The Blue Hotel

In “The Blue Hotel” Stephen Crane uses behavior to illustrate how misconceptions affected the life of the main character, the Swede. The Swede’s novel based perception of the West caused his fears to be projected through his change in behavior. The once “shaky” Swede becomes aggressive and challenging towards the others after having something to drink with Scully, the hotel owner (116). The Swede’s misconception of the West influenced his changing behaviors towards the others which resulted in his death.
The Swede’s fear and unease about being in the west was made clear as “His eyes continued to rove from man to man” (116). The Swede “resembled a badly frightened man” and he feared his life would be taken like in the many dime novels he had read (116). He thought everyone was out to get him. He isolated from the others and was mostly silent until he felt threatened. He makes his fear obvious as he eagerly answered Scully, ‘“I know I won’t get ...