Thursday, February 23, 2012

Journal #16

Read the following quote and discuss how it applies to the main characters in both stories. In the course of this discussion, address how each of the characters is both similar and different:

“Determinisim governs everything … The writer must study the inherited traits of individual characterand the social condition of the time. Together, these elements determine the course of any action, the outcome of any life. Free will or self-determination is mostly an illusion, although chance is granteed a role in human affairs. Still, even the effects of chance are obliterated in the inevitable course determined by the interaction of inherited character traits and the social environment.“

In the “Blue Hotel” the Swede was from a different place then the rest of the people. Also in “To Build a Fire” the man was not from those parts he was just searching for gold. Being an outsider somewhere is hard because people aren’t used to you or the culture. Some people inherit bad traits like alcoholism for the Swede and stubbornness for the man. People judge us based on what we look like and then after how we act but first impressions are hard to erase and renew. The Swede had free will to keep pushing the stranger to the edge and that would everntually get him killed. Also the man didn’t listen to the locals to not go out alone and with that kind of weather. He chose by his own free will not to listen to them which eventually led to his demise. It’s hard being an outsider and luck goes the other way in this case but that’s just how society is now a days and we need to learn how to adapt with its every changing ways.

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