The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane - Essay Example

The story plot is manifested through a Swede who comes to the hotel in Nebraska that is near a train station, filled with romantic visions of the violence of the Western U.S. Crane uses the element of color to elaborate his perception. The Palace Hotel was painted light blue, a dimness that caused the bird to assert it. The blue color of the hotel acts as a chromatic icon of the depressing human situation. The color also indicated beauty and attraction. The hotel owner, Scully convinces the Swede, an Easterner, and a cowboy to stay in his establishment.

Color is significantly used in the opening explanation of the principal setting. “The palace Hotel, then, was always screaming and howling in a way that made the dazzling winter landscape of Nebraska seem only a gray swampiest hush” (Crane 89). The Hotel; is as well anthropomorphized in this portrayal as it “screeches” and “howls”. According to the Swede, at least, it has an ominous character that suggests a pattern of murderers. Crane’s chief character is referred to as the Swede throughout the whole story.

He is the main antagonist in the story as he is convinced that actors around him are trying to murder him. From the initial stages, he annoys those near him and makes them uncomfortable. He later starts fights and becomes obnoxious. The Swede cannot pass for the protagonist since it is evident from the story that without him the other characters might have understood each other without any problems. He prompts the action and operates antagonistically to the other characters. His identity is concealed, and he is always referred to as the Swede to indicate his unfitting.

The Swede is stressed to exhibit him as being an outsider in the setting just by virtue of his heritage; therefore, in a way setting up as an antagonist simply because of his “strangeness”, he is a stranger. The Swede is detached from the society shaped by the other men. This is clearly exhibited when the men gang up to play the game of cards. The Swede attempts to appeal to the other men when he makes his argument on western violence. However, the easterner, Johnnie and the cowboy all deem not to comprehend him.

This further heightens the Swedes hysteria as well as solidifying his separation from the rest of the group. The other men react disliking to the Swede as they find him annoying and irritating (Crane, 200). The easterner analysis of the Swedes’ actions clarifies why the Swede started as fearful and ended up overcompensating the moment he thought he was unsafe. This elucidates the Swede sudden change in personality. The Swede was fearful initially, because of his perceptions of the ancient West, but when he realized he was safe, he decided to behave like his perceptions of the Old West, which was portrayed as violent playground filled with gamblers and frauds.

This, however, ended causing him trouble as those around him became hateful and annoyed toward him (Howe, 189). Another critical element in the story is the weather. The weather is personified as Crane portrays it with human qualities. He refers to it as having enormous arms that were making challenging, mighty and circular attempts of embracing the speeding flakes (Crane, 91). Although crane’s story is sequential in nature, the elements of theoretical recognized structure correspond perfectly with his somehow nonsensical divisions within