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.
