The climax of the story seems at first to be the big fight between Johnnie and the Swede. Yet, the story continues, and the true climax occurs when the Swede is killed in the bar. This is followed by a coda in which the Easterner and the cowboy discuss the situation months later. Their discussion also provides expository information regarding the fate of the gambler who kills the Swede, as well as the circumstances surrounding his death.
At one point, Crane slips briefly into the first person narrative: “We picture the world as thick with conquering and elate humanity, but here, with the bugles of the tempest pealing, it was hard to imagine a peopled earth” (Crane 108). This is the only time in which Crane does so in “The Blue Hotel.” Otherwise, the story is told entirely from the third person.
The Swede was belligerent almost from the beginning. It does not help that he is practically a foreigner who cannot easily conform to the traditions of the people he meets. He is burly and picks fights. It is no surprise that when he grabs the gambler’s throat, having previously boasted of his victory in a fight, the gambler defends himself. Keeping his hand on the gambler’s shoulder was bad enough. Poetic justice is satisfied when the Swede, so inappropriate in this community, dies through his own mistakes.
After the Swede is killed, his body is described as having “its eyes fixed upon a dreadful legend that dwelt atop of the cash-machine: ‘This registers the amount of your purchase’” (Crane 112). In other words, the Swede has “bought” his death. His expectations of Western violence became a self-fulfilling prophecy. His anticipation of witnessing and experiencing Western violence has backfired.
A final stroke of irony occurs in the coda. The reader learns from the Easterner’s conversation with the cowboy that Johnnie was in fact cheating; the Swede’s accusation was thus correct. The Easterner takes a community perspective and acknowledges his complicity in the Swede’s death, as though it is the whole cultural and social environment that is to blame. Yet, in the face of the Easterner’s reasoning, the cowboy insists that he is not to blame. From this alternative point of view, people make their own choices and risks and then meet their own consequences.
The climax of the story seems at first to be the big fight between Johnnie and the Swede. Yet, the story continues, and the true climax occurs when the Swede is killed in the bar. This is followed by a coda in which the Easterner and the cowboy discuss the situation months later. Their discussion also provides expository information regarding the fate of the gambler who kills the Swede, as well as the circumstances surrounding his death.At one point, Crane slips briefly into the first person narrative: “We picture the world as thick with conquering and elate humanity, but here, with the bugles of the tempest pealing, it was hard to imagine a peopled earth” (Crane 108). This is the only time in which Crane does so in “The Blue Hotel.” Otherwise, the story is told entirely from the third person.The Swede was belligerent almost from the beginning. It does not help that he is practically a foreigner who cannot easily conform to the traditions of the people he meets. He is burly and picks fights. It is no surprise that when he grabs the gambler’s throat, having previously boasted of his victory in a fight, the gambler defends himself. Keeping his hand on the gambler’s shoulder was bad enough. Poetic justice is satisfied when the Swede, so inappropriate in this community, dies through his own mistakes.After the Swede is killed, his body is described as having “its eyes fixed upon a dreadful legend that dwelt atop of the cash-machine: ‘This registers the amount of your purchase’” (Crane 112). In other words, the Swede has “bought” his death. His expectations of Western violence became a self-fulfilling prophecy. His anticipation of witnessing and experiencing Western violence has backfired.A final stroke of irony occurs in the coda. The reader learns from the Easterner’s conversation with the cowboy that Johnnie was in fact cheating; the Swede’s accusation was thus correct. The Easterner takes a community perspective and acknowledges his complicity in the Swede’s death, as though it is the whole cultural and social environment that is to blame. Yet, in the face of the Easterner’s reasoning, the cowboy insists that he is not to blame. From this alternative point of view, people make their own choices and risks and then meet their own consequences.
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