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.”
“The Blue Hotel” is also an example of naturalist fiction, meaning that it contains the underlying message that people’s fates are predetermined (by nature, socioeconomic class, identities, etc.). In this story, Crane communicates his belief that men's fates are determined by their biologically wired instincts—rather than pausing to think and making rational choices, the men in the story act out against each other with violence. In another nod to naturalist ideology, Cranes refuses to give most of the characters names, thereby implying that they are judged on the basis of (and therefore trapped by) their identities of “cowboy,” “Easterner,” and “Swede.”
It is notable that, while some naturalist writers solely told pessimistic stories in which characters had no agency whatsoever, Crane implies in “The Blue Hotel” that free will is possible. The Easterner, for example, goes against his self-protective instincts by sharing with the cowboy at the end of the story that he saw Johnnie cheat when they were playing cards. Here, he acknowledges that he made a choice not to speak up, a choice that he regrets. The story ends with the cowboy wondering if he did something wrong in not believing the Swede, leaving it ambiguous whether he will accept the fact that he has agency—and therefore moral responsibility—in his life as well.
