воскресенье, 12 мая 2013 г.

Stylistic Analysis



Stylistic Analysis

A Dark Brown Dog

by Stephen Crane


“Sometimes, the most profound of awakenings come

wrapped in the quietest of moments.”

Stephen Crane
 

One of America’s most influential realist writers, Stephen Crane, born in New Jersey on November 1, 1871, produced works that have been credited with establishing the foundations of modern American naturalism.

          Stephen Crane began writing at the age of 4 and had published several articles by the age of 16. He has liked writing since he was very young. Stephen Crane was an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the tradition Realism on as well as early examples of American naturalism and impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. Stephen Crane’s fiction is typically categorized as representative of Naturalism, Realism, Impression or a mixture of the three. Crane was a wonderful literary stylist who emphasized irony and paradox and made innovative use of imagery and symbolism. Thus, although realistic, his novels are highly individual. Crane also wrote fantastic short stories and poems. “The Open Boat”, “The Monster”, “A Dark Brown Dog”, “The Red Badge of Courage” are considered among the finest stories in English.

The text under analysis is called “A Dark Brown Dog”. The title of the story is more suggestive, than misleading or intriguing.  But the title brings to the reader’s mind the question “Why is it a dark brown dog, not a white dog, or a black dog?” A dark brown dog represents a man who has recently been freed from the chains of slavery.

On the one hand “A Dark Brown Dog” by Stephen Crane is a story about a little dog, a child, and their relationship. And on the other hand it is a tragic story depicting the cycle of rude abuse, and sufferings which undergo the innocent creature. The theme of this piece of writing is that with certain living creatures it is possible to have more trust, faith, and love than one may have within their own family.

The story takes place in a city setting. The boy is outside just kicking his feet around in the gravel when a little dog comes up. He holds out his hand and the dog comes over. Their “interview” seems to be a gleeful meeting of two friends, until the dog threatens to overturn the child with his caperings. After that the child shows all his human power and supremacy and strikes the dog a blow upon the head. 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 dog doesn’t run away or bite the child, but vice versa, he admits his fault. The author wants to show us how the dog needs a friend and vivid metaphors “the dog offered more prayers”, “the dog apologized and expressed regret” are additional indicators of that fact. The reader can just imagine how strong the feeling of love to the human beings is if despite all wipes the dog is still pleading the boy to make friends with him.

Another stylistic devise – simile, also plays a great role in this scene. The dog “slunk like an assassin” – the murder is the greatest sin, and the punishment is severe, but the dark brown dog makes nothing of that kind, he just wants to play with his new friend. The dog faces every problem patiently; he sees that the problem is always his mistake. He tries to minimize the problem by cooling down and praying, he never fights back he also tries to prove to the child that he is a good and a valuable dog so that the child willing to keep him. So the author makes from the simile real hyperbole, which emphasizes in an exaggerating manner the dog’s hunger for the friend. Another simile “the dog drooped like a scorched plant” is used when the dog is examined and commented upon by the whole family of the boy. The common ground of the dog and a scorched plant is obvious. The brown dog is scared and tired of constant abuses and like a scorched plant put down its “leaves” – “ears”, and for the second birth he needs love, care and attention. 

The story “A Dark Brown Dog” introduces us minor and major characters. To major characters belong the dog and the child, and to minor – the rest of the characters (father, mother, neighbors).


The dog is described in the story directly, the reader finds out that it is a creature of dark brown colour, which has a very small, soft and weak body. From the very beginning we notice a short rope dragging from dog’s neck. The protagonist of the story takes the role of a former slave, who escaped from his master on the ground of being happy in some other place, with some other people. From this fact we can imagine that the dog is very pity and suffer animal. He is a flat character, from the first time the dog meets the boy until he dies he never changes his attitude or mind towards his friend.

Describing the dog the author wants us to pay attention to the special lexis he uses to introduce this character to the reader. Stephen Crane doesn’t want the dog to be an ordinary one, he wants to endow the puppy with all human features. At first we meet the dog and he is trotting, after that he is following, then he is slinking and ambling, and finally hobbling. This small creature uses the variety of footsteps, except normal one – the author doesn’t say the dog is going or walking the street. The reader notices that when the dog is trotting means that he is escaping from somebody or something. And really, at the beginning of the story the dog is trotting from some danger, maybe from some dangerous people who was beating him. When the dog is following and slinking he wants to be invisible for the boy, but he doesn’t want to lose sight of him. When the child reaches his door-step, the dog is industriously ambling a few yards in the rear. And the dog is hobbling when the child is drugging him up the step because he is too short to go from step to step. But the dog just keeps holding strong. Although the dog was very unfortunate but he feels very lucky to meet the child. The child and the dog have a very close relationship. The dog feels that the child is his close friend. This is the reason why he chooses to stay with that cruel family. Unfortunately, the family treats the dog as something unimportant and disgusting. Even the child sees the dog to be a valuable thing after his performance of a few gambols.

