Religion Essays (719 words) - Stephen Crane, Repentance, Blue Hotel

Religion Role It is not surprising for an author's background and surroundings to profoundly affect his writing. Having come from a Methodist lineage and living at a time when the church was still an influential facet in people's daily lives, Stephen Crane was deeply instilled with religious dogmas. However, fear of retribution soon turned to cynicism and criticism of his idealistic parents' God, "the wrathful Jehovah of the Old Testament", as he was confronted with the harsh realities of war as a journalistic correspondent. Making extensive use of religious metaphors and allusions in The Blue Hotel (1898), Crane thus explores the interlaced themes of the sin and virtue. Ironically, although "he disbelieved it and hated it," Crane simply "could not free himself from" the religious background that haunted his entire life. His father, a well-respected reverend in New Jersey, advocated Bible reading and preached "the right way." Similarly, his mother, who "lived in and for religion," was influential in Methodist church affairs as a speaker and a journalist in her crusade against the vices of her sinful times . This emotional frenzy of revival Methodism had a strong impact on young Stephen. Nonetheless, he -- falling short of his parents' expectations on moral principles and spiritual outlook -- chose to reject and defy all those abstract religious notions and sought to probe instead into life's realities. Moreover, Crane's genius as "an observer of psychological and social reality" was refined after witnessing battle sights during the late 19th century. What he saw was a stark contrast of the peacefulness and morality preached in church and this thus led him to religious rebelliousness. As a prisoner to his surroundings, man (a soldier) is physically, emotionally, and psychologically challenged by nature's indifference to humankind. For instance, in the story, "what traps the Swede is his fixed idea of his environment," but in the end, it is the environment itself -- comprised of the Blue Hotel, Sculley, Johnnie, Cowboy Bill, the Easterner, and the saloon gambler -- that traps him. To further illustrate how religion permeated into Crane's writing, many scenes from The Blue Hotel can be cited. Similar to the biblical Three Wise Men, three individuals out of the East came traveling to Palace Hotel at Fort Romper. The issue explored is the search for identity and the desire of an outsider (the Swede) to define himself through conflict with a society. Referring then to the martyr-like Swede, who is convinced that everyone is against him, the Easterner says "... he thinks he's right in the middle of hell". On the contrary, the Blue Hotel can be seen as a church, with its proprietor Patrick Scully who looks "curiously like an old priest" and who vows that "a guest under my roof has sacred privileges". Personification of a wrathful God is portrayed when the guests are escorted through the portals of a room that "seemed to be merely a proper temple for an enormous stove...humming with god-like violence". Additionally, alluding to baptism, the guests then formed part of a "series of small ceremonies" by washing themselves in the basins of water. To further prove the innocence of his building, Scully points out the pictures of his little girl on the wall. All in all, in contrast to the safe haven of the hotel, the reality is that "hell" turns out to be the red-lighted town saloon where the Swede is eventually murdered. Another recurring topic in Crane's writing is the responsibility for a man's death. For not acting upon his knowledge of Johnnie's sin (his lying and cheating at the card game), the Easterner is portrayed as a betrayer, with guilt eating him inside. At the beginning, no one at the hotel would discuss fear or death with the Swede. Thus, in repentance on his part, the Easterner comments, "Every sin is the result of a collaboration". Indeed, in the end, the conspiracy of silence between the 5 men involved in the murder leads to a brutal result: The Swede "losses fear and gains death". A rhetorical question is left then for the reader to reflect upon, posed innocently by the Cowboy, "Well, I didn't do anythin', did I?". In conclusion, it can be seen that -- through the exploration of responsibility, guilt, betrayal, and repentance -- Stephen Crane develops the theme that man is alone in a hostile society and nature. The virtuous religious dogmas cannot always explain and help make sense of the cruel realities that each of us faces. Thus, it is only through trusting "the God of [one's] inner thoughts" that one can

The Word is Careless

The Word is Careless The Word is Careless The Word is Careless By Maeve Maddox This comment on a site offering tips to writers brought me to a stop: Does your writing suffer from waaaay too many em-dashes? Incareful authors often use them in place of a comma†¦ The standard negative form of careful is careless: full of care, and without care. If a writer had a reason to form the negative with a prefix, the one to use with careful would be un, not in. With a few exceptions, the negative prefix -in is used with words of Latin origin. The word care is from Old Engish carian, cearian be anxious, grieve; to feel concern or interest. But, theres no need to bother with uncareful because we already have the word careless. Here are some examples of the form incareful infesting the web: But often enough, incareful work causes hazards. The configuration scheme is infinitely flexible, and apparently has enough sharp edges for the incareful geek to hurt himself upon. However, incareful reading can lead the impression that there are inconsistencies, There is little or no opportunity to save what might be a good and even ground-breaking proposal sunk by the inexperience or incareful reviewing of one person. †¦people who were incareful enough to get caught doing what a lot of men do every day†. Most of the time a man will feel incareful if he is being unwanted in any way. (This writer may have been reaching for uncared for.) I suspect that the popularity of the nonword incareful may have something to do with an unconscious feeling that it sounds less judgmental than careless. Some synonyms for careless: absent-minded cavalier foolhardy heedless impetuous inattentive incautious irresponsible negligent reckless remiss Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Farther vs. FurtherPeace of Mind and A Piece of One's MindOne Scissor?