What's the contrast between land and sea in The Hairy Ape, & what are the implications from the expressionist technique?

In life, Eugene O'Neill was extremely amazed with the sea
and long for it as a cathartic means for escape. It is easy, with a psychoanalytical
view to see the connection between O'Neill's life and O'Neill's works. He seemed unable
to separate the two sides of himself making a wonderful, heartbreaking dichotomy ripe
for investigation. The main focus of the play is on the boorish Yank who prefers his
home slaving on the ship at sea to one on land. In his sea home, Yank is clearly the
alpha-male. He feels this sense of power that few workers would have had within society
at this time. At sea, Yank feels at home just as O'Neill always commented on himself.
O'Neill's works have this idea of the sea bring peace to the tormented mind and the sea
being home. Mildred, dressed in white, broke Yank's image of his home. By calling him
"filthy beast" and a "hairy ape" she forces Yank to see how the rest of the world,
outside of his home, views him. Being confronted with this reality, Yank must amend this
wrong. In a sense, Yank needs to save face. If the upper class thinks that it can walk
over the lower class, Yank will prove it wrong. As he and Long walk the New York
streets, Yank acts more like an animal, bumping in to people and being rude. Once he is
released from his cage (the ship, the sea) he is unsure how to act and runs purely on
emotion (instincts). After being arrested, Yank learns that Mildred's father created his
metaphorical prison of a laborers and his actual prison cell. This serves to only
release the beast more, causing him to bend the bars and escape. Free from all his
prisons, Yank does not know what to do. After various other stops, Yank befriends a
caged gorilla. Yank has now accepted his animalistic persona relating himself to his
captured "brother". He releases the gorilla which in turn kills Yank. O'Neill has a lot
to say about the sea, but in the play he advocates the sea's ability to return a man's
humanity that the land/society slowly take away.