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Title: How to study "The best short stories"
An analysis of Edward J. O'Brien's annual volumes of the best short stories of the year prepared for the use of writers and other students of the short-story
Author: Blanche Colton Williams
Release date: October 12, 2024 [eBook #74565]
Language: English
Original publication: Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1919
Credits: Susan E. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO STUDY "THE BEST SHORT STORIES" ***
Transcriber’s Notes
Words in italics are marked with _underscores_.
Words in small capitals are shown in UPPER CASE.
Please also see the note at the end of the book.
HOW TO STUDY
“THE BEST SHORT STORIES”
How to Study
“The Best Short Stories”
AN ANALYSIS OF EDWARD J. O’BRIEN’S ANNUAL VOLUMES
OF THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF THE YEAR
PREPARED FOR THE USE OF WRITERS AND OTHER
STUDENTS OF THE SHORT-STORY
BY
BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS
Associate Professor of English, Hunter College of the City
of New York; Instructor in Short-Story Writing,
Columbia University (Extension Teaching and
Summer Session). Author of “Gnomic
Poetry in Anglo-Saxon,” “A Handbook
on Story Writing,” etc.;
Editor of “A Book of
Short Stories.”
[Illustration: Publisher’s Colophon]
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1919
BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
PREFACE
In this foreword, I wish first of all to thank Captain Achmed Abdullah,
Gertrude Atherton, Edwina Stanton Babcock, Barry Benefield, Thomas
Beer, Katharine Holland Brown, Maxwell Struthers Burt, Francis Buzzell,
Donn Byrne of Oriel, Charles Caldwell Dobie, Theodore Dreiser, George
Gilbert, Susan Glaspell, Armistead C. Gordon, Fannie Hurst, Arthur
Johnson, Fanny Kemble Johnson, Burton Kline, Mary Lerner, Sinclair
Lewis, Jeannette Marks, Walter J. Muilenburg, Seumas O’Brien, Vincent
O’Sullivan, Albert DuVerney Pentz, Lawrence Perry, Mary Brecht Pulver,
Harrison Rhodes, Benjamin Rosenblatt, Fleta Campbell Springer, and
Julian Street. Each of these authors very kindly gave data which no one
could have gleaned; and in so doing they have contributed largely to
the usefulness of this study.[1]
[1] I must add to this list a former student, Pearl Doles Bell, who
interviewed Mrs. Irvin Cobb and who read her notes to my summer class
of 1916. (The interview was published, subsequently, in _The_ [New
York] _Sun_, October 1, 1916.) My assistant, Miss Shirley V. Long,
collaborated in the analysis of Miss Hurst’s “Get Ready the Wreaths.”
Only the other day a student demanded, “Why can’t I get an author to
tell me every step in the development of one of his stories?” Although,
as I tried to point out, such a thorough proceeding is neither
desirable nor easily possible,[2] yet the essentially valuable part of
the author’s progress may be most illuminative, and it is obtainable.
As one of these writers has said, the artist is not analytical
beforehand and is not so, of necessity, after completing his work. But
even from those who progress only, as they assert, by inspiration come
clear and helpful statements concerning their starting points and
developing processes. This generosity of successful writers augurs
well for the future of fiction.
[2] Poe seems to be the sole writer who has asserted that he could call
to mind the progressive steps of any of his compositions.
Charles Caldwell Dobie has said:[3] “Any man who has made a success
of his business or profession always seems to consider it his duty
to warn others off the field. The advice of both failure and success
appears to be embodied in one and the same word, ‘Don’t!’ This is a
curious paradox, and I shall not attempt to explain it. Perhaps it is
because the roads to success or to failure are hard to distinguish, the
sign-posts at the parting of the ways almost undecipherable. Yes, I
think it must be this realization of the nearness of defeat that makes
the successful one so anxious to dissuade others from the struggle. And
yet, after all, there is a bit of egotism back of the kindly advice we
offer, rather patronizingly, to our friends.
[3] _The Silhouette_, February, 1917.
“I would be the last person to warn the ambitious from literary
endeavor, providing they would rather write than do anything else
in the world; providing, also, they were equipped with three
qualifications. Determination is the first; a hide at once sensitive
and impervious ranks second; an hour--at least--a day to devote to the
pursuit of their purpose. I say _devote_ advisedly; the true lover is
never niggardly.... If added to these virtues, one has a quiet room and
no telephone, half the battle is won.”[4]
[4] Ellen Glasgow writes behind locked doors; Gertrude Atherton “rings
down an iron curtain” between herself and the world.
And, further, by way of emphasis on work and study, hear Burton Kline:
“As an editor I have a feeling that some of the writers who should be
railroad presidents or bank directors are getting in the way of real
writers that I ought to be discovering. In the long run it is probably
better to have all the writing we can get. The wider the net is spread,
the greater the chance of something precious in the haul. The teaching
of writing, even if it finds only a few real writers, helps to sharpen
the critical taste of the others and whet their appetite for better
writing. And I believe that sharper appetite and more discriminating
taste is beginning to be felt.... In the creation of a literature, an
audience is as necessary as the performers themselves. And the more
critical the audience, the more likely we are to have great performers.
The opportunity invites and develops them....”
Speaking from the critic’s and teacher’s point of view, I not only
believe that one can “learn to write”; I know, because more than once
I have watched growth and tended effort from failure to success. Many
would-be writers drop by the way; the telephone to pleasure is too
insistent, or the creative process is not sufficiently joyful. Some
students, however, need only an encouraging word and sympathetic
criticism. Harriet Welles is an example of this sort. Her stories have
been running in _Scribner’s_ for some months; she worked only a year
in my class at Columbia before producing finished narratives. Others
must labor and exercise patience in order to accomplish a few--perhaps
one or two--worthy specimens of the story-teller’s art. I refer, for
illustration, to another student, Elizabeth Stead Taber, whose “Scar”
attracted favorable comment and drew from Mr. O’Brien high praise
in his volume of 1917. Others write prolifically, turning out story
after story, before attaining the highest publications and prices--but
not of necessity before attaining excellent construction and style.
Marjorie Lewis Prentiss comes to mind as an earnest and careful writer
of this sort, who is improving as steadily as she writes and publishes
regularly. I need not refer to Frederick S. Greene--now in France--who
has become well known through his stories, and who felt that he worked
best under class criticism. He studied as he wrote, and his published
stories, with only two exceptions as I recall, were produced, first,
for the class-room audience. Even those who succeed only once, or who
never succeed, have learned to evaluate the content and the manner of
the printed narrative, and have added to the body of the intelligent
fiction-public.
The _great artist_, let me add, hews his own way. But--! Gutzon Borglum
once said that in his opinion there had lived only three great masters
of art: Phidias, Michel Angelo, and Auguste Rodin. If these are the
great names in sculpture and pictorial art, who are those in the world
of fiction writing?
... I use the form “short-story” to indicate the particular _genre_ or
type, to distinguish it from the story that is merely short. I have
laid down my definition in “A Handbook on Story Writing,”[5] a volume
which the student of this book should have at hand. In the space here
allowed, there can be no discussion of terminology. Mr. O’Brien has
expressed himself as uninterested in technical distinctions, a fact
which argues for the greater range of his choice. He has preferred
the larger values, and therefore no adverse comment is implied in my
classing a story in these collections as a novelette or another as
a story that is merely short.[6] From the standpoint of literature,
an advantage lies in the more extended field. And at best, opinions
differ. I can only set down my own reactions, backed by eight years of
teaching and a life-time interest in fiction.
[5] Dodd Mead & Company, 1917. Third Edition, 1918.
[6] In quoting, I have used “short story” or “short-story” as written
by the various authors. It will be seen that the forms are usually
interchangeable.
To the student, I would emphasize the fact that studying these
“Yearbook” stories, valuable as such study may become, will not make of
you a writer; but from them, this little book, and the wealth of detail
which Mr. O’Brien has accumulated, you can apprehend the elements of
technique and learn, at the same time, what is successful from an
editorial point of view. For every short-story writer must be both an
artist and a man of business. If his work is not published, it _is_
not. Much of it, early in the exercising stages, should die. But at the
last there must be evidence of labor and of genius. Only one evidence
is admissible: the product.
While you are learning, then, do not try to publish. “Do” your
exercises, and practise much; master the principles, and express
yourself. When you have become full-grown, put away childish things,
and forget that you ever heard of technique.
BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS.
New York City,
November 30, 1918.
CONTENTS
STORIES IN THE YEARBOOKS
1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918.
PAGE
A SIMPLE ACT OF PIETY. By Captain Achmed Abdullah 1918 1
THE SACRIFICIAL ALTAR. By Gertrude Atherton 1916 8
THE EXCURSION. } By Edwina Stanton Babcock { 1917 12
CRUELTIES. } { 1918 14
ONNIE. By Thomas Beer 1917 18
MISS WILLETT. By Barry Benefield 1916 21
SUPERS. By Frederick Booth 1916 23
BUSTER. By Katharine Holland Brown 1918 24
FOG. By Dana Burnet 1916 28
THE WATER-HOLE. } By Maxwell Struthers Burt { 1915 31
A CUP OF TEA. } { 1917 33
MA’S PRETTIES. } By Francis Buzzell { 1916 37
LONELY PLACES. } { 1917 39
THE WAKE. By Donn Byrne 1915 42
THE GREAT AUK. } By Irvin Cobb { 1916 44
BOYS WILL BE BOYS. } { 1917 48
CHAUTONVILLE. By Will Levington Comfort 1915 51
LAUGHTER. } By Charles Caldwell Dobie { 1917 52
THE OPEN WINDOW. } { 1918 56
THE LOST PHOEBE. By Theodore Dreiser 1916 59
LA DERNIÈRE MOBILISATION. By W. A. Dwiggins 1915 61
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM. By H. G. Dwight 1917 62
THE CITIZEN. By James Francis Dwyer 1915 66
THE GAY OLD DOG. By Edna Ferber 1917 67
BLIND VISION. By Mary Mitchell Freedley 1918 71
IMAGINATION. By Gordon Hall Gerould 1918 73
THE KNIGHT’S MOVE. By Katherine Fullerton Gerould 1917 75
IN MAULMAIN FEVER-WARD. By George Gilbert 1918 77
A JURY OF HER PEERS. By Susan Glaspell 1917 83
THE SILENT INFARE. By Armistead C. Gordon 1916 86
THE CAT OF THE CANE-BRAKE. } By Frederick Stuart Greene } 1916 89
THE BUNKER MOUSE. } } 1917 92
WHOSE DOG--? By Frances Gregg 1915 95
MAKING PORT. } By Richard Matthews Hallett { 1916 96
RAINBOW PETE. } { 1917 98
LIFE. By Ben Hecht 1915 100
THE FATHER’S HAND. By George Humphrey 1918 101
T. B. } { 1915 103
“ICE WATER, PL--!” } By Fannie Hurst { 1916 106
GET READY THE WREATHS. } { 1917 109
MR. EBERDEEN’S HOUSE. } By Arthur Johnson } 1915 112
THE VISIT OF THE MASTER. } } 1918 116
THE STRANGE-LOOKING MAN. By Fannie Kemble Johnson 1917 118
VENGEANCE IS MINE. By Virgil Jordan 1915 119
THE CALLER IN THE NIGHT. } By Burton Kline { 1917 120
IN THE OPEN CODE. } { 1918 124
LITTLE SELVES. By Mary Lerner 1916 126
THE WILLOW WALK. By Sinclair Lewis 1918 129
THE WEAVER WHO CLAD THE SUMMER. By Harris Merton Lyon 1915 136
THE SUN CHASER. By Jeannette Marks 1916 139
THE STORY VINTON HEARD AT MALLORIE. By Katharine Prescott
Moseley 1918 143
HEART OF YOUTH. } By Walter J. Muilenburg { 1915 145
AT THE END OF THE ROAD. } { 1916 147
AT THE END OF THE PATH. By Newbold Noyes 1915 149
THE WHALE AND THE GRASSHOPPER. By Seumas O’Brien 1915 151
IN BERLIN. By Mary Boyle O’Reilly 1915 153
THE INTERVAL. By Vincent O’Sullivan 1917 154
THE TOAST TO FORTY-FIVE. By William Dudley Pelley 1918 156
THE BIG STRANGER ON DORCHESTER HEIGHTS. By
Albert Du Verney Pentz 1916 159
“A CERTAIN RICH MAN--.” By Lawrence Perry 1917 161
THE PATH OF GLORY. By Mary Brecht Pulver 1917 165
EXTRA MEN. By Harrison Rhodes 1918 170
THE WAITING YEARS. By Katharine Metcalf Roof 1915 172
ZELIG. } By Benjamin Rosenblatt { 1915 174
THE MENORAH. } { 1916 176
THE SURVIVORS. } By Elsie Singmaster } 1915 178
PENANCE. } } 1916 180
FEET OF GOLD. By Arthur Gordon Smith 1916 182
SOLITAIRE. By Fleta Campbell Springer 1918 184
THE YELLOW CAT. } { 1915 189
DOWN ON THEIR KNEES. } By Wilbur Daniel { 1917 192
CHING, CHING, CHINAMAN. } Steele { 1917 194
THE DARK HOUR. } { 1918 200
THE BIRD OF SERBIA. By Julian Street 1918 202
THE BOUNTY JUMPER. } By Mary Synon { 1915 207
NONE SO BLIND. } { 1917 210
HALF-PAST TEN. By Alice L. Tildesley 1916 212
AT ISHAM’S. By Edward C. Venable 1918 214
DE VILMARTE’S LUCK. By Mary Heaton Vorse 1918 216
THE WHITE BATTALION. By Frances Gilchrist Wood 1918 219
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS
Read the story before taking up the exercises.
