The story “The Blue Hotel,” by Stephen Crane, is the story of three travellers, a hotel owner, and his son. The three travellers come from very different backgrounds -- there is a cowboy, an Easterner, and a Swede -- but they all come to stay together in the same hotel. The Swede immediately thinks everyone is out to get him, he fears he will be killed. Because of this, the hotel owner Scully tries to make him feel at home, and brings him upstairs to have a drink. This does not have the intended effect and instead makes the Swede overconfident. His new attitude does not sit well with any of the others, and during a card game he accuses Scully’s son, Johnnie, of cheating. This, in turn, leads to a fistfight between the two men which the Swede wins. He decides to “celebrate” this win at a saloon, and as he tries to get others to join in his drinking he only ends up inciting violence from them as well, and he is killed. The central idea of “The Blue Hotel” is that alienation can result in dangerous consequences. This central idea is evident because we see from the very beginning that the Swede is different, the others are uneasy about him, as he is an outsider in the group, but he even alienates himself even further by not making any attempts to fit in. Instead of trying to get along and talking with the others, he “was especially …show more content…
However, the death of the Swede seems as if it creates a new hostility between the Easterner and the cowboy. The two disagree on whether the Swede should have died, whether Johnnie was cheating, and who is at fault. The Easterner claims that “We, [the] five of us, have shared in the murder of this Swede,” which only serves to anger the cowboy, who claims he hadn’t done anything (45). So even after the Swede’s death, it seems that he is still the cause of conflict
The Red Badge of Courage and The Blue Hotel: The Singular Love of Stephen Crane
Everything is criticized at every level in this story, the people by the main character, the main character by the author and even the story by the author as well. The cruel egoistic personality of Anders is definitely identifiable through these different levels of criticism. I will prove that the inner motivation of this behaviour derives from Anders' egoistic personality which sometimes makes him cruel against others, sometimes against himself. Furthermore, I will prove that whenever Anders criticizes somebody or something he actually tries to punish because of the imperfectness of the object. In order to make the referring to the different part of the story easier I divide it into three parts. The first part ends when the robbers appear at the door of the bank, the second ends when one of the robbers shoots at Anders and the left is the third part.
Conflict is opposition between two forces, and it may be external or internal,” (Barker). There are two styles of external conflict that can be examined within the plot of “Sonny’s Blues”. The first of these is character versus society. This is the outer layer of the external conflict observed between Sonny and the society, which his life is out casted from. The meat and potatoes of the external conflict however, is character versus character. Sonny lives a lifestyle that his brother seems to be incapable of understanding. The internal conflict lies within the narrator. It is his struggle to understand his brother that drives the plot. The climax occurs when Sonny and the narrator argue in the apartment. The argument stems from the narrators complete inability to understand Sonny’s drug usage and life as a musician, and Sonny’s feeling of abandonment and inability to make his brother understand him. This conflict appears to come to a resolve at the resolution as the narrator orders Sonny a drink following hearing Sonny perform for the first time. It appears as though this is the moment when the narrator begins to understand, perhaps for the first time, his brother the
Another interesting aspect the reader might recognize in these stories is the theme of acceptance and integration to something either known or unknown to them. Most of these stories deal with having to change who they are or what they would become like Nilsa, the boy, and others, they have all had to choose what they wanted for there life and accept the fact that if they did not take serious measures they would not be integrated into society prosperously.
Concerning "fear" in the story, Weiss says that "The Blue Hotel" deals with paranoid delusions. The Swede moves from "wary apprehension" to panic and "passive acceptance of annihilation", to becoming the aggressor and pursuer, then he regresses to being the pursued once again. He moves through these stages throughout the story and within the framework of the "game." Weiss writes that in order to avoid being hurt by his "pursuer", the Swede transforms himself into the pursuer. By moving from a panicked to a manic state, the Swede masters his feelings of self-esteem, alienation, and death.
Roth uses a series of flashbacks in order to convey a sense of chaos. Flashbacks are set within flashbacks and "the central plot- what happens to the Swede [and his family]- is set among smaller... subplots or partial plots- [what happens to the Swede's brother, their parents, and the narrator]" (). The novel begins at a 45th high school reunion attended by the narrator, Nathan Zuckerman. At this reunion in 1995, Zuckerman meets one of his old classmates Jerry Levov, who tells him about his recently deceased older brother Swede Levov. Jerry informs Zuckerman about the Swede's traumatic life after his daughter's involvement in the Vietnam anti war movement and the rest of the novel is compiled of Zuckerman's posthumous recreation of the Swede's life. As Zuckerman gets into the Swede's story, it appears as if everything is from the point of view of the Swede, whether it's reading about his thoughts as he watches an action, his emotions as he recounts an event or his tortured mind as he flashes back and re lives an event. These flashbacks and transitions from the reunion to the scenes in the Swede's life to the Swedes t...
