Stephen Crane the Naturalist
Stephen Crane (1871-1900), the naturalism, American writer. Stephen
Crane was well known for his naturalist style during his time. Naturalism in literature was a philosophy used by writers to describe humans in regards to the influences and interactions within their own environments. The characters described in the naturalist literatures were usually in dire surroundings and often from the middle to lower classes. Despite their circumstances however, humans within the naturalist literature were able to eventually overcome their situations by some form of courage or heroism, which Crane found to be consistent in all of the cultures and settings he often studied. After schooling at Lafayette College and Syracuse University, he worked in New York as a freelance journalist. His short stories and experimental poetry, also anticipated the ironic realism of the decades ahead. In his brief and energetic life, he published fourteen books while acting out, in his personal adventures, the legend of the writer as soldier of fortune. Among one of his works include “The Blue Hotel.” “The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane is a story about three travelers passing through Fort Romper, Nebraska. Pat Scully, the owner of the Palace Hotel, draws three men, a cowboy, an easterner, and a Swede to his hotel that is near the train station. In the hotel the three
men meet Johnnie, son of Scully, and agree to play a game of cards with him. The moment that the Swede arrives at the “The Blue Hotel” it is somehow, in the Swedes mind, transformed into a wild west hotel, by the many dime novels he has read, which made him even more uneasy about staying at the hotel. In one of the initial scenes his fear is evident as the nervous Swede announces that he knows that he wont get out of there alive. The Swedes fear of dying had made him want to leave the hotel, but Pat Scully, the owner of the Blue Hotel, attempted to get him to stay by showing him around the hotel and showing him pictures of his family. Scully shows the Swede some pictures of his children “That’s a picture of my little girl that died. Her name was Carrie. She had the purtiest hair you ever you ever saw! I was fond of her, she—“(Katz 12). Stephen Crane’s use of color in the episode helps to point out a pattern of death. Scully and the Swede first walk into a dark room and while Scully speaks...
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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.”
When Robert reaches Bailleul and stays the first night in a hotel, he immediately passes out in his room. He wakes once wondering what time it is the remembers the watch Barbara bought him. Although it is 1:30 Robert falls back asleep. He then wakes up later wondering if he has slept through an entire day; he gets up showers and makes way for Desole, this is a housing facility for the mentally ill as well as soldiers. While taking a shower the nurses and other inmates leave the room and turn off the light. Robert senses he is not alone, and asks “who’s there?” nobody replies, but he hears the sound of someone breathing. He is then approached by what seems like four men and is raped. Before the rapists leave Robert hears them say not to take any money or that will give their identities away, revealing to Robert that it was soldiers who committed the act.
Stephen Crane firmly cemented himself in the canon of American Romanticism with the success of works such as The Red Badge of Courage and "The Blue Hotel." His writing served to probe the fundamental depths of the genre while enumerating on the themes vital to the movement's aesthetic. Such topics as heartfelt reverence for the beauty and ferocity of nature, the general exaltation of emotion over reason and senses over intellect, self-examination of personality and its moods and mental possibilities, a preoccupation with genius and the heroic archetype in general, a focus on passions and inner struggles, and an emphasis on imagination as a gateway to transcendence, as well as a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, and folk culture are all characteristic of his stories.
In the novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Short Fiction by Stephen Crane, Crane tells a story about Maggie, a girl who lives in the slums of New York City in the 1800s with her family and friends. In novella it is portrayed that Maggie desperately tries to escape the slums, however, because of Maggie’s environment and social forces, it ultimately led to her downfall and demise within society.
The color blue is symbolizing comfort, soothing, and relaxing. Blue is the color of Paul’s dream world. He fantasizes about the opera, romance and finer things that don’t even exist in his life. The dream world eventually makes it impossible to live life in Pittsburgh. “He sits down before a “blue Rico” and ...
Crane's story is about a girl named Maggie who grew up in a life that would cause any person with feelings to have the utmost sympathy for her. To explain briefly; her brother was a roughneck in the community, her mother and father were alcoholics, a younger brother died at a young age, and they lived in a tenement building. Crane is described as a "realistic" author because of the way he describes the social environment and the stress of everyday life.
Now that the audience has a better understanding of “shining” and the natural psychic abilities that some people possess, including Dick Halloran and Danny Torrance, the Hotel gets its first mention.