The boy’s family seems to be in a constant battle with their beloved tot all throughout the story. The dog being the most normal thing the boy has in his life. The child is always the one being controlled, pushed around, or told what to do and all this might be the reason the boy and the dog ever became friends. The little kid just wants someone to play and share his emotions with. Due to the boy’s unconnected relationship with his family, he turns to the dog in hopes of finding a happy connection with it. Fortunately the boy finds the friendship he had been looking for. This relationship is a happiness that the boy’s parents were keeping absent from him.

The second part of the story takes place in the circle of the boy’s family. They live in a tenement, this fact allows the reader to judge about their social position – a lower class family. Another hint about their status is given by the child’s drunken dirty dad.

“A Dark Brown Dog” by Stephen Crane is one of the most interesting short stories I’ve ever read. It is quite an interesting story not only because of that fact that the plot is intriguing or the characters are true-to-life people, but also because of the methods and techniques the author uses while creating his masterpiece.

The most interesting thing of the story is that it is full of vivid details and tricks. Every author’s idea functions in its own way. Let’s pay attention to the language, which speaks so loudly to the reader, while Stephen Crane uses complicated words.

Diction of the story seems difficult for the readers who aren’t from the native country. But with the help of such kind of vocabulary the author underlines strict boundaries of the main character’s family. The story seems to be gnarly, and the reader feels the tension while reading the story. From the very beginning the author introduces one of the protagonists of the story – little boy, who is sitting on a street-corner. Again the author uses the lexeme “corner” which doesn’t make the beginning of the story more pleasant and milder. The general atmosphere of intensity is increased with the help of stylistic devices describing the weather. The epithet “lazy wind” and metaphor “dust trailed in clouds” reflects the boy’s inner world. He is empty inside and indifferent to other people and the world around him. He is one of the main characters of the story, that is why so much attention is paid to the boy. Moreover it is very important to create an image and atmosphere of the whole story in the first 3 lines. 

The reader can see that there exist so many physical conflicts in the story, which is an external conflict, between the family (especially the father) and the dog. On other hand, there is also an internal conflict, conflict in the dog itself (when he suffers, cries a song of infinite lowliness and despair, but he knows that he couldn’t leave the child).

In general the story produces dark and gloomy impressions. They are achieved with the events of the story, moody epithets and adjectives. For example: “unimportant dog”, “disreputable dog” – show the attitude of the members of the family to the dog, and “wailful cry” shows the attitude of the dog towards the better part of the family. The only one who loves the dog is a little creature who picks him up from the street. He is “like a calling voice to the dog” – this simile brings to mind another phrase “to be a lifebuoy for somebody”, which means that only the little boy is the ray of sunlight for the dog. He is even described with the help of eloquent simile “Here the child came valiantly forth like a knight”. Only the child feeds his friend (the author even doesn’t use a word “animal” to denote a dog), plays with him and understands him, but at that same time the relations between two “friends” are like a master and a servant. The boy protects the dog from being beaten and hurt by the father, but in turn still beats the dog.  The dog accepts these beatings from the child, because the child is the one he is faithful to.

 This story can be related to naturalism, a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality. Here, the common typical household of the main protagonists is described; there is an angry father who dislikes the world and an obedient son who is so naive to bring a lost dog home when his family is suffering from destitute.

At the end of the story, the dog closes his sufferings. The dog dies. The father kills the dog. Maybe, it is good for the dog itself, by that way his sufferings are broken. The child loses a friend which is very faithful to him. The child cries looking at a dead body of the dark brown dog.

“A Dark Brown Dog” thrills every fibre of one’s body. It is a thought-provoking story, which gives food for thought about the existence on this planet. After reading it without any exaggerations one can reconsider his priorities about happy life. These few pages and half an hour spent on them force to look at our life from the other side. It is not a story of the hour, but a story of all time.   





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