The Blue Hotel
by Stephen Crane

The Blue Hotel: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

The short story “The Blue Hotel” is an example of both realist and naturalist fiction. The realism in the story comes across in Crane’s commitment to accurately depicting life in a Nebraskan settlement community at the turn of the 20th century. Not only does he capture the local dialects of his characters in their dialogue, but he also depicts the ways that conflict was handled in small towns that existed somewhat outside of the law. Rather than calling the sheriff when a fight breaks out in his hotel, for example, Scully moves the men outside and establishes the parameters for a fair fight. Later in the story, the Easterner tells the cowboy that the gambler received a ridiculously short sentence for killing the Swede because there was “a good deal of sympathy for him in Romper.”