Consult the biographical data in the Yearbooks for 1916, 1917, and 1918.
Observe to what extent the various authors have reflected the country
or region in which they have lived. What conclusions do you draw?
Many of the stories conform to the laws of the “Greek Unities.” Name
them.
The following list is composed of the stories which are best for
_structural_ study.
- “A Simple Act of Piety”
- “The Sacrificial Altar”
- “The Water-Hole”
+ “The Great Auk”
- “Boys Will Be Boys”
- “The Gay Old Dog”
- “The Knight’s Move”
- “In Maulmain Fever-Ward”
+ “A Jury of Her Peers”
+ “The Cat of the Cane-Brake”
- “The Bunker Mouse”
+ “T. B.”
+ “‘Ice Water, Pl----!’”
- “Get Ready the Wreaths”
- “Mr. Eberdeen’s House”
- “The Willow Walk”
+ “‘A Certain Rich Man--’”
- “The Path of Glory”
+ “The Waiting Years”
- “Solitaire”
+ “The Yellow Cat”
- “Down on Their Knees”
- “Ching, Ching, Chinaman”
+ “The Bounty Jumper”
+ “None So Blind”
+ “Half-Past Ten.”
The plus signs are prefixed to the titles of stories which present the
action in a closely circumscribed time and place. Study the stories to
which the minus sign is prefixed to see how the authors have managed
an extended period of time and place, or of either. On what phase of
the action has emphasis been placed? How has each author achieved unity
of effect? Notice the definite plot stages in these narratives marked
by excellence of structure. Although the technique of every writer may
differ from that of every other, yet in his story he will see to it,
consciously or unconsciously, that high points, “lights,” or climaxes
occur. It is a far call from the Roman _biga_ to the modern automobile;
but wheels, body and motor attachment characterize each as a vehicle.
From Poe to the present, the short-story vehicle has had, and will
continue to have, certain type features.
The titles should be studied for their attractiveness, originality,
suggestiveness and bearing on the story.
The title may be:
a. The name of the chief character--“Onnie,” “Chautonville.”
b. An epithet applied to the chief character--“The Great Auk,” “The
Bunker Mouse.”
c. A place--“Mr. Eberdeen’s House,” “The Water-Hole.”
d. A suggestion of--1. An objective theme or idea--“The Excursion,”
“The Wake.” 2. A subjective theme or idea--“The Sacrificial Altar,”
“Boys will be Boys.”
e. An allusion expressed fully, in part, or conveyed by
implication--“Vengeance is Mine,” “The Path of Glory.”
One of the most difficult titles to create is that which has a veiled
suggestion, some bearing on the story that is clear or significant only
after the story has been read; e.g., “Get Ready the Wreaths,” “The
Interval.”
Group the stories according to dominant motives, observing with what
frequence certain universal motive-themes occur. For example, the
sacrifice motive is found in the following: “The Sacrificial Altar,”
“Onnie,” “The Emperor of Elam,” “The Gay Old Dog,” “The Knight’s Move,”
“The Bunker Mouse,” “Making Port,” “The Sun Chaser,” “Heart of Youth,”
“A Certain Rich Man,” “Zelig,” “The Menorah,” “The Bounty Jumper,”
“None So Blind.”
In each of the stories just named, what _feeling_ or power prompts the
sacrifice? What is the sacrifice? What is the effect of the sacrifice
on the one making it? On the one for whom it is made? On the reader? On
the final story-impression?
Study the following as the best examples of realism: “The Excursion,”
“Ma’s Pretties,” “Lonely Places,” “The Silent Infare,” “The Big
Stranger on Dorchester Heights.” What difference, structurally, do
you observe between these narratives and those developed by the more
“romantic” writer?
In every story try to find indications of the author’s theories about
fiction or Art in general. For instance, in “Feet of Gold”: “Naturally,
since all of us are artists, we seek the Truth through Beauty”; etc.
(p. 309).
Characters may be described by the author. This, the so-called
“direct” method, is not in reality so direct or vivid as the so-called
“indirect” method. By the latter a character reveals himself through
act, speech, gesture; he is also portrayed by what others say about
him, and by their reactions toward him.
What difference exists in spirit, mood and tempo between the stories
marked, respectively, by the direct and the indirect methods?
By how many stories are you attracted at the beginning? Does the
drawing power lie in character, suggested action, the picture of a
setting, the mood or atmosphere, in some bit of philosophy, or other
appeal?
Do any of the stories fall below expectation first aroused? Why? How
many fulfill the initial promise?
Which have the best endings? How many of these seemed inevitable from
an early stage of the action? How many might have had diverse endings,
altogether? How many might have used different incidents for the close,
with the same general effect?
Which of the narratives seem to you most artistically representative of
life?
According to the localities represented by these authors, try to arrive
at the “short-story center” of the United States.
In the following studies, try to enter constructively into the
processes indicated. Otherwise the exercises will lose part of their
value.
STUDIES IN DETAIL
A SIMPLE ACT OF PIETY
GERMINAL IDEA: Captain Abdullah, an Asiatic, but educated partly,
and living altogether, in the Occident, finds himself at times, he
declares, in the position, less emotional than intellectual and
cultural, where he has to make a choice between the ideals of East, or
West of Suez. In addition, his friends often ask him to explain certain
Oriental characteristics, motivations and viewpoints.
“Due either to a vital difference in the acceptance and usage of basic
standards, or to my personal inability of expressing with the spoken
word what I feel tersely to be true, I have always been unable in these
discussions to express the one truth which I know; namely, that all
this talk about the Orient being romantic and mysterious and rather
high strung is asinine drivel, that indeed the shoe hurts on the other
foot, and that it is the West which is romantic, both as to life and
motivation of life, while the East is as drab and grey and square as a
question in abstract dynamics.
“I make this claim chiefly in regard to the Chinese, who are the
Orientals _par excellence_. I consider them the most logical, the most
straight thinking, and by the same token, the most civilized race
on earth, not excepting the Latins, the Hindus, the Arabs, or the
Anglo-Saxons. I believe them to be the only people who live up to the
sound dogma that two and two make four, and never four and a quarter,
or three and two thirds. I hold that they are the easiest people in the
world to understand, that they carry their hearts on their sleeves, and
that they always mean exactly what they say, and say exactly what they
mean, in direct contrast to the Occidentals....
“The starting point of my tale, a whole series of Chinatown tales,
directly due to a conversation I had in Chicago with Mr. Ray Long
of the _Red Book_, who said that since I seemed unable to interpret
the Sons of the Middle Kingdom with the spoken word I should try the
written word, was therefore the fundamental prosiness and simplicity of
the Oriental, the Chinaman, in contrast to the complicated, suicidal
emotionalism and maniacal psychologizing of the Occidental--the latter
characteristic including a painful trick of dissecting emotions to such
a degree that they cease to be emotions. I know China and the Chinese
intimately, and am fairly familiar with some of their dialects.
“From a primitive, Occidental viewpoint, murder and a wife’s
faithlessness seem to be the most important things. From an as
primitive Eastern viewpoint, the same two things are the most
negligible things. The thing which matters most to the Oriental is
honor and piety, including their correct, codified outer observances.
“Thence my story.”
PLOT. Structurally perfect, the plot grows naturally out of character.
The order of presentation begins with the
_Dénouement_: Nag Hong Fah kills Señora Garcia.
_Circumstances antecedent_ to the story action are next
presented.--1. Fanny’s marriage to Nag Hong Fah indicated in “She was
his wife,” etc. 2. Account of Fanny. 3. Nag Hong Fah’s operations
preceding the proposal. (Note the introduction of a second line of
interest in the relations between Nag Hong Fah and Yung Long, and
Yung Quai.) 4. The incident of the proposal. (Notice the clues: Fanny
claims a right to the streets, a pointer which is augmented by the
addition made, under her breath, to her promise, “I’ll play square?”)
_Initial Incident_: Through Nag Hong Fah’s invitation to Yung
Long, “Come! Have a drink!” Fanny and Yung Long have opportunity to
appraise each other.
_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: 1. Nag Hong Fah pays cash to Yung
Long, whom heretofore he has paid on ninety days’ leeway. (What does
this signify as to the relations of the two Chinamen?)
2. Birth of Brian, Fanny’s son; the bestowal of gifts upon Fanny by
her Chinese husband.
3. The incident between Fanny and her friend Mamie Ryan (to indicate
that the Chink is playing square, and therefore Fanny). Indications
of Fanny’s happiness.
4. Fanny is impressed by Yung Long but holds to her “squareness.”
5. Nag Hong Fah acquires an option on an uptown restaurant for his
second son.
6. Little Fanny is born, bringing a “change into the marital
relations”; this time, no gifts are bestowed.
7. Nag tells Fanny he has given up the option. This information on
his part leads directly to the
_Dramatic Climax_: First peak: the excellent scene between Fanny
and Nag Hong Fah, where the _racial struggle_ is best dramatized.
Fanny’s imploring fails against the stony wall of Nag Hong Fah’s
determination. All must be as he says; Little Fanny will be disposed
of as he sees fit. With Fanny the greater wrong disappears in the
lesser; she forgets her daughter’s education in recalling that she
had received no presents at the child’s birth. “A bracelet.... That’s
what I’m gonna get!” marks the beginning of the resolution of the
complication, which has been so skilfully effected. The first peak
of the climax is succeeded by the second peak: Yung Long in passing
receives Fanny’s message, “Swell looker!”
