felt when they are put into a helpless and hard situation.