The Main Characters of the Story

The story "A Dark Brown Dog" introduces us the minor and major characters. 

Minor: the father, mother, neighbours.
Major: the dog and the child.

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.

 

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.

The setting of the story "A Dark Brown Dog" by Stephen Crane

This story takes place in a city setting. The boy and the dog meet on a street corner. There were noisy trucks driving on the cobblestone road. It was summertime and it was a beautiful sunny day with clouds in the sky.  This setting makes us feel like its going to be a good day, and it was for the boy. The family lived in a tenement so from that we learn that they were a lower class family. This is reflected with the child’s drunken dirty dad. We can tell that he doesn’t come from a classy family. The other family members in the house used to get enjoyment out of underfeeding the dog. This setting is also important because of the ending. The dad threw the dog five stories out of a tenement building!

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.

     Crane truly embarked upon a literary career in 1892, when he moved to New York and began freelancing as a writer. Living a Bohemian lifestyle among local artists, Crane gained firsthand familiarity with poverty and street life, focusing his writing efforts on New York's downtrodden tenement districts, particularly the Bowery. A once-thriving area in the southern part of Manhattan, in the post-Civil War era, the Bowery's busy shops and hulking mansions had been replaced by saloons, dance halls and brothels; Crane immersed himself this world. Unfortunately his life was not bohemian till the end of his days. The famine and poverty reduced his life immensely. On top of his mounting financial troubles, Crane's health had been deteriorating for a few years; he had contracted everything from malaria to yellow fever during his Bowery years and time as a war correspondent. In May 1899, Crane, checked into a health spa on the edge of the Black Forest in Germany. One month later, on June 5, 1900, Stephen Crane died of tuberculosis at the age of 28.

     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.