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Summary repetitions of the
dramatic climax scene emphasize the winning out of Nag Hong Fah. 2.
Nag Hong Fah receives permission from the official head of Fanny’s
family to beat her. 3. She becomes the submissive wife; the family
seems a model of happiness.
4. Fanny exhibits an “imitation” bracelet.
5. Her apparent adherence to “the straight and narrow” is intensified
by Brian’s report of the Finnish sailor episode.
6. Fanny comes down with pneumonia. (Does this seem logical or a too
obvious device of the author?)
7. Nag writes to Yung Quai and sends money for her transportation to
New York.
8. He indicates to the dying Fanny that he will educate her daughter,
and from the sale of Fanny’s possessions--including the imitation
bracelet.
_Climax of Action_ in the first line of interest.--
Fanny, in a magnificent final flame of contempt and victory, declares
the worth of the bracelet, and that Yung Long gave it to her. (Recall
the allusion, page 4, to this point as the “dramatic climax” for Nag
Hong Fah.)
_Steps toward the Dénouement_: The scene between Nag Hong Fah and
Yung Long, wherein Nag conveys to Yung his knowledge of the gift, and
“motivates” the real cause of the gift. Yung affirms Nag’s judgment,
and further indicates that Señora Garcia might best be put out of the
way. Nag Hong Fah agrees that it would be but a simple act of piety
and goes to get his knife. (Do they here “mean what they say” or “say
what they mean”?)
The _struggle_, then, in the first line of interest (the story of
Fanny and Nag Hong Fah) is one between the Occident and the Orient.
The Occident wins, in the person of Fanny. But because of the second
line of interest (the story of Nag Hong Fah, Yung Long and Yung
Quai), the victory gives way to the victory of the Orient. Study the
story for the points of contact of these two lines, the complication
effected, and the unification of the two interests.
_Suspense_: Suspense sets in at the beginning, when after the
murder, the question arises, “Why did he kill her?” This question is
accompanied by a desire to know more about the murderer. The story if
it fulfils the implied promise will explain. Desire to know whether
the murderer is apprehended is satisfied after the next hundred
words or so, in the sentence, “For he is still at liberty.” Herein,
also, lies an element of novelty; the more unoriginal story presents
the crime, then arouses suspense as to whether the criminal will be
caught, and justice meted out. (Study the story for further working
of the principle of suspense. What question motivates your reading
after Nag Hong Fah beats Fanny, for example?)
_Suggestion_: What is suggested to the reader in Fanny’s becoming
a model wife? In Miss Ritter’s speech about “Real love”? In the
“imitation” bracelet? How much of the business “off-stage,” after
Fanny’s subsidence, is built up by the reader?
CHARACTERIZATION. The dominant character interest lies in the racial
features, which are set off by contrast with each other. The author
manifests skill in creating hybrid Fanny, a product of racial crossing.
In order of importance, the main figures are: Nag Hong Fah, Fanny, Yung
Long, Quai Long.
Nag Hong Fah is played up as the chief character through
A. His rôle; he is easily the most important by virtue of the part
assigned to him.
B. Dramatic management on the author’s part.
1. He is the figure most constantly found on the stage.
2. He is the protagonist in the scenes presented.
3. He is frequently followed behind the scenes. (Purpose here
being to create variety of effect, so far as is consistent
with a larger unity.)
C. Stylistic management.
1. Giving to Nag Hong Fah the places of rhetorical emphasis--the
beginning and the end of the story.
Study the story for concrete examples that illustrate the main points
just made. Study, also, the proportion given to other characters. What
is the greatest contributory value of Señora Garcia? Of Edith Ritter?
Nag Sen Yet? The Chinese Soothsayer? Brian Neill? Little Brian? Mamie
Ryan? Little Fanny? Compare the author’s ability to describe physical
details with his skill in revealing mental characteristics. To what
extent does the outer personality reveal the inner? Answer for each of
the important characters.
LOCAL COLOR.
A. _Setting_: The locality is conveyed in the first sentence. Where
is it repeated, and how? What contrasts do you find in the larger
setting? What details, for example, contribute to the Oriental
characteristics? Which to the American? Value of the opium? of
the schooner of beer? of the ivory sticks? Why is the flat (page
5) described in detail as to furnishings? (Give two reasons, from
two points of view.) What is the value of the contrast between
indications of wealth and of the neighborhood features?
B. _Customs_: What customs testify to Captain Abdullah’s intimate
acquaintance with the Chinese?
C. _Speech_: Compare the Oriental matter, manner, and meaning with
the American matter, manner, and meaning.
D. _Dress_: What bearing on character have the accessories of dress?
Yung Long’s bowler hat, his loose sleeves and fan, Fanny’s furs, the
earrings of jade, and the bracelet--all serve what purpose?
_Atmosphere_: Captain Abdullah says (page 4) “the tale is of the
Orient.” Note that he has secured the Oriental _feel_, or atmosphere,
modified slightly by the American intrusion, through the harmonizing
of character, speech, dress, customs,--above all, by emphasizing
the things “which matter most to the Oriental.” Contrast to similar
Occidental characteristics is subordinated to the intensification,
and is, therefore, contributory to the larger impression.
As to the short-story, Captain Abdullah thinks that length has nothing
to do with it. “It can be seven hundred words long, or seventy
thousand. As to the latter length, I consider Frank Swinnerton’s
_Nocturne_ a short-story.” And he offers as a tentative definition
this: “The short-story is a story grouped logically about the same
character and characters, every bit of plot and action working together
to affect, influence, and make a background for the same character and
characters, eliminating, in contrast to a novel, all side issues.”...
THE SACRIFICIAL ALTAR
GERMINAL IDEA. “It is so long since I wrote ‘The Sacrificial Altar’
that I am rather hazy. My impression is that I set out to draw a born
artist hampered by certain disabilities, and one of these being a
disinclination for life and utter absence of the love instinct, all
the forces of his nature concentrated upon his art, until they reached
the point of obsession. It was not until after he had written the last
book that he reacted to the normal instincts he had inherited and which
had been automatically developed by the most normal bourgeoisie on
earth.”--_Gertrude Atherton._
ANALYSIS OF PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: César Dupont persuades Louis Bac to meet Berthe.
(Note, even in the single incident, the struggle--one of wills--and
the argument which wins the younger man.)
_Steps to the Dramatic Climax_: 1. Louis meets Berthe and “feels
nothing.” 2. “--a daring idea sprang ... darted into Louis’s relaxed
brain.” 3. Louis goes to the Dupont mansion, steals to the girl’s
room, sees her asleep. “He gazed resentfully at that diminished
beauty.... Why not give her a fright?” He seizes a pillow and presses
it against her face. “She made a sudden downward movement, gurgling.
With a quick, cat-like leap he was on her chest.”
_Dramatic Climax_: His soul and passions are liberated. “The body lay
limp and flabby at last.”
_Steps to the Climax of Action_: 1. Louis takes pains to divert
suspicion from himself. 2. In the next three months he writes his
book. (Note that this is the climax of action in the _artist’s_
struggle, that the murder is the turning point after which he
succeeds artistically. But the climax of action for the _man_ is yet
to come.) 3. At the end of the three months, he hears that another
has been hanged as the murderer. 4. He confesses to M. Dupont. 5.
Dupont refuses to believe the story. 6. Louis writes his confession.
_The Climax of Action_: He walks to the Catholic cemetery and shuts
himself into the family vault.
_Dénouement_: Left to the reader. By a clue on page 16 one would
gather that Bac drank poison or cut his wrists.
Study the development of this plot, as to scenes, summaries,
condensations, accelerations, gaps, and omissions with reference to
the artistic effect. For example, the initial incident is presented
dramatically, the characters act it before the reader. The steps to
the dramatic climax are presented partly in retrospect, from Louis’s
point of view; those nearest the climax are given dramatically.
Study the plot, also, with respect to the struggle. What details
are “for” Louis’s artistic success? How are they related to those
“against” his physical being?
Is the plot, in connection with the development of Louis’s character,
probable? What logic has the author employed to make it seem so?
Mrs. Atherton’s own testimony is valuable by way of reflecting the
artist’s temperament. As she herself says, although she has never
been impelled to murder and has had always a consuming interest in
life, yet until the war, she never permitted anything to interfere
with her work.
CHARACTERIZATION. What value is there in Louis Bac’s being French?
Mrs. Atherton plays up Louis by making him the spot-light figure and
by presenting the story from his angle. The invasion of his mind
results, incidentally, in the reader’s seeing the setting, situation,
and characters as he sees them.
Study the author’s description and exposition of Louis Bac, then his
speeches and his acts. What do the other characters think of him?
Observe how the various methods of portraiture strengthen one another
in the finished portrait.
Berthe is lightly touched. The reader must “believe” in her as a
beautiful young girl, but must not give her too great sympathy.
Overmuch attention to her would have detracted from the character unity
of the narrative.
César Dupont is the contemporary representative of the confidant,
offering opportunity for dramatic form (in the scene work) and
consequent interest. Unity of action and effect is conserved by making
him Berthe’s uncle; moreover, probability and verisimilitude are
gained by the relationship. Madame Dupont, M. Jules Constant, Louis’s
servants, and others, are the background characters, carefully subdued
so as not to interfere with the chief action and consequent story unity.
Note every reference to San Francisco, then ask yourself how strongly
the setting works toward the securing of the reader’s credulity. Try
telling the story, mentally, without allusion to locale. What is
lost? “On a pedestal was a vase that had belonged to Napoleon, wired
and fastened down,” etc. What is the value of this sentence in the
direction of capturing belief? Study the management of the _time_
element.
ATMOSPHERE. Study the _feeling_ of the story in connection with the
place. The first sentence of the narrative strikes the tone “gray,”
and gives the setting. “Lone Mountain” conveys what impression? The
cemetery, used so powerfully in the climax of action, deepens the
gray note to its most somber hue. This increased depth of tone works
integratively with the action to the powerful climax. Point out all the
words and phrases that intensify the atmosphere.
PRESENTATION OF THE ACTION. The narrator is the author who knows all,
sees all, and exercises omniscience over Louis’s mind.
Tell the plot without adhering to Louis’s point of view, placing every
event in the order of its occurrence. Note the loss in suspense and
cumulative effect.
DETAILS.
_Suspense_: Where does the story first grip you, and why? At what
point does the cause for suspense change, and with what bearing on
your interest?
_Clues_: Make a list of clues to the tragic conclusion; _e.g._, “If I
am awake” (page 33).
_Proportion_: How much of the narrative is devoted to antecedent
circumstances? Notice the long preliminary, the logical necessity for
an accurate disclosure of character at the beginning, and compare it
with the fine art which leaves the dénouement partly to the reader.
_Suggestion._--At what points did you unconsciously create incidents
or summarize them?
GENERAL METHODS OF MRS. ATHERTON. “I rarely have the solution of a
story or novel in mind, merely the principal character, the central
idea, and the _mis-en-scène_. I prefer to let the story work itself
out. Else, where would be the fun in it? Writing to me is an adventure,
and if I knew beforehand how it was to turn out I should take no more
interest in it than I should take in the following year if I knew what
was to happen every day. Nevertheless, I would reject any finale that
I did not think logical. An arbitrary ending for the sake of dramatic
effect or conciliating the public makes the whole book or story
worthless artistically.”
THE EXCURSION
GERMINAL IDEA, OR STARTING-POINT. “The ‘Excursion’ was written from
the humorous delight I have always felt in excursions; it was started
merely as humorous description of certain inevitable excursion types.
