25 pages • 50 minutes read
Stephen CraneA Dark Brown Dog
Fiction | Short Story | Middle Grade | Published in 1901A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device that authors use to hint at future actions or events. In “A Dark Brown Dog,” Crane uses foreshadowing to indicate the violence at the end of the text, i.e., the dog’s death. When readers meet the child, he is “kicking carelessly at the gravel” (Paragraph 1), suggesting the dog’s future abuse as well as the carelessness with which he is treated by the rest of the family. In approaching the boy for the first time, the dog “trod upon the end [of the rope around his neck] and stumble[s]” (Paragraph 1), also hinting at the dog’s murder. Perhaps most notably, as the child drags the dog up the stairs and toward his home for the first time, the dog has a brief moment of panic: “In his mind he was being dragged toward a grim unknown. His eyes grew wild with the terror of it” (Paragraph 13). Though the dog quickly overcomes this terror on reaching the child’s home, it proves to be an important moment of insight for the animal.
Personification
Personification is the attribution of human qualities or characteristics to inanimate objects, abstract ideas, animals, or other non-human entities. For example, Crane contextualizes the slow pace of the story within the “lazy summer wind” (Paragraph 2). In this story, Crane utilizes personification most often in his descriptions of the dog. The dog moves “apologetic[ally]” (Paragraph 4), feeling “despair” (Paragraph 5) and thinking gravely about how “he had committed some grave crime” (Paragraph 6). The dog, as a symbol for Black Americans in the Jim Crow-era South, functions via personification. To build the theme of The Mentality of Enslavement, Crane makes explicit references to his “infinite lowliness and despair” (Paragraph 21) and his “accept[ance] of these thrashings with an air of admitted guilt” (Paragraph 22). Crane thereby portrays the plight of Black Americans under the cruelties of existing power hierarchies and racist institutions, albeit through his racist lens.
Simile
A simile is a way of describing something by comparing it to something else, using the words “like” or “as.” Crane’s writing is more sparse than flowery, but Crane does utilize similes sparingly to highlight important qualities about individual characters and their qualities. For example, when following the boy home, the dog “grew so very guilty that he slunk like an assassin” (Paragraph 10), and when the family’s judgmental eyes were upon him, the dog “[d]rooped like a scorched plant” (Paragraph 15). The intentional use of simile allows Crane to highlight key qualities of certain characters, such as the dog’s guilt and shame. Similarly, in the final scene, in an attempt to rescue the dog, the boy “came valiantly forth like a knight” (Paragraph 31). Much in line with his previous attempt to protect and care for the dog, though, the child’s effort is insufficient.
Related Titles
By Stephen Crane