As visitors approach one of the most beautiful inns in North Carolina they will be serenaded by the rhythmic thumping of the tires as they cross each cobblestone. The inn is like a massive wall of rocks that looks to be touching the blue sky. The red tile roof looks like a red cloud sitting atop this castle of rocks. These rocks were placed over one hundred years ago and still stand in their exact spot. From the parking area you can almost imagine the horse drawn wagons that had worked so hard to pull these massive boulders up to this very spot. You can see all the hard work that had went into clearing this mountain side for the inn to begin construction in the year 1912. If you listen very close you can just hear its history calling out to you.
People all over the world have conflicts. Whether they are small or big, no matter who you are, you will always experience the trauma of having enemies. Although, some peoples problems are blown so out of proportion, that it gets to a point where they just need to stop and get over it. Sometimes the conflict goes on for so long, that no one truly knows the real reason they are enemies in the first place. It has always just been that way. Humans need to realize it is ok to forgive and forget. In The Interlopers, the two men at least tried to make amends. Even if it wasn’t legitimate, it still shows a lot that they tried as they had been enemies for so long. In the short story of The Interlopers, the two men did not deserve the fate that happened to them as they made an effort to become friends, everyone should get a second chance, and no one deserves to die that way.
The story Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a story about people’s actions and the effect that they have on the environment and the people around them. The Narrator is the older brother and the keeper of Sonny after his mother passes away. It is his duty to watch over his younger brother and to help guide him through life and to make the correct decisions. This caused great distress for him because he was never able to control Sonny and the life that he chooses to live. Sonny is The Narrators brother and is a dynamic character who decides early on what he wants to do with his life. This creates a constant tug of war with his brother which ends with him denouncing his brother and they also ceased talking for a long time. Sonny is also addicted
Samsa’s thoughts highlight “this town is full of hatred and hostility, especially when my parents abandon and treat me poorly. It is a shame that some people’s economic statuses in the town make it difficult for them to fit in the society. I imagine the historic, cultural and social context of the story is based on some ominous creature. I believe that my role in the society is based on historical processes that I am unaware. I believe that the ethnic tension between three groups that were the Jews, Czechs, and Germans affects societal processes”.
“Hotel California” by The Eagles has been the recipient of much speculation since its release in 1976. Although many other interpretations exist including some which claim this song to be referencing drugs, much evidence suggests that “Hotel California” is, at least partly, making a statement about the lifestyle of drug and alcohol users particularly in the large cities of California. As with many songs, duality of meaning exists in “Hotel California.”
The story of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Hoffman, 2012) focuses on a group of British retirees who decide to travel for their retirement to less costly and exotic Indian retirement community/ hotel. The group is lured by promotions for the recently reconstructed Marigold Hotel and are surprised when they arrive to find the hotel in disarray. Though the new surroundings is less luxurious than they had imagined, they are changed by their experiences.
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
...cuses on belonging somewhere so whole-heartedly, it literally consumes him the entire night that the Arab is in his house. He knows that being loyal to his nation is the right choice if he wants to belong to them but morally he knows that it is not his right to choose this man’s fate because he does not belong there in the first place.
At the beginning of the movie, Susan, who is an American tourist in Morocco, gets shot by a Moroccan boy, Yusef. Because of this, other tourists in the bus all scattered into the village. The scene in the village showed many examples of stereotypes and disconnection of the communications. The other tourists feel many stereotypes about the small village, and they get afraid. The stereotype that they have is the people in the village might hurt them; they think the people in the village are dangerous, and might take them as hostage for terror. They decide to leave the village without Susan and her husband, Richard. Richard asks them to wait, but the tourists did not want to. This scene of when Richard and the other tourists get into an argument exposes the selfishness that people have. Because of the stereotype and selfishness they had for each other, Richard and the tourists were not able to communicate well. They did not consider each other’s situations, did not listen to each other, and held fast to one’s view.