I put the ‘story’ into already written appreciations of sartorial
and millinery triumphs as demonstrated on any well-developed
excursion.”--_Edwina Stanton Babcock._
CLASSIFICATION. A study in realism, wherein the general picture and
all the excursionists are of quite as much importance as the few
predominant characters.
PLOT. Loosely interpreted, plot may be termed a summing up of the
“story,” a recapitulation. Technically, the plot is the underlying plan
“of which no part can be removed without ruin to the whole”; it is
the development of the struggle or conflict which every “short-story”
possesses in common with the drama.
What in “The Excursion” is the struggle? What part does the dialogue
between the two sisters play in the revelation of the struggle? If the
struggle were made dominant, what lamentable result would follow for
the “situation” value of the whole narrative? Is there a hint near the
conclusion that the struggle may have an outcome? Is the plot finished,
then, as the author has left it? What is the embryonic dramatic climax
or turning point? (Find the moment when the feelings of the passengers
change toward Mrs. Tuttle.)
CHARACTERIZATION. What types are represented in Mrs. Tuttle? Mrs.
Cronney? Mrs. Tinneray? Mr. Tinneray? Mrs. Mealer? Mrs. Bean? The
“lady in a purple raincoat”? “A mild mannered youth with no chin?”
Miss Mealer? Hypatia Smith? Test the economy and effectiveness of Miss
Babcock’s portrayal by asking yourself what further things these people
would do or say. Are the types such as would be found in the same boat?
Compare the few figures of prominence with those of the background. Are
they in “high relief” or “low relief”?
ATMOSPHERE. Realistic; it has the “feel” of the typical American
excursion. To achieve it, were necessary the author’s keen observation,
sane vision, and sense of humor.
ACCESSORY DETAILS. Enhancing and emphasizing the reality of the
occasion are the features, objects, and acts associated with
excursions. The crunch of peanuts, the search for chewing gum, the
squinting through ivory-headed canes,--such details of the composition
indicate meticulous workmanship on the part of Miss Babcock. Notice
whether these features appeal rather to sight, to hearing, or to other
senses. What do you deduce?
GENERAL METHODS OF MISS BABCOCK. “To me, in writing, the story is keyed
by a face, the note of a man’s or a woman’s voice, a bit of lonely
moorland, a scene in a railway station, some little amusing bit some
one tells me. Then comes incubation for an absurdly uncertain time.
Then I dress up in a mass of what seems to me related detail the
significant centre, trying usually to thrust in a few bits of humor for
the simple reason that life is made of it and the huge wonder is that
the whole world does not ‘grin like a dog and go about the city.’... I
love to paint things I’ve seen--particularly natural things....”
CRUELTIES
STARTING POINT. Edwina Stanton Babcock says that “Cruelties” was
written around the figure of the spinster, Frenzy, at whom she has had
peeps for nearly eighteen years. Her formal and carefully elaborate
English,--her garden, and her worries over it--all are drawn from what
Miss Babcock considers story material “for any one.” Mrs. Tyarck and
Mrs. Capron were painted in contrasts, and “little Johnny Tyarck and
what went on inside of his wispy head at prayer meeting was put in
because of my own ceaseless wonder as to what goes on inside the heads
of the Johnny Tyarcks of this world.”
“Cruelties” took a long time to crystallize and it seemed to me that
the dénouement never really consummated. I longed to have the wayward
girl more of a person, but the confines of the story would not allow
it. I wrote four drafts of it, cutting out quantities each time.”
PLOT. Compared with “The Excursion,” this story possesses a framework
more substantial and of better architecture. Though most readers will
be interested in the personality of the characters, rather than in
the action, nevertheless they will enjoy the steady and perceptible
progress to the solution of the slight complication. This complication
the author has effected through the entangling of two interests. The
first is the one-sided struggle which arises between the women, Mrs.
Tyarck _et al_, and Miss Giddings--one-sided, inasmuch as the former
are active, while the latter is passive. It is motivated by Frenzy’s
attempt to rid her roses of worms. (Is this motivation sufficient to
account for the animosity? What circumstance abets it? What value has
the fact that Mrs. Capron is a tract distributor?) The second line of
interest has to do with the young girl’s downfall and rehabilitation.
The fact that Miss Giddings becomes her champion increases the petty
animosity. The outcome of the complication shows Frenzy triumphant, in
the scene between her and Mrs. Tyarck.
Are you satisfied with this dénouement? Why?
What motivation has Miss Babcock employed to explain the girl’s taking
refuge with Miss Giddings? Is it adequate and convincing?
_Initial Incident_: Two phases, each suggesting an individual line of
interest. 1. Scene in Frenzy’s shop; the women see the girl pass. 2.
Scene in Frenzy’s garden, emphasizing the struggle between Frenzy and
insects. (What significance has the fact that the ladies enter into
relations with the fly-paper? What symbolic part has the cherry tree?)
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Mrs. Capron prays the Lord to
“keep us from needless cruelties.” The author summarily indicates
that Frenzy becomes the butt of petty spite.
_Dramatic Climax_: First phase, as narrated, lies in Miss Giddings’s
metaphorical burial. Her enemies are at the highest peak of their
mean triumph. The second phase, intensifying the first, indicates the
girl’s downfall. (Point out the forecast to this dramatic climax.)
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: 1. The incident of the girl’s
return. 2. Miss Frenzy keeps her, as an assistant. 3. Mrs. Tyarck, in
disapproval, takes her patronage to the “other” store; Mrs. Capron
bestows tracts.
_Climax of Action_: Frenzy turns the tables in completely routing her
enemy. (Scene between Mrs. Tyarck and Frenzy.)
_Dénouement_: Frenzy’s conjecture about the cherry tree closes the
story.
(What does the author lose in summarizing, rather than in
dramatizing, her dramatic climax? What does she gain in relative
values by its subdual?)
CHARACTERIZATION. By emphasizing physical traits Miss Babcock has
differentiated her characters unmistakably, if a bit obviously.
Frenzy’s stiffly refined diction (in contrast to the slangy speech of
coarse Mrs. Tyarck), and Mrs. Capron’s hawking illustrate her method.
Tabulate the characteristics of the chief figures.
How has she individualized them by their acts? In connection with your
study of personal appearance, evaluate the use: 1. Of the “two large
pins of green ... like bulbous, misplaced eyes”.... 2. Of the wing on
Mrs. Tyarck’s hat. 3. Of the girl’s red sweater.
The only masculine figures who appear on the stage are little
Johnnie Tyarck and Mr. Bloomby. Is the fact that their male presence
contributes to background, or to realistic effect, a sufficient gain
for shifting to their respective points of view?
Which of the characters is most frequently found in every day life?
LOCAL COLOR. To what extent do the details of setting (including
customs, dialect, dress) typify any American rural community? Can you
justify the full paragraph on the buttons?
TIME ELEMENT. How has the author handled the flight of months without
seeming unduly to prolong the action or to break the unity of effect?
ATMOSPHERE. Realistic, it reflects the mood of the author who sees
life as it is, rather than of the author dominated by so-called
“temperament.” She sees characters and events, for the most part,
through the kindly glow of humor.
What double cause for smiling exists in the title of the tract
delivered in the first scene? Point out other examples of humor.
“Usually in beginning a story,” Miss Babcock says, “the first paragraph
sets a sort of mechanism going in me and controls the tone and
atmosphere of the story. Thus, you see, I almost _have_ to begin with a
paragraph a little long. My great difficulty is my love of description
and painting of pictures--I despair of characters because I know that
one really never gets the whole character into the story, any more than
one gets it in life. I think the writer must make the character act
like its description. A spit-curl character must have spit-curl ideas
and behavior. The more I write the more I am convinced that the writer
is a slave to two contradictory convictions; that is, that he must give
the truth of the story as he has visioned it, and that there _is no_
truth but that the story-telling art has its very beginning in creating
illusions.”
ONNIE
CLASSIFICATION. Onnie is a story of character; the trait exploited
leads to the tragic dénouement.
GERMINAL IDEA. “The genesis of ‘Onnie’ was a desire to record the
dialect of one Patrick Qualey, a gardener, now extinct. Patrick had
preserved to the age of seventy his Celtic fibre quite unimpaired. I
think he rather prided himself on the act, and, perhaps, embroidered
the garment of his speech a trifle. He died very tamely of pneumonia,
and Forest County, Pa., was _not_ his abiding place. As for Onnie, I
confess that I am weary of lovely Irishwomen, and a witty Irishwoman I
have never met....”--_Thomas Beer._
CHARACTERIZATION. Read the story rapidly, and immediately ask yourself,
“What impression have I received of Onnie, physically, mentally, and
spiritually?” Go over the story again, making note of every mention
of Onnie, and observe how forcefully, yet adroitly, the author has
emphasized details. What is the value of having different characters
observe her monstrousness and her homeliness?
Notice that Onnie’s superstition makes her say, “The gifts of children
are the blessin’s of Mary’s self,” but that her “odd scapular” has
a sinister significance throughout. Is this sinister suggestion in
harmony with the final sacrifice? Estimate the number of words in the
story, then the number emphasizing Onnie; finally, the proportion
devoted to the main incident and preparation for it. What is the length
of time over which Onnie’s devotion to San extends? The length of the
“story” part of the narrative? If the proportion were reversed, what
would be the effect on the character work? On the poignancy?
Name in order the other characters of the narrative, and notice the
proportion given to each. Study the ways in which the author makes San
a lovable youngster. Take account of his acts, his speeches, what his
father thinks of him, what the men do for his protection. In the same
way, take stock of the ways whereby Percival is presented as a villain
of the lowest type.
Are there too many characters in “Onnie” for best short-story effect?
PLOT. Notice that the development of the struggle lies in the latter
half of the story. Define this struggle for yourself. With whom
do you immediately take sides? Show how the main line of interest
(Onnie’s love for San) combines with the second line of interest (the
one growing out of the struggle) to make the complication. Is the
entanglement logically effected? Give examples. What is the first
preparation for the main incident? (See page 34.) “He put in your new
bath-tub and Onnie jumped him for going round the house looking at
things.” This statement reveals the _motivation_ for Percival’s dislike
of Onnie (whom every one else loved) and rationalizes his insult on
page 36; it also explains how the villain knew the arrangement of the
rooms.
The first _developed_ incident, leading toward the climax, covers pages
35 and 36, beginning with the approach of Percival and ending with his
punishment by Sanford.
Study the introduction of the knife and all references to it. What
instruments of death in other stories of these collections have plot
value?
The climax of the action is told with fine brevity. Study the
dénouement, beginning page 42. “He sat up, tearing the blankets back.”
The last paragraph is marked by artistic restraint. Compare it with the
end of “The Sacrificial Altar.”
SETTING. How is the Pennsylvania background integrated with character
and action to make the story? Over how many years does the entire
action extend? By what devices of transition and by what proportion has
the author subdued the time element?
ATMOSPHERE. The latter half of the narrative presents contrast to
the first half, in spite of the plot clues. What is the value of
this contrast in moods? Has the rain a contributory value? Find
other instances in these stories of weather conditions emphasizing
the impression. Point out all the instances of dramatic forecast,
particularly those which serve to unify the earlier and later portions
of the narrative (_e.g._, “And anything could happen there,” page 28).
