Journal 16

Determinisim in “To Build a Fire” and “The Blue Hotel” plays a very large role.  Outside factors such as heredity and environment are essential to both naturalistic literary works.  The characters in the works lack free-will, so the plot takes an inevitable course.

            The Swede is the character in “The Blue Hotel” that experiences the central conflict.  The conflict he deals with is his discomfort in the hotel.  One factor that contributes to his discomfort is his inherited character traits.  The Swede is seen as strange to the other characters because he is an immigrant from New York.  At one point, they wonder if he is really Dutch due to his awkward nature.  Another contributing factor is the environment.  All of the characters in the story are confined in the hotel because of a snowstorm.  This shows determinism because the snowstorm prevented him from going anywhere else.  If the Swede was able to leave, he probably would have survived.

            In “To Build a Fire” the main character struggles to survive in the harsh Alaskan environment.  Throughout the story, he builds multiple fires that fail to keep him satisfied.  Determinism governs the course of action in this story because the man is unable to defeat the extreme environmental conditions.  Also, he is succumbed to his inexperience to the terrain.  His inexperience is a character trait that caused him to make the bad decision of not listening to a native.

Journal 15

1. "Editha," the short story, has an overall message about the evilness of war.
"It isn't this war alone; though this seems peculiarly wanton and needless; but it's every war--so stupid; it makes me sick. Why shouldn't this thing have been settled reasonably?"

"A man that hasn't got his own respect intact wants the respect of all the other people he can corner."

"I felt I must have been helping on the war somehow if I hadn't helped keep it from coming, and I knew I hadn't; when it came, I had no right to stay out of it."
2. Editha makes George believe as she does about the war by using religious tactics.  She often mentions God in her reasoning.  Also, she calls the war a "sacred war."
3. Editha is sad after her fiance's death, but I do not think she ever feels like she did him any wrong by encouraging him to join the war.

Journal 14

“Richard Cory“ (497)

Richard Cory seems like a perfect person but in the end, the reader finds that he is sad.  This relates to his name in that Richard has “rich” and Cory is similar to “core;” at the core of Richard Cory, he was depressed.  The realism involves the establishment of his depression

“Miniver Cheevy” (497)

Miniver Cheevy wants to become a knight, but he is a minimal achiever.  Miniver Cheevy lived too much in the past because he wanted to be born into a better time period.  His real life is empty, and he used alcohol to fill his empty life.  His ideal life took place in the Middle Ages.  Because he was so destracted by his fantasy, he could not live his normal life.

“Mr. Flood’s Party” (498)

He has a party by himself.  The “flood” in his name refers to his drinking.  He thinks back in the past to make himself feel better about his loneliness.  When Mr. Flood talks about enduring the end, he is talking about how he might not live much longer.  All his friends are dead or gone, so he is lonely.   The reader is forced to question if he is lonely because his friends are dead or because he drove them away.  Mr. Flood’s idealist life is focused on his past happiness and relationships.  His realistic life is lonely and sad.