The Blue Hotel

Isolation and loneliness are recurring themes in Crane’s works. In The Red Badge of Courage, for example, Henry Fleming feels alone on the battlefield despite being surrounded by fellow soldiers. In “The Blue Hotel,” Crane pushes this theme even further—his characters are not alone despite being around other people but partially because they are around other people. The Swede’s foreignness, for instance, preoccupies the other men at the hotel, who discuss his likely origins. Perhaps sensing this, the Swede views the others as a “gang” despite their different origins—the cowboy apparently hails from the West, Scully is an Irishman, Johnnie is Scully’s son but seems American-born, etc. In the face of this group, each different but more similar to each other than they are to him, the Swede feels his difference.

This sense of separateness leads to the Swede’s fear, which is the first step in the conflict that ends in his murder. Likewise, it is rejection from the group at the saloon that leads to the final act of violence. Angry that the businessmen, district attorney, gambler, and bartender all refuse a drink from him, the Swede exclaims, “It seems I can’t get anybody to drink with me in this town.