MISS WILLETT
THE STARTING-POINT. Mr. Benefield states that it has been so long since
he wrote “Miss Willett” that the processes of growth have gone out of
his memory. He is sure, however, that the story had its origin in a
show-window exhibit on a street in New York, where a negro woman of a
most evil expression used to demonstrate a folding bed. “I probably
noted the exhibit in a book, left it for weeks or months and then one
day when I needed an idea I opened the note-book, turned over the
pages, stared at the scribbled note, and the elements of the story as
written floated to the center of consciousness and joined in a more or
less rough but complete whole. After that it was merely a matter of
chiseling it into shape.”--_Barry Benefield._
The expression “floated to the center of consciousness” seems to imply
an inspirational writing force, much as does Mrs. Pulver’s statement,
“My crew will come to me ready named, ready behavioured” (see page 169).
The striking relation between Mr. Benefield’s original idea and his
subsequently developed story is one of contrast. It is noteworthy that
_character_ dominates in each; incident is subordinate.
THE DEVELOPMENT. The principle of suggestion, by which this author has
conveyed more than he could express, works powerfully. Observe the
first effect created by the face of the sculptured Christ. “She noticed
that the long white dress of the infant,” etc. (page 40). What are
succeeding effects?
THE ACTION. Miss Willett’s fortunes are in the descendant at the
beginning of the story. Where do they take a turn? Is this dramatic
climax motivated by the influence of the face? (“Yesterday you had
nothin’; to-day you got everything.” This speech clinches, for the
reader who prefers the mystical interpretation, the influence of the
sculptured Jesus. To the non-mystical reader, this logic alone is
satisfactory: loss of job had meant an unconscious spur, the spur of
desperation, with unanticipated success.) What is the sequel to the
day’s success which marks Miss Willett’s continued interest in the
face behind the green-slatted window? State in order the steps leading
to the discovery. What is the climax of action? Does it constitute a
surprise for the reader as for Miss Willett? What is the dénouement?
With the dénouement, dawns the realization of what underlying theme?
THE MAIN CHARACTER. According to the mystical interpretation the chief
character is the sculptured figure. Otherwise, Miss Willett is the
principal. According to the two interpretations, the two become active
and passive, reciprocally.
What is the fundamental impression you receive of Miss Willett’s
physical person? What, to a writer, is the advantage in choosing a
very large or very small person as a main character? Recall classic
examples. Note all references to Miss Willett’s big blondeness, and
study the economy with which she is kept before the reader.
DETAILS. Where is the gray kitten first mentioned? What is the value,
to the plot, of this introduction?
Glance over the narrative for words of color, light, and sound. Which
are predominant? The effect on the story and on its verisimilitude?
Color-value of the red geranium with its single flower? Value for
effect of reality?
Study the easy manner in which the setting is given to the reader.
SUPERS
CLASSIFICATION. A single scene sketch; it is like a charcoal drawing.
PLOT. The plot, concealed beneath the picture, lies in the objectifying
of the eternal struggle for bread and meat.
SETTING. The place is the street near the theatre door: like a magnet
it draws the individual human beings, who cohere in the mass until the
attracting power is removed.
CHARACTERS. This mass, or aggregate, emphasizes the individual
struggle, at the same time it engulfs individual personality. What does
the name “Supers” indicate, literally? Figuratively? What part does Red
Beard play? How does he, too, contribute to the larger unity at the
same time he offers a note of contrast?
ATMOSPHERE. Sordid, drab realism, uncompromising in its ugliness.
BUSTER
OPENING INCIDENT. Emphasis falls at once on the society which the hero
disconcerts. The correctness of living, the tranquil setting, provide
the formal serenity he is to break. “Lucien forgot himself completely,”
note the effect of the impeccable chauffeur’s exclamation as testimony
to the “demon boy.” The reader, startled with the characters into
attention, catches the epithet up with interest and expectation.
Are the recounted escapades and the antecedent scene necessary? or,
in the wealth of instance which follows, does the recountal seem
extensive? Is the relaxation so effected pleasant? Does the rehearsal
of the antecedent episode slow the tempo and hold the story back
unnecessarily? Besides revealing Buster, the material permits the
cousin’s mental distress to accumulate in effect and allows time for
the race to and from Boston.
Within the economy of the first picture, Buster’s manner, the striking
factor of his aspect, and his adolescent growth are suggested. Notice
that the following scene enlarges the same points. Notice that in this
scene and the others between Buster and his aunts, Buster does the
talking. The aunts interpose, occasionally, protest and reasoning. Do
the scenes lack excitement other than Buster’s excitement? There is
not the vigorous clash of speech with speech; for that, the characters
are too well mannered. If the struggle wants intensity, is there
compensation in the naturalness of the futile boyish tirading? Buster
seems to fume?
The trouble at the bakery serves to remind the reader that Buster, in
the apparent lull, is intent on his own purposes. It serves, also,
to divert the reader’s mind from the preparation for the aeroplane
incident.
The Bazaar at Dawn Towers: The personnel for this scene is usual; there
are the usual élite and the climber from the West. (Notice the social
status of Oklahoma and Montana!) The futurist palace is a relieving
detail.
The incident caps the social crimes of Buster; it provides the climax
for part one of the story, playing off the vitality of the boy’s
contention against the vanities and half-sincerity of his Aunt’s set.
Like Buster’s passionate repetition, “I’ve got to know,” it is dramatic
forecast. Here is the significance of the story: youth struggling with
convention for its destiny.
The latter half of the story is fulfilment and realization.
Does the timing of this part--“and yesterday at dusk”--injure the
dramatic reality? The writer suggests this is an account, a diary, a
rehearsal.
EPISODIC PLOT. The incidents of the plot do not progress logically,
as steps in action having a consequential relation. But they are
instances making the same character point, having this unity. In the
important scenes the events are held in combination further by their
centralization about three characters: Dr. Lake, Miss Edith, and Buster
stand out at beginning, climax and end.
Account for the animosity against Dr. Lake in the boy’s tone and the
story tone. Does the writer in her characterization of him caricature
the doctor? (the emphasis on his eminence and his shirt-front in the
opening scenes, on his fright in the climax scene). Contrast his
appearance in the two parts of the story; his self-importance in the
earlier scenes with his eventual sacrifice. The traditions reveal in
the crisis their underlying sanction. Does his geniality in the final
scene convince?
Cousin Edith, if typical, is set apart from her environment by a
quality of humor and by her angle--as sympathetic observer of Buster.
Observe that Buster feels the difference in her character. Is there
a note of affectation in her manner? Notice that, though she is
influenced by the aviator’s tirade, she is sufficiently herself to
remark his manners. Does Buster work in her the magic of complete
conviction? Is her wordy “gush” when she first sees the unconscious boy
natural in tone and sentiment? She sees, remember, the “death-like”
face, at the sight of which “the limp, shivering doctor pulled himself
together with all his weary might.” Her words “baby” the hero--does one
“tuck” a brawny fist under his cheek?
Buster is pictured most completely in his unconsciousness. Do the
stubborn chin there and the sulky under-lip of the first scenes
indicate an unpleasant willfulness? Offset this impression by details
in the summary of his escapades which suggest a sympathetic kindness.
Does he show in the struggle with his Aunts a personal animosity?
Is the democracy revealed in the sailor episode typical of his
age? Compare Aunt Charlotte’s speech for German methods with the
Brigadier General’s on the making of the hero. Do the aviator and the
ambulance-driver in their recognition of him reinforce qualities in
Buster which are representative?
“Concerning ‘Buster,’ he isn’t the portrait of any real flesh-and-blood
boy. But he tries to be the composite portrait of the fourteen-year-olds
that we all know, and most of us own by ties of blood,--the tempestuous
darling, the pride and the despair of us. As for the story itself, it
is a well-meant but probably futile attempt to convince the Average
Parent,--to say nothing of the average Aunt Charlotte and Cousin
Edith,--that the abysmal differences between the Busters of to-day and
their own generation are not so many conclusive proofs that Buster
and his tribe are essentially inferior. On the contrary! For to my
eyes, the rising generation is a rising one, with a vengeance, and
o’ertops its predecessors with a disconcerting splendor. So the story
tries to make this conviction clear,--and very likely fails. For one
of my nearest and dearest was grieving only the other day, because
her own particular Buster insists that his life’s ambition is to be
a fire chief. ‘When we want him to be a corporation lawyer, like his
father!’... As to definitions--could there be a compact definition of
the short-story? I doubt it. It’s a universal experience, put into a
duodecimo edition, but it’s a thousand other things, besides.
“Some day, some one with authority will answer, I hope, this question:
Should the short-story writer be a writer of short-stories and nothing
more? Or--should he write stories when and where he can, in the
intervals of other, far more absorbing, tasks?”--_Katharine Holland
Brown._
FOG
GENERAL. The first sentence in “Fog” serves two purposes. 1. It
thrusts satirically at the commercializing of the short story. 2. It
induces the reader to believe the inner narrative is a growth, not
a construction. The author seems to have hesitated between leaving
the supernatural story as one beautiful enough to stand alone, and
building about it the humorous and even cynical external action. Or it
may be that he saw best to set off the fragile inner narrative with
the hard facts of a workaday world. Without the prelude to the story
(which begins with “He was born a thousand miles from deep water”) and
without the sentences after the asterisks on page 73, the narrative
recalls “The Brushwood Boy.” And this is true, despite the rather
homely dialect. If, however, the reader is duly influenced by the parts
referred to, he cannot but recall Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s “Struggle for
Life,” as a prototype.
PLOT.
_Initial Stages_: Andy pins up the ship; his father blots it out;
Andy is delirious; acquires name of Wessel’s Andy.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Andy drifts east; seeing a model
of the _Lucky Star_ in Stiles’s place, he asks for a job; he gets
it. He reveals that he has had “a ship behind his eyes,”--a schooner
like the _Lucky Star_, and his knowledge that he belongs on board.
This knowledge is attended by a fear: he does not know the cause for
which he must go. He indicates that something holds him back from
the sea, but refuses to disclose it. The immediate approach to the
dramatic climax is made in the story told, to the fisherman from
Gloucester, by old Jem Haskins. Andy learns the facts about Dan and
Hope Salisbury. Later, he asks whether there is a picture of Hope in
the village.
_Dramatic Climax_: Andy steals into Ed Salisbury’s house and finds
Hope’s picture.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Andy is happy now (he knows why
he must go aboard the _Lucky Star_). He reveals the other vision
which has been, always, back of his eyes. Hope Salisbury has the face
of that vision. It is clear to him, now, that in going aboard the
vessel he will meet Hope. He knows that the time is near. Immediately
before the climax of action, Stiles walks down the beach. He sees a
mist, blotting the blue water as it comes. Turning homeward, he sees
Andy, on the edge of the beach, staring into the fog.
_Climax of Action_: As the surf closes over Andy, Stiles gathers
himself to jump. Then he sees the _Lucky Star_, and Hope. Andy goes
aboard....
Is the “inevitable” quality of the narrative increased by making Andy
“a queer one”? See Georgie, by way of contrast, in “The Brushwood Boy.”
Where does suspense first operate? Where do you suspect, first, that
Hope is meant to be Andy’s bride?
Observe that Andy’s last act might have been that of a deluded brain,
and that Stiles’s vision of the _Lucky Star_ might have been one of
hallucination. The more imaginative reader will regard the ghost-ship
as objective, and will “believe” in the delayed union of Hope and
Andrew.
Read Richard Middleton’s “The Ghost Ship,” for a frankly humorous
treatment of theme. What other stories in Mr. O’Brien’s collections
have an element of the supernatural?
Try presenting this story in pure English, from the author’s point
of view. Use the objective method, abstaining from entrance into the
mind of any character. Take up the narrative at the point of Andrew’s
arrival at Stiles’s, and let his “queerness” emerge through his acts
and speeches.
