Stephen Crane's misleading plot

Stephen Crane’s "A Dark Brown Dog" is a tragic story depicting the cycle of abuse, and the impact it has on those involved.

The story begins with the boy encountering the dog, and the boy’s rough behavior can be attributed to his age and a miscommunication between dog and human, but as the story progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that this young boy has signs of his father’s sadism.

The boy was outside just kicking his feet around in the gravel and a little dog came up. He held out his hand and the dog came over. When he came over the boy drew back his hand and hit the dog on the head. The dog fell to the ground around the boy's feet as if he had done something wrong. He really didn’t the boy hit him for no reason.

Later in the story when the boy was taking the dog home he would turn and strike the dog to make him walk. As they reached the door of the house the boy just drug the dog up the step because he was too short to go from step to step. But the dog just kept holding strong. When they got to the top of the steps they sat down and the boy talked to the dog like he was another person. They got in a vicious fight and the child came out on top. Then he kept dragging the dog up the steps to the door. When they arrived at the door they went up some ore stairs to the boy’s room. The dog and the boy sat down in his floor and became very good friends. The parents of the kid came to the room after they heard the noises the child was making. The dad scolded the child because the dog was in the house. So they examined the dog for anything unusual. Still the father was filed with anger. The father of the family, it appears, was in a particularly savage temper that evening, and when he perceived that it would amaze and anger everybody if such a dog were allowed to remain, he decided that it should be so. Then the child lived happy after that he nourished the dog back to health. They became very close. But one evening when the head of the family had a bad mood he just hurt the dog and threw it away. The dog was found dead on the pavement.

Crane’s language in The Dark Brown Dog is both formal and although the story is ripe with emotion, the telling of the tale is somewhat detached, almost ethnographic.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.