The narrator’s tone in “The Blue Hotel” moves between both ironic and earnest. The following passage captures the ironic tone that the narrator uses when describing the townspeople’s thoughts on the gambler’s many victims:
Hearing at times in circuitous fashion of the despoilment of such a farmer, the important men of Romper invariably laughed in contempt of the victim, and if they thought of the wolf at all, it was with a kind of pride at the knowledge that he would never dare think of attacking their wisdom and courage.
The narrator describes how the men of Romper tacitly support the gambler’s violent attacks against innocent farmers, “laugh[ing] in contempt of the victim[s].” The narrator’s ironic and mocking tone comes across in the way that they describe the men taking “a kind of pride” in the fact that the gambler “would never dare think of attacking their wisdom and courage,” hinting that the men are not wise or courageous because they can’t see how the gambler could easily come after them next.
This tone is in contrast to the more earnest tone that comes near the end of the story, as the Easterner reflects on his (as well as the cowboy’s, Johnnie’s, and Scully’s) complicity in the Swede’s death:
“We are all in it! This poor gambler isn’t even a noun. He is kind of an adverb. Every sin is the result of a collaboration. We, five of us, have collaborated in the murder of this Swede.”
Given that the Easterner is the one who has the final word in the story, Crane almost seems to speak through him here to communicate the genuinely devastating effects of violence. The poetic quality of the Easterner’s words adds a somber and reflective tone here, as he says that the gambler is not “a noun” but “an adverb,” suggesting that he is not the real person to blame for the Swede's death, but one person in a string of people. As the Easterner puts it, “Every sin is the result of a collaboration.” If Crane intended this story to have a moral takeaway it is this—that everyone’s choices make a difference and they should act morally when they have the chance.
The narrator’s tone in “The Blue Hotel” moves between both ironic and earnest. The following passage captures the ironic tone that the narrator uses when describing the townspeople’s thoughts on the gambler’s many victims:
Hearing at times in circuitous fashion of the despoilment of such a farmer, the important men of Romper invariably laughed in contempt of the victim, and if they thought of the wolf at all, it was with a kind of pride at the knowledge that he would never dare think of attacking their wisdom and courage.
The narrator describes how the men of Romper tacitly support the gambler’s violent attacks against innocent farmers, “laugh[ing] in contempt of the victim[s].” The narrator’s ironic and mocking tone comes across in the way that they describe the men taking “a kind of pride” in the fact that the gambler “would never dare think of attacking their wisdom and courage,” hinting that the men are not wise or courageous because they can’t see how the gambler could easily come after them next.
This tone is in contrast to the more earnest tone that comes near the end of the story, as the Easterner reflects on his (as well as the cowboy’s, Johnnie’s, and Scully’s) complicity in the Swede’s death:
“We are all in it! This poor gambler isn’t even a noun. He is kind of an adverb. Every sin is the result of a collaboration. We, five of us, have collaborated in the murder of this Swede.”
Given that the Easterner is the one who has the final word in the story, Crane almost seems to speak through him here to communicate the genuinely devastating effects of violence. The poetic quality of the Easterner’s words adds a somber and reflective tone here, as he says that the gambler is not “a noun” but “an adverb,” suggesting that he is not the real person to blame for the Swede's death, but one person in a string of people. As the Easterner puts it, “Every sin is the result of a collaboration.” If Crane intended this story to have a moral takeaway it is this—that everyone’s choices make a difference and they should act morally when they have the chance.