How much creative work must you accomplish to make a consistent
character of Stiles? (Here, Stiles, the narrator, must be studied
through the story he presents. In the dramatic presentation of the
story, he will become more objective.)
THE WATER-HOLE
GENERAL METHOD. The immediate story of the water-hole is unfolded
by the “rehearsed” method. What gain results from telling in a city
restaurant an experience of the wilderness? Study the easy and natural
way in which Hardy’s story is brought forward. “You’ve got a concrete
instance back of that” (page 18) signifies that the narrator will
cite a case to prove his point. Recall other stories told for similar
purposes; _e.g._, O. Henry’s “The Theory and the Hound.”
Study the value of the two “I” narrators in the same story, with
respect to increasing verisimilitude and making the reader “believe.”
Kipling’s “The Courting of Dinah Shadd,” for example, uses the same
tactics.
Try re-telling the story by the dramatic method. Omit the enveloping
city setting; transfer Hardy from the first to the third person,
and keep the “spotlight” on him. Begin with the arrival of Hardy at
the home of the Whitneys, and follow the course of events to their
dénouement. What do you lose in richness and effectiveness? Do you gain
anything in vividness or directness?
PLOT. Having studied preceding plot analyses, the student will find
small difficulty in settling upon the main struggle in the action,
the complicating line of interest, and the climactic incident. The
surprise ending, however, calls for comment, in that to achieve it the
author used a natural and yet somewhat novel device. Hardy has been
speaking of himself, of course, in the first person. When, therefore,
he refers to the love that “one of the young engineers” had for Mrs.
Whitney we do not suppose that he and the engineer were identical.
Hence, we receive the shock in the final paragraph: “On the brown flesh
of his forearm, I saw a queer, ragged white cross--the scar a snake
bite leaves when it is cicatrized.” On reflection, one recognizes that
Whitney’s slight deception arose from motives of delicacy, and is more
than justifiable--it pleases, in that it refines Hardy’s character.
Deception as a means, in general, to create surprise is common (See
“The Mastery of Surprise,” _Bookman_, October, 1917); but it is given
here a particularly excellent turn.
Observe, also, that the plot presents a variation of the familiar
“triangle.” The love story, however, is buried beneath the greater
theme; and therefore, although it terminates in a lack of so-called
poetic justice, yet its combination with the main line of interest
gives utmost satisfaction.
CHARACTERS. Mr. Burt has employed a favorite artistic aid, contrast, in
depicting Hardy and Whitney. Does Hardy seem anywhere too modest or too
egotistic for the first person narrator? What value have the friends
who hear Hardy’s story in the full development of Hardy as a character?
A CUP OF TEA
SETTING. Note the setting of this and “The Water-Hole,” “The Knight’s
Move,” “The Weaver Who Clad the Summer,” “A Certain Rich Man.” In
which of them is the outer setting a place for the rehearsal of the
story which follows? In which is the setting that of the immediate
story-action? What is the general value of a table scene to the writer
who wishes to present his story in the “rehearsed” manner? How does a
camp-fire compare with it? (Read, for example, Kipling’s “The Courting
of Dinah Shadd.”)
INTRODUCTION, WITH EMPHASIS ON CHARACTERS. Why is so long an
introductory paragraph given to Burnaby?
Study the comment on guests and hostess, and observe that the English
financier must have an important part in the ensuing action. “Sir John
had inherited an imagination.” Is this stated characteristic proved by
subsequent disclosures?
How is Burnaby’s entrance emphasized?
“She was interested by now” (page 48), an old device and an excellent
one for catching the reader’s attention. The logic is this: “If that
fascinating lady is interested, there must be a reason.” Sir Conan
Doyle employs it often in the Sherlock Holmes stories, when Sherlock
asks for a repetition of a situation supposedly just presented. It is
thus put before the reader who assumes that it must be worth hearing
once, if Sherlock will hear it twice.
What reason exists for Burnaby’s story as a predecessor to Sir John’s?
Does it motivate the telling of Sir John’s? If so, does it also
prejudice the reader in favor of one or the other men? Does it incite
curiosity as to the squawman with a promise that curiosity will be
satisfied? Suppose that some other cause produced Sir John’s story and
the reader were left to surmise what became of Bewsher. Would sympathy
be with Bewsher in an increased or diminished degree?
Why is Burnaby’s story briefer than Sir John’s? Would it be possible
to reverse the comparative lengths with a new story-value? Try telling
Bewsher’s story as he might tell it to Burnaby at the time of the tea
incident.
How is point given to the squaw man’s name? What is the significance of
the broken champagne glass? Have literary artists often fallen back on
a broken glass by way of expressing emotion? Is it true to real life?
Does it _seem_ true in fiction?
Is there sufficient suggestion that Bewsher’s story is connected with
that of Masters to justify initial interest in Sir John’s narrative?
(See the dénouement of Burnaby’s.)
Where did you receive a hint that Masters is identifying himself with
Morton?
THE HEART OF THE WHOLE STORY: MASTERS’ STORY. Notice that Mr. Burt
recognizes, as all artists do, the various climaxes of the narrative.
This is indicated in what Sir John calls “high lights.”
_The Initial Impulse_ (_The “first high light”_): Morton’s plan to
cultivate the friendship of Bewsher.
_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: The importance of himself comes home
to Morton (“The second high light”). “The third did not come until
fifteen years later” (Bewsher has been in India; Morton, in a Banking
House in London): Morton desires a wife, luxury, and social standing.
Bewsher turns up; he and Morton fall in love with the same girl.
Bewsher leads, but he needs money. The “third high light,” then,
after fifteen years, is Bewsher’s supplication. Morton makes him a
rich man, but does not promise to keep him so.
_Dramatic Climax_: Bewsher forges a check, and hands it to Morton in
part payment of his indebtedness. Morton subsequently shows the check
to the girl and then burns it before her eyes. He thus wins her, not
aware that her heart is broken. Bewsher disappears.
_Climax of Action_: “The fourth high light” Morton marries the girl.
_Dénouement_: He suffers the realization that he can never be a
gentleman; he has learned that the girl does not love him.
What statement of Sir John indicates a recognition of the turning
point in the rivalry between him and Bewsher? Show that this outer or
external dramatic climax is the counterpart of the “third high light.”
_Dénouement of the Enveloping Narrative_: After Sir John and his
wife motor away, Burnaby explains the relations between the real and
the fictive characters. What is the significance of his appellation,
“timber-wolf”?
What is the office of Mrs. Malcolm’s closing remark?
“We are told that all writing is a process of elision, but no one
seems to go further and say that short-story writing is the process of
‘hitting the high spots’ plus the art of making the intervals between
the ‘high spots’ not only interesting but of such a quality that the
‘high spots’ do not seem strained and unnatural. I find that this is
mostly done by the turn of a sentence, or by an apparently adventitious
aphorism, or a paragraph of general comment.
“I do prefer the ‘I’ narrator greatly. 1st. It does away with the
‘Smart Alec,’ omniscient atmosphere of the third person, which seems
to me the bane of most American short-stories--the author gives an
impression of groping for his story, just as a person in real life
gropes when he narrates an incident. Conrad does this, and does it so
beautifully. It seems to me that a ‘thickness’ is achieved that can
be got in no other way. This, of course, does not apply to a novel,
because in a novel the ‘thickness’ is achieved by mere length.
“Secondly, as you say, it enables one to handle surprise more readily.
“Thirdly, the story can be told in colloquial language, and not in
literary language, which makes it, so it seems to me, more poignant.
What experience I have had convinces me that the poignancy of life is
invariably expressed by silences and by broken words. The French know
so well how to use dashes, for instance.
“Fourthly, and this is not paradoxical, despite the colloquial
language, one has a slight feeling of aloofness from the characters or
sees them through the medium of a third person; and this, it seems to
me, is the way one sees things in real life....
“The story ordinarily comes to me as an incident or a theme, sometimes
as a character in a certain incident. Then usually nothing happens for
a long time. If I try to think about it too much, so much the worse.
In about a month, I’ll think about it again and then, as a rule, it
begins to evolve. A great deal of the incident occurs to me while I am
actually writing.”--_Maxwell Struthers Burt._
MA’S PRETTIES
GENERAL. “Realism isn’t popular--is it?” Half assertively this inquiry
comes from a certain fiction writer. It is, perhaps, in proportion as
the story has obvious significance. This sketch about “Ma’s Pretties”
reflects in miniature the whole of an American community, but in
a manner which escapes him who seeks and appreciates only surface
values. It is the kind of writing which acquires relative importance
when placed alongside examples which reflect other communities, other
nationalities.
The narrative is not a short-story, in the technical sense. Mr. Buzzell
feels this to be no adverse criticism, since he says himself, “I am
not particularly concerned about the short-story as such. I am using a
short narrative form as a means of expression simply because this form
seems the most natural to me. There are many things which I wish to
record from my own particular slant. It is to accomplish this, rather
than to produce short-stories, that I am writing. Naturally, then, I
am not particularly concerned with the technique of the short-story,
but on the other hand I am very much concerned with the technique of
effective writing and have spent several years of hard work trying to
perfect my craftsmanship.”
CLASSIFICATION. A realistic sketch, with emphasis on the situation:
Mrs. Brooks dies; her “pretties” are divided.
THE CHARACTERS. What is the chief method of the author for revealing
character? How is the character of the dead woman indicated? What can
you say of the dialogue by way of indicating feeling over (1) “Ma’s”
illness, (2) her death? Describe the daughters.
THE MAIN SCENE. Is the story aptly entitled with respect to the main
incident? What universal theme is struck in this well-developed scene
between the girls in “Ma’s” room?
“The things enumerated in ‘Ma’s Pretties’ as found in her clothespress
were part of the things my mother found in my grandmother’s
clothespress after the latter’s death. I had to reject many items of
course, and rearrange those which I selected as typical. You may be
sure I spent a couple of weeks of hard work before I was satisfied with
this piece of writing.”--_Francis Buzzell._
SUBORDINATE SCENES. Which scene do you regard as second in importance?
“The building up of the scene in which Ben Brooks carries the earrings
in to ‘Ma’ was also a bit of conscious technique. I worked on that
paragraph many hours before I was satisfied with the names of the
flowers and had my tonal values right.”--_Francis Buzzell._
* * * * *
Compare this story with Donn Byrne’s “The Wake.” Apart from the
narrative element, do you receive a decided impression of national
contrast?
Study the list of “pretties,” as you studied the list of objects, etc.,
in Miss Babcock’s “The Excursion.” Try to discover, here as there,
their value in the reflection of reality. Certain small objects connote
what larger objects? “Ma’s” switch, for example? Apply this question to
your consideration of each detail. Have these apparently insignificant
details a value similar to that of synecdoche and metonymy?
LONELY PLACES
GENERAL. A technically well-wrought piece of realism, both in its
adherence to the point of view, and in the rationalization of events.
When it was first published, it bore the (editorial) sub-title, “A
Story of Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman.” “I assure you,” says Mr.
Buzzell, “that woman’s inhumanity to woman never entered my mind in
writing this story. If readers find a moral in any of my stories they
can have it without question; I didn’t put it there and I’ll lay no
claim to it.” What does this statement indicate with regard to Mr.
Buzzell’s ideas of art?
STARTING POINT, AND DEVELOPMENT. “The beginning of a poem, I assume
from my own experience, is a mood, a state of feeling, in the poet. He
is stirred by something and sets to work to express it. Well, then,
this is the way a story begins in me. As a result, the first tangible
thing I have is the atmosphere.... I remembered that there were in
Almont (Romeo) a number of ‘grand’ houses, standing far back from the
road, and occupied by lonely women. I saw these houses buried in trees
in summer, smelled the wild honeysuckle, watched the wrens flying in
and out of the old teapots hung in the vines of the dining-room porch.
