Don Godfrey
ENGL 1510
“A Dark Brown Dog” Analysis
In Stephen Crane’s short story of “A Dark Brown Dog”, he writes about a young boy who finds, neglects, and befriends a ragged puppy, with a rope dragging the ground, when they meet. The boy takes fun in abusing the puppy, but when he tires of this he makes his way home. The puppy, even though the boy was not nice, starts to follows the boy home. When arriving home the boy defends the puppy to claiming him as his own. The boy’s father agrees to allow the boy to keep the puppy. The boy and the puppy grow very fond of each other. The puppy was abused but always showing his love even after his abuse. Then the story takes a very sad, gruesome turn for the young dog.
The story tells of a very young boy who lives in a fifth story apartment in a very run down area of a big city. The father is portrayed to be a violent man that regularly is in a drunken rage. His wife and family are the victims of his rage. “A Dark Brown Dog” describes how the young boy finds safety under the kitchen table on regular bases. The story draws attention to the father coming home and going into his usual drunken rage on the wife, kitchen utensils, and furniture, then the father takes joy in turning his rage on the pup.
When the boy comes home during the rage he goes for his safe place but the puppy does not understand the rage and becomes the victim of the drunken rage. The story tells that the father takes great fun in kicking and hurting the pup. His final fun and torture he picks up the puppy by the leg and swings the pup around in the air several times. The young boy tries to detest the cruel punishment, but it does not work as the father then throws the pup out the window of the fifth story apartment. The story details the neighborhood that no one really thought it was unusual that a puppy was being thrown out a fifth story window.
In a literary analysis of “A Dark Brown Dog” written by Braden Davis, he states that his
Cited: Grade Saver. “Biography of Stephen Crane” List of Works, Study Guides & Essays”. Grade Saver 22 October, 2014 WEB. 22 October 2014 “Stephen Townley Crane” Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. WED. 22 Oct 2014 “Literary Analysis of a Dark Brown Dog”. Tales of a Nerdy College Student, http://btd0902.blogspot.com/2010/11/literay-analysis-of-dark-brown-dog.html . WEB 22 October 2014