“Determinisim governs everything … The writer must study the inherited traits of individual character and 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 granted 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.“
This quote applies to the Swede in “The Blue Hotel”. The Swede does not see the hotel as a safe haven from the blizzard, but as a threat. He claims that he will be killed there and is afraid. Yet in the end, it is himself that gets him killed. He brags about winning a fight with the owner’s son and picks a fight with another man who stabs him. His reaction to winning and the people around him set his fate.
The quote also applies to the man in “To Build a Fire.” He, like the Swede, cannot see the reality of his situation. He does not listen to the warning of traveling into the cold alone and puts himself out into his death. However, unlike the Swede, he realizes his mistake, but not until it is too late.
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