In the winter I saw these houses buried in snow.”
Mr. Buzzell then wondered why these women had never married and
concluded that all the young men of their generation had gone to the
city to work.
“The next step was to select a definite setting. For this I took an old
house which I knew thoroughly--my Grandfather’s house--the Orin Crisman
house in ‘Addie Erb and her Girl Lottie.’ In this house I placed a
woman not quite forty years old and I named her Abbie Snover. Then I
gave her Old Chris as a companion. I had reason for placing Old Chris
in the house with Abbie aside from an actual plot requirement. I placed
him there because I wanted to impress my reader in the beginning with
the loneliness of Abbie Snover’s environment rather than with her utter
lack of companionship. The actual beginning of plot, I think, was
when I decided to take Old Chris away from her at the end, so as to
accentuate her loneliness. In searching for a cause that would remove
the old man I decided to resort to gossip. The next question was how
to start the gossip. It seemed most natural to have the children begin
it. But how start the children? Abbie Snover and Old Chris had lived
alone in that big house for fifteen years without any gossip; something
would have to happen to start it. So I decided that Abbie would have
to antagonize the children in some way. To be able to antagonize the
children would necessarily require some kind of personal contact with
them, so I had the children form a habit of going to her door after
cookies. Then I invented the orange tree to give Abbie a reason for
driving them out of the house.
“The rest was simple until I sent Abbie out of the big house on her
journey to Mile Corners. It wasn’t until I reached this point that I
decided to let the reader know that Old Chris was dead; that Abbie’s
journey through the snow was to be a fruitless one; that fate had
robbed her of her victory. If I had been concerned with writing just
a short story I would have given my readers the desired surprise by
withholding Old Chris’s death from them until Abbie found it out. What
I wanted to do was to make them feel Abbie’s tragedy every step of the
way along that country road.”
The difference between the realist’s and the romanticist’s methods may
be seen by a consideration of what a romanticist would have done at any
stage of the action. For example, Abbie’s kindness to the children
would have been the cause, not of her undoing, but rather (under other
circumstances) of her rehabilitation. The business of the orange tree,
again, might have been used to turn the youngsters against her, as Mr.
Buzzell has used it, but in this event then the sender of the orange
tree would have arrived on the scene and by his masterfulness properly
subdued the gossip.... Again, the romanticist would have saved the
surprise, undoubtedly, for the reader as well as for Abbie. He would
have desired to create the shock, and leave reflection to each reader.
Try telling the story from Mrs. Perry’s angle.
What is the struggle? Is it active or passive, or does it pass from one
to the other condition? Are the stages of the plot well-marked, from
initial impulse to climax of action?
What is the atmosphere? What details of setting, character, and action
harmonize in the totality of effect? What notes of contrast but serve
to intensify the prevailing mood?
Has the author attempted to enlist the reader’s sympathy for Abbie? Is
his work finer and truer, as a result?
THE WAKE
GENERAL. “The Wake” suggests and pictures the customs of the Irish
following a death; at the same time it tells a story. For this latter
reason it is superior, as a narrative, to “Supers,” which emphasizes
the picture, the condition. Emphasis is placed on the situation, with
a gradual heightening of interest as to a suggested outcome. The young
wife of an elderly husband lies dead; she has loved and been loved by a
younger man; the younger man (Kennedy) has declared, “If anything ever
happens to that girl at your side, Michael James, I’ll murder you!” And
now as Michael sits in dumb misery, he awaits the fulfillment of the
threat. The passive situation is merged into the dramatic moment by the
advent of Kennedy, who seeing the dead woman, foregoes his intention.
SETTING. The locale, according to Mr. Byrne, is Ulster, North Ireland.
What is the length of the action?
GERMINAL IDEA. “I wished to write a story of an Irish wake which was
neither utterly sordid, nor indelicately funny.” Is the resultant mood,
atmosphere, in harmony with this intention?
THE ACTION. Where is your interest first aroused? At what point does
the principle of suspense operate to intensify interest? Is the
dénouement satisfactory? Is the action that of a “triangle” story?
Compare it, in this regard, with the action of “The Water-Hole.” How is
the love interest submerged in “The Wake”? How is the hostility Kennedy
bears James overcome? What bearing on the action and on the theme has
the blind misery of James?
THE CHARACTERS. From whose point of view is the story presented? Who
is the main character and why? Is there in any way a suggestion that
Death, as a character, controls? Or is the influence of the dead woman
dominant?
THE THEME. In stating the theme, refer to the germinal idea and comment
on the author’s success.
* * * * *
Compare with this narrative, Chapter IX of Patrick MacGill’s “The
Rat-Pit.” Mr. MacGill’s setting is also in Ulster: Donegal.
It should be added for the benefit of the student who resents, or
finds hampering, an insistence on short-story type, that Mr. Donn
Byrne believes there isn’t any such thing as the short-story. “A story
is a story whether it’s a novel of 100,000 words or a short magazine
affair. There is no difference in technic between a 4,000 word writing,
like ‘The Wake’ and any of my big 15,000 worders--‘Sargasso Sea,’ for
example, or ‘A Treasure upon Earth.’ Get a worth while idea and make
your narrative interesting. That’s the only formula for any piece
of fiction. The short-story is to the novel what the chip mashie
shot is to the full St. Andrew Swing, the same identical stroke used
effectively for shorter distance.”
Bring arguments to bear for or against Mr. Donn Byrne’s statement. Be
sure you have read widely before drawing conclusions, and have studied
the technique of the stories and novels read.
THE GREAT AUK
SETTING. The locale is New York City; the most important scene, in the
Scudder Theater. The time is the present.
One of Irvin Cobb’s most remarkable powers is that of picturing so
vividly a setting that the reader cannot but read and cannot but
remember. What is the explanation of this astonishing success? First
of all, Mr. Cobb is a keen observer. When he is out with his wife,
according to her he sees ten times more than she does, yet she thinks
she is seeing all there is to see. “When he was writing ‘The County
Trot’ Mrs. Cobb marveled at his life-like pictures of the Kentucky
characters, all of whom he had really known. She asked him how it was
possible for him to remember their faces and mannerisms after the
lapse of so many years. He said: ‘Why, I can close my eyes and see
the knotholes that were in the fence around that fairground.’” This
quotation indicates a second requisite--accurate memory. The third
requisite is hard work, a condition through which Mr. Cobb believes
all success must come. “When writing a story his object is to draw
sharp pictures that will never leave the reader. To do this, he thinks
out the minutest details of that picture, not that he will use those
details, but that he himself may really see the picture as he writes.”
The fact that he will not “use all those details” which observation
and memory have supplied means that he has the ability to select. And,
finally, he knows how to handle an ample vocabulary.
PLOT.
_Initial Impulse_: The need for a “grandfather” motivates the search
of Verba and Offutt. (A search, a type of “chase,” serves for a
strong story-backbone.)
_Steps to the Dramatic Climax_: 1. The cab-ride to Bateman’s old
haunts. 2. Finding the Scudder theatre closed. 3. The visit to
the wine-shop; the clerk’s account of Bateman. 4. The ragged boy
volunteers information. 5. He leads them to the side entrance of the
theatre, into the gloom and decay of which they make their way.
_Dramatic Climax_: The urchin whistles; the curtain rolls up; old
Bateman appears. The search is now at an end. Bateman is found.
The new cause of suspense lies in curiosity over ensuing events.
To satisfy this curiosity, the author extends the dramatic climax
moment. The whole scene at the theatre is a prolonged climax,
gradually revealing the old man’s unfitness, even as it soars to a
higher emotional climax. The story structure may be roughly indicated
by the diagram:
S
Q / \
O / \ / \
M / \ / R \
/ \ / P \
J / N \
/ \/ \
/ K \
G Z
E / \
C / \/ H
A__ / \ / F
B D
That is, if M represents the dramatic climax moment, then MS
represents the dramatic climax scene, which is the period of
Bateman’s acting three parts. With S, comes the realization that
Bateman is not in his “perfect mind.” Notice the impeccable
workmanship by which this recognition is forced home to Verba in the
last speech of Bateman, the lines from “King Lear.” SZ is the brief
drop to the climax of action. See the story for details.
_Climax of Action_: The two men leave Bateman taking his curtain call.
CHARACTERIZATION. Why are the insignificant actors and actresses
mentioned in the introduction? What is the particular literary value
of Grainger? What outstanding characteristics has Bateman which none
of the others possess? What value has the title in connection with the
characters as a group?
How has Mr. Cobb individualized Verba and Offutt? To which means
of characterization is he most partial--author’s description, the
character’s own acts and speeches, or what others think and say of him?
Of the urchin who piloted the searchers, what is the first detail you
recall? What other characters of Mr. Cobb do you remember from some
physical peculiarity which he has emphasized?
Bateman is first presented to the reader through the opinion of Verba.
Next, he is shown through the wine-shop clerk (who gives the effective
clue as to Bateman’s “dippiness”). Then, the ragged urchin volunteers
his contribution. What prepossessing characteristic does the reader
receive from him? Finally, the actor speaks for himself. One part would
be insufficient; it would be “too easy”; therefore by the cumulative
method Mr. Cobb lets the old man show beyond a doubt that he is not
a type, but an actor. Dundreary, the Frenchman and King Lear require
varied ability.
Notice that what the character _does_ is the climactic portrayal--not
what others say about him or what the author might portray.
DETAILS. Point out the clues to Bateman’s insanity. Study Mr. Cobb’s
figures of speech. He frequently uses the human body as a basis for
comparison (see, for example, page 85: “Its stucco facings, shining
dimly like a row of teeth ...” and page 97: “the mouth of the place
was muzzled with iron, like an Elizabethan shrew’s”). Why is such a
basis conducive to vividness for everybody?
What is the acting time of the story?
What is the significance of the contrast between the modern play, as
represented in the selections (pages 88 and 89), and the masterpieces
suggested in the latter part of the story.
* * * * *
Irvin Cobb never writes a story until he has worked it over in his own
mind for a couple of months. At the same time, a hundred new ideas
are developing; and as he himself says he will not live long enough
to write all his stories. A year before he wrote “The Belled Buzzard”
he was visiting with Mrs. Cobb at her old home in Georgia. They were
sitting on a front porch one morning when a huge buzzard flew past. Mr.
Cobb recalled a Southern story about a belled buzzard, and remarked
that he guessed he would weave a plot round it. Just one year later, he
finished the developing and wrote the story.
BOYS WILL BE BOYS
SETTING. A town in Kentucky, with emphasis on Judge Priest’s office and
the court-room. Time: in recent years, not the immediate present.
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Judge Priest sends for Peep O’Day and informs him
that he has inherited eight thousand pounds sterling.
_Steps to the Dramatic Climax_: Peep takes a silver dollar in
advance from the Judge; he invests it in fruit, cake, and candy. He
invites the boys to eat with him. The news of his fortune spreads,
and eventually reaches Percy Dwyer in the workhouse at Evansville,
Indiana (this is the hint at an opposing force, the first suggestion
of a struggle). O’Day begins to “betray the vagaries of a disordered
intellect.” He buys a child’s wagon, soda-pop, etc. With the
youngsters he spends a day in Bradshaw’s woods, playing games. The
day and his behavior are repeated.
