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... e had expected sympathy, if not help. " Also, Johnnie evidently felt that as the son of the proprietor he should make a direct inquiry" (Katz 8). By using this point of view, Crane makes the reader feel comfortable and literally involved in the story. Crane seems to deliberately Involve the reader in the Swede's death, by drawing the reader into disliking the Swede. The story condemns all of the characters that wish for the Swede's death, by exposing the Swede as innocent in the end. Crane exposes the reader as one of the plotters of the Swede's death.
We feel as though the Swede is asking to be killed, when seemingly the Swede causes the fight with Johnnie, the reader naturally takes the side of Johnnie. William B Dillingham, the author of "The Gentle Reader" in an online posting says how "few readers can deny that they felt much as the cowboy did in screaming, "Kill him! Kill him!" as the Swede and Johnnie fought. The cowboy seems to be a voice of our collected lust for violence, we all want Johnnie to win the fight.
In fact, the cowboy characterizes the readers emotions until the end, crying out "well I didn't do anything, did I?" Crane's point in creating this scenario is that our animal nature is part of the culprit, our animal nature to see the Swede dead. It is human nature that is condemned. In the end we get what we want, the Swede is killed. In the end the Swede is shown innocent as anyone else, the result is everyone is left ridden with quilt, including the reader, who is left only to ask, "well I didn't do anything, did I?" The setting of the story is in the wintertime in Fort Romper, Nebraska. Crane uses the cold and the blizzard to foreshadow that something tragic is going to happen. Crane again uses the setting by describing the hotel's color of blue as a misconception; Crane describes it as a color that draws people in it especially when the background is white with all the snow around.
As the Swede enters the saloon and the people inside seem very distant from him, this foreshadows that the Swede will be facing some problems; even the bar tender seems to view the Swede as an outcast (Katz 26 - 28). Crane uses symbolic structure in "The Blue Hotel" as well. Crane is very good at weaving in details and underlying messages that give the story it's subtle complexity. Manipulation of imagery is used by Crane to achieve hidden meanings in the story.
Themes that are fairly centered to the ideas behind naturalism can be found when focusing on Crane's imagery and picking it apart. One of these ideas that are carried throughout the story behind the facade of imagery is the idea of "man's inner nature as egocentric" (Crane 453), as detailed by the contrast of the house to the storm in which the storm represents the "fundamental conflict between man and his environment" (Gibson 128). Within the house, in the center of the room is the stove. The stove is referred to frequently and can be seen as man's inner nature that "burns with elemental aggressions" (Crane 269) as the stove is described as "humming with a godlike violence" (267). The card game symbolizing power and order and then having them violently thrown to the floor and trampled on when the Swede accuses Johnnie of cheating. Jan Kadar filmed "the Blue Hotel" in 1974 attracted to the temporary ideas of Stephen Crane's work.
In the beginning after the men arrive at the hotel Scully brings in fresh water and towel for the travelers to wash up. The Swede although hesitant dips his fingertips into the water and drops the towel into the water and turns away. Kadar uses this to show the Swede's thought of being in an uncivilized land in a non-respectable place. The music plays while Johnnie shuffles the cards.
You feel as if something intense is about to happen. Then Johnnie ask the men to a friendly game of high five. The jellybeans are a distraction to Johnnie cheating. Johnnie is even shown looking at the Swede's cards. One thing I wondered about when I watched the movie that I didn't see when I read the story was why did Scully show the Swede the picture of his dead daughter when he was trying to convince the Sweden that he was in a safe place with civilized people. When the Swede tells of his feelings of being killed he is shown backing up in the dark corners as if to hide.
Like a wild animal would do when scared. The Swede is seen as an unpredictable crazy wild man. While eating the viewer is suddenly outside in the howling wind looking in the window as if to be waiting to be let in. Kadar added dramatic confrontation that he expresses though the card game. Kadar staying faithful as possible to the original Crane changes the ending.
The Swede is killed in the hotel. In an interview conducted by Calvin Skaggs on April 18, 1977, Kadar says how "from a practical point of view, you cannot achieve so efficiently on film what Crane does in the story. In literature you can describe in one paragraph that these new people are in the saloon and whom the Swede is provoking. But in film you can't bring in new exposition at the last moment. " Kadar wanted to let all of the characters witness the destruction of the Swede, since all of them are responsible for destroying him. He says that seeing the Swede die is, "dramatically and emotionally, more powerful than just hearing about it. " Also, "keeping the last scene in the hotel emphasizes the quality of fate and destiny, of inevitability.
If the Swede had left one minute earlier, nothing would have happened to him. The stranger in our film, like the gambler in the saloon in Cranes story, is merely a dramatic designed to serve destiny. " Kadar was unable to capture the sense of the blizzard due to budget limitations. "A real blizzard would have added to the mood of the picture, " says Kadar. "The most important thing is the drama. "
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Research essay sample on Point Of View Animal Nature