...Jack found the hotel, and he found Mink, the man Babette was involved with, and the man who gave her this experimental drug for death disorder. Jack found a paranoid man, a man who will sit for hours in front of the TV with White Noise. Jack realized this person was out of his mind. (308-314)
To further illustrate how religion permeated into Crane’s writing, many scenes from The Blue Hotel can be cited. Similar to the biblical Three Wise Men (Stallman 487), three individuals out of the East came traveling to Palace Hotel at Fort Romper. The issue explored is the search for identity and the desire of an outsider (the Swede) to define himself through conflict with a society.
We all have fears and risks we face everyday. In Sonny’s Blues there are numerous accounts of genuine fear and unbelievable risks. The narrator of the story is the elder brother to Sonny. Sonny and the narrator go through hard times when their lives separate because of Sonny’s heroin addiction. He was arrested and the narrator resented him and his choices.
During the confrontation during the poker game, which immediately ends it, readers are exposed to the reality of Stella and Stanley’s
...ze and hotel were a maze for Jack, Wendy, and Danny. It will always be a wild journey in and out, and “The Shining” will always provide something new to mystify viewers. The movie will not quell the fears that Kubrick pulled out of the audience, but viewers are left to ponder and reflect on their meaning. And the Overlook Hotel is an embodiment of immortality and all the fears and unknowns associated with it.
Stephen Crane was a realistic, American author. He also wrote little bits of Naturalism and Impressionism. As a child, Crane was constantly sick. In fact, he was so sick that his parents worried he would not make it. After losing four children before Crane was born, Crane’s parents had reason to worry about losing him. Despite his unhealthy nature, Stephen taught himself to read by the age of four. Crane is seen as the most groundbreaking writer of his generation by many modern day authors. A major theme that is seen throughout Stephen Crane’s writing is the sense of ideal life versus reality. Crane’s poetry differed from other poets during his time because most of his poems were narratives. In his poem “In the Desert,” Crane illustrates that even though a person might not seem human because of their mistakes, the ability to overcome that emotion and not allow the negative aspects of life to consume the positive aspects is what considers a person human (Stephen Crane).
If it was not for Stephen Crane and his visionary work than American Realism would not have taken hold of the United States during the eighteen hundreds. During the years following the Civil War America was a melting pot of many different writing styles. Many scholars argue that at this time there was still no definite American author or technique. Up to this point authors in the Americas simply copied techniques that were popular in regions of Europe. Stephen Crane came onto the scene with a very different approach to many of his contemporaries. He was a realist, and being such he described actions in a true, unadorned way that portrayed situations in the manner that they actually occurred (Kaplan). He had numerous admired pieces but his most famous work was the Red Badge of Courage (Bentley 103). In this novel he illustrates the accounts of a Union soldier named Henry Fleming. At first the writing was considered too graphic and many people did not buy the book. Eventually the American people changed their opinions and began to gravitate towards Crane’s work. The readers were fascinated by the realistic environment he creates even though he himself had never fought in a war (Bentley 103). By spreading the influence of realistic writing Crane has come to be known as the first American Realist.
Weiss begins by pointing out how Crane used the stereotypical 1890's American West as his setting. The Swede comes to the Blues Hotel with the assumption that he will witness, if not be involved in, robberies and murders. The Swede was already experiencing inner fears about the West and when he was invited to join a friendly card game with Johnnie and the other customers of the Blue Hotel, his fears were heightened. When Scully calmed the Swede's nerves by giving him something to drink, the Swede undergoes a complete transformation and becomes what he considers to be a Westerner. The drinking, according to Weiss, returns the Swede to his original fears, but this time he isn't afraid, he is "cannibalistic", devouring his opponents and becoming very aggressive. He began "board-whacking" and eventually accused Johnnie of cheating. Weiss states that the card game was a "benign way for him to work off his aggressions harmlessly." However when Johnnie started cheating, the reality of crime and gambling set in and "the cheating restore[d] the game to the world of outlaws, professional gamblers, and gunmen." After the two fought and the Swede was triumphant, the Swede went on to the local saloon where he picked a fight and was killed by a professional gambler. The Swede was experiencing a high on power and liberation when he ordered the other men in the bar to drink with him. When he is stabbed, the Swede returns to his earlier disposition as a victim of the West.
From the beginning of some life, people make many choices that affect their personal growth and livelihood, choices like what they should wear and/or what they should do. Even the littlest choices that they make could make a big difference in their lives. In the book, Robinson Crusoe retold by Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, while on the island, made many choices, big and small, that affected his personal growth and contributed to why he survived for so long. On the island he made a lot of smart decisions of what to do in order to stay a live. On his second day he made a choice to go back to the ship to explore what was there. He spent a lot of time building his home when he could have done something more important. He also took a risk and helped out a person that he did not know. These were some of many choices that Robinson Crusoe made throughout his many years on the island.