The Blueness of the Hotel
The blue color of the Palace Hotel is starkly out of place among the “gray swampish hush” of the surrounding Nebraska countryside. This vivid hue is further lent outsider status through the narrator’s description that as a result of sticking out so starkly, the hotel always seemed to be “screaming and howling” from within the monochromatic palette of Midwestern winters. This immediately situates the hotel as a metaphor for the seemingly out of place screams and howls of unexplained emotions and violent consequences that take place within its walls with the arrival of a stranger to town known only as Swede.
Simile as Foreshadowing
Vivid use of simile not only makes the story more entertaining, but is subtly used by the author in the service of other literary effects. For instance, a particularly strong image is created in the mind that also acts to foreshadow the fate of the character in this example:
“The Swede must have concluded that his hour was come. His jaw dropped and his teeth showed like a dead man's.”
The Screaming and Howling Within
The screaming and howling of the out-of-sync blue hotel is perpetuated through metaphorical association with the events taking place. A storm is swirling both literally and symbolically and the cause and effect are so intensely affected by the literal storm that the metaphorical storm is beginning to take on the inexplicable quality of a blue hotel looming in the middle of a white-out during a blizzard.
“The wind tore the words from Scully's lips and scattered them far a-lee.
`You are all a gang of—‘ boomed the Swede, but the storm also seized the remainder of this sentence.”
The Inexplicable
When human behavior seems to defy all explanation, the general consensus has long seemed to be one that heads straight to supernatural malevolence to provide an easy answer. The author seems to recognize this with the choice of an unusual, but familiar word to describe in metaphorical terms the increasing intensity of the Swede’s derangement:
"Yes, fight," roared the Swede. He was like a demoniac.
The Seduction
The story introduces its main characters within the construct of an elaborate metaphor that will continue to resonate throughout the narrative. The proprietor of the hotel, Scully, is first introduced almost as a spider luring flies into his parlor through the art of seduction. And just as flies are made the prisoners of a crafty arachnoid, so too are the three new arrivals fresh off the train who fall prey to Scully’s seductive powers:
"Scully performed the marvel of catching three men. One was a shaky and quick-eyed Swede, with a great shining cheap valise; one was a tall bronzed cowboy, who was on his way to a ranch near the Dakota line; one was a little silent man from the East, who didn't look it, and didn't announce it. Scully practically made them prisoners."
This is also an act of seduction on the part of the author who has found a quick way of seducing readers into the tension he intends to build in a remarkably efficient manner.
