The Blue Hotel.Stephen Crane
by Allie Tichenor

In  Stephen Crane's "The Blue Hotel," the setting of the Palace Hotel
parallels the behaviors of the Swede.  The hotel is described as:

			..always screaming and howling in a way that made
			the dazzling winter landscape of Nebraska seem only
			a gay swampish hushƒpassengers were overcome at
			the sight andƒexpressed shame, pity, horror, in
			a laugh (1626).

The hotel can no more be ignored than the glaring mood swings of the
Swede.  Crane's vivid description of the hotel throughout the story and
of the Swede creates a bond between the two which forces the reader to
compare a seemingly inanimate object (the hotel) with an animate object
(the Swede).

	Crane's first description of the foreigner is of  "a shaky and
quick-eyed Swede, with a great shining valise" (1627).  His eyes dash
furtively around the room and his laughter is ill-timed: "It was plain
that the demonstration had no meaning to the others.  They looked at him
wondering and in silence" (1628).  Soon, the Swede bursts forth with
accusations that there is a conspiracy between Johnny, the cowboy, and
the Easterner to kill him:  "'I suppose I am going to be killed before I
can leave this house!'  In his eyes was the dying swan look" (1629).
Ironically, Crane chooses the next sentence to mention some "loose
things" which bang against the clapboard hotel in the wind, suggesting
there may be some "loose things" banging around in the Swede's head as well.

	As the tension builds between the Swede and the other characters,
the Swede's behavior becomes surly, threatening, and arrogant.  He cannot
be ignored any more than the blue heron leg color of the hotel's paint by
passersby.  When the Swede accuses Johnny of cheating in a card game, the
stage is set for the subsequent tragedies:  "Any room can present a
tragic front; any room can be comic.  This little den was now hideous as
a torture chamber" (1635).  With these two sentences Crane transforms the
uniqueness of the Palace Hotel and the Swede to a universal theme:
"Every sin is the result of a collaboration" (1645).