Journal 16

Journal 16 – Crane’s “The Blue Hotel” and London’s “To Build A Fire” 

Read the following quote and discuss how it applies to the main characters in both stories.  In the course of this discussion, address how each of the characters is both similar and different:

“Determinisim governs everything … The writer must study the inherited traits of individual character and the social condition of the time.  Together, these elements determine the course of any action, the outcome of any life.  Free will or self-determination is mostly an illusion, although chance is granteed a role in human affairs.  Still, even the effects of chance are obliterated in the inevitable course determined by the interaction of inherited character traits and the social environment.“  

            The quote above applies to the main character in “The Blue Hotel” who is the Swede. The swede had a feeling that he was going to be killed, and over the course of time that is what happened. It was determined from the start that he was not safe, and although he was not killed by who he thought he would be, but he was still killed. The social environment around him was that he did not fit in. His traits were thought of as weird, and he was paranoid when sober, and aggressive when drunk. He was placed in the position of the hotel for a reason, it was not free will that put him there.