_Dramatic Climax_: The apogee “came at the end of two months.” It
consists of three definite things:
a. The arrival of the legacy,
b. The arrival of the one-ring circus,
c. The arrival of Nephew Dwyer.
_Steps to the Climax of Action_: Peep invests two hundred dollars and
takes the youngsters to the circus. His nephew greets him at night;
O’Day bids him a quick good-bye. The nephew goes to an attorney.
Sublette addresses a petition to the Circuit Judge setting forth
that O’Day is of unsound mind and that his nephew prays for the
appointment of a curator over the estate. Judge Priest comes back
from Reelfoot Lake. He talks with O’Day, and says that he may tell on
the witness stand why he has spent the money as he has.
_Climax of Action_: Pages 120-124. O’Day’s speech. The climax of
action is extended here, as was the dramatic climax in “The Great
Auk.”
_Dénouement_: Judge Priest declares that the Court is advised as
to O’Day’s sanity; the youngsters applaud; the elders join in the
applause; O’Day is, according to the Judge, “the sanest man in this
entire jurisdiction.” Court is adjourned. The Judge lingers to make a
suggestion to the sheriff.
_Anti-Climax, and Close of the Narrative_: Peep brings to Judge
Priest a present of all-day suckers.
CHARACTERIZATION. Judge Priest, who appears in many of Mr. Cobb’s
stories, is one of numerous types the author knew when he was a Paducah
reporter. The student should study him as an example destined to
literary permanence. In the opinion of the present critic he is the
most representative figure in all the current literature about the
South. No Southerner can fail to recognize the gentleman.
In this particular story how is the Judge described by the author? How
does his mail help to characterize him? How does his behavior reveal
him? For what qualities do you like him at first? For what throughout?
(See especially pages 95, 117, 126.) For what, finally?
Study the description of O’Day. Study page 94 for the way Mr. Cobb
makes O’Day appeal to the reader’s sympathy. What in his past history
has contributory value to the present picture and present plot? What in
his environment? What do the townspeople think of him? What exceptions
are there? What is his attitude to others? Study his behavior in
connection with the reception of news about his fortune, his subsequent
acts, and his speech in the court-room. Why is his story of his early
life of particular worth here? Note all the reasons for which you
sympathize with him. Wherein, in brief, lies the human appeal of the
story?
How are the minor characters hit off as individuals? How are they
repressed so as not to usurp too much of the reader’s attention?
DETAILS. Study the easy way in which the locality is kept before the
reader. For example, the business about the water-melons is essentially
Southern.
From reading “The Great Auk” what would you judge to have been one of
Mr. Cobb’s chief interests? What from reading “Boys Will Be Boys”?
Point out examples of this author’s humor.
What value has the fact (page 87) that the Court of Appeals had
affirmed a decision of the Judge?
What effects arise from the statement that Peep wore a four dollar suit?
What forecast lies in O’Day’s admission of kinship to Dwyer? (Page 91.)
How has the author handled suspense in the first incident--the scene
between the Judge and O’Day? Where does he satisfy curiosity? Is this,
then, a minor climax of interest?
What reaction on the reader has O’Day’s statement, “I can’t neither
read nor write”?
Note on page 100 the first indication that Peep’s sanity may be
suspected (Speech of Mr. Quarles). This question of his sanity joins
Dwyer’s interest in securing the money--a double force against Peep’s
retaining his fortune. Were you in doubt, on first reading, that O’Day
would remain in possession? Is the struggle well developed as the
essential foundation of the plot?
Is the dénouement satisfactory?
CHAUTONVILLE
CENTRAL IDEA. The power of music is supreme.
THE STRUGGLE. The music-force opposed to the men’s disinclination to
charge. Is there any doubt that in singing the men “home” Chautonville
turned them toward the enemy?
THE SETTING. What are the place and the time of the action? Point out
details that keep war dominant.
PRESENTATION. Who is the narrator?
CHARACTERS. Who, specifically, is Chautonville? Why is the description
of his voice put before his physical personality? Value of the contrast?
DETAILS. What determination of the narrator is used to create suspense?
How is the determination overcome?
* * * * *
Try to recall other examples, in literature, of the power of music.
Study its whimsical use in Kipling’s “The Village That Voted the Earth
Was Flat”; its use to recall the past in O. Henry’s “The Church with an
Overshot Wheel.” See how it is employed in connection with the climax
in Mary Synon’s “The Wallaby Track,” and in Kipling’s “The Brushwood
Boy.”
What tonal values exist in the suggestion of sounds?
What relation exists between the rhythm and the theme?
Is the story pre-eminently one of theme, character, or setting?
LAUGHTER
According to Mr. Dobie, “Laughter” was a work of the imagination in
every detail. It had nowhere a starting point from reality, though--as
he says--he now and then draws a character from life, such as that of
Josef in “Four Saturdays,” and he occasionally shapes an incident to
the needs of the story, as he did in “The Failure.” In “The Failure”
and other stories, however, as in “Where the Road Forked,” (_Harper’s_,
June, 1917), he states that the incident was really a mere pivot or peg
on which he hung a cloak of almost pure imagination.
In regard to his maintaining his angle of narration so perfectly,
he says this phase of his craft is rather instinctive. “Even before
I became conscious of the force of a single point of view I somehow
managed to achieve it without thinking about it at all.”
PLOT. The story being a psychological study of a man who was untrue
to himself and paid the penalty, one might expect to find a lack of
external incident. Here the author accomplishes the difficult thing in
that he has developed an outer action, which thus objectively exploits
the mental processes.
_Initial Incident._ (Anticipated by the cumulative effect of the
Italian’s playing.) Suvaroff visits his next door neighbor to
remonstrate against the accordion. He learns that the Italian fears
death at the hands of Flavio Minetti, and he goes without stating
the object of his visit. (Notice that the theme is struck in the
Italian’s reason for fear: he had _laughed_ at Minetti.)
_Steps toward the Climax_: Suvaroff betrays to Minetti the
whereabouts of the Italian. Before he does so, Minetti warns him of
the results of his so doing, thus preparing for the next period of
the action. Minetti kills the Italian. Suvaroff sleeps. He goes to
breakfast; he hears a man has been murdered. During the day he leaves
the wine-shop where he plays the violin (a significant outer act
reflecting his mental state). His mind wanders; he thinks he dreamed
last night. Arriving at his rooms he finds the Italian’s mother.
She divulges that her son played to give pleasure to Suvaroff.
Minetti enters and bestows money on the old woman. Suvaroff begs the
hunchback, “Tell me in what fashion do these people laugh at you?”
(This is a minor climax, one stage of the turning of Suvaroff’s
fortunes. But since he is not yet _able_ to laugh, his life is in
no danger from Minetti. Had he not laughed, he would have lived.)
Minetti begs Suvaroff to go away; but he declares that he cannot.
Suvaroff finds a squalid wine-shop where he sits watching the
shadows. He finds he may learn to laugh at them, but not “at a man’s
soul.” He buys a pistol. Minetti says he will never use it. He tells
Minetti of the wine-shop pictures. While Suvaroff sits studying the
pictures a new one appears.
_Dramatic Climax_: He laughs, then turns and sees Minetti.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Suvaroff goes home, undresses
deliberately, and goes to bed--knowing he will sleep.
_Climax of Action_: He hears the steps pattering along the hall, and
draws the bed-clothes higher.
_Dénouement_: Constructed by the reader, who has, however, no choice.
SETTING. San Francisco. “Fancy a novel about Chicago or Buffalo, let
us say, or Nashville, Tennessee! There are just three big cities in
the United States that are ‘story cities’--New York, of course,
New Orleans, and, best of the lot, San Francisco.”--Frank Norris is
thus quoted by O. Henry at the beginning of “A Municipal Report,”
which (frequently proclaimed O. Henry’s best story) has its setting
in Nashville. How many of the stories in this collection have their
settings in New York? in San Francisco? What other localities are
represented? What do you conclude?
How has Mr. Dobie kept setting before the reader? Is it the same _city_
as Mrs. Atherton uses in “The Sacrificial Altar”? Has it the same
_atmosphere_?
CHARACTERIZATION. Are Suvaroff and Minetti “living” characters? Is
Suvaroff, in the beginning, obsessed? Does the obsession culminate in
monomania?
Minetti’s physical self is given to the reader from Suvaroff’s angle,
which angle is consistently used throughout. What is Suvaroff’s
personal appearance? How do you account for your answer? Whose mental
processes are _not_ exploited? Why?
Why is the Italian’s mother introduced as a background character?
DETAILS. The smaller features of the story reveal also the hand of the
craftsman: the use of night, the wine-shop, ugliness, the shadows,
and the arrangement of the steps to what seems an inevitable ending.
“Seems”; for Mr. Dobie has a theory “that there is no such thing as an
inevitable ending. Any opening situation may work out fifty ways.” Is
it possible, after certain steps in the action, to produce an ending
other than inevitable?
How is the cold inflexibility of Minetti made convincing?
GENERAL. “In my days of apprenticeship,” Mr. Dobie says, “I planned my
story out in detail and did much re-writing. I think one must do this
at the beginning. But if one finally evolves an unconscious technique
which does away with a scenario I think it makes for more spontaneous
writing.... But it is dangerous to advise methods. My point in
dwelling on the virtues of ‘planless stories’ is to encourage those
who find their salvation along these lines and who are uncertain as to
whether such a method will lead anywhere.... I started ‘Laughter’ in
September, 1916, wrote about five pages, got stuck, put it away, dug it
up three or four months later and in about three weeks carried it to a
conclusion....”
“It is rather hard to give a definition of a short story. I should say
briefly that a short story is the reaction of a character or characters
to a particular incident, circumstance or crisis. Obviously, as its
name implies, there should be economy of line. Perhaps the shortest
successful story on record is as follows:
‘Three wise men of Gotham went to sea in a bowl.
If the bowl had been stronger, my tale had been longer.’
“This narrative has also the virtue of suggestion: the greater
the suggestion, the greater the story. In other words, a story is
artistically successful in proportion to the collaboration exacted from
the reader.”
THE OPEN WINDOW
To get the proper connection, the reader should first know “Laughter.”
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: André Fernet meets the hunchback, Flavio Minetti,
and learns that he knows something of Suvaroff’s death. He is brought
under Minetti’s power of fascination.
_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: Fernet’s landlord, Pollitto, speaks
of his vacant room. Fernet resolves to see Minetti again, and perhaps
to learn who killed Suvaroff. They meet at the Hotel de France.
Minetti says he was “expecting” Fernet. Fernet goes with Minetti, in
spite of warning, to a wine-shop. Minetti’s suggestion that Fernet
evidently wished to know who murdered Suvaroff is coupled with a
warning that it is a “dreadful thing to share such a secret.” But
Fernet insists.
_Dramatic Climax_: Minetti says, “It was I who killed him,” whereupon
Fernet laughs. Notice that the dramatic climax, the laughter, falls
early in this story, whereas in the former it arrives tardily. Is
this logical, from the nature of the circumstances?
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Minetti states that he kills
every one who laughs at him. He prepares a _café royal_; Fernet is
afraid, but makes a show of indifference or incredulity. In the
morning, Fernet learns that his landlord has rented the room to
Minetti; he thinks of going away but decides to stay and “see what
happens.” After some days, Minetti calls on Fernet. He says he has
tried every slow way of murder except mental murder. Fernet laughs,
thus emphasizing the dramatic climax, but as Minetti says it does
not matter, “You can die only once.” His speech intensifies the
dramatic forecast, already conveyed. Minetti supplies saccharine for
the coffee; Fernet fears “slow poison,” but nevertheless drinks, as
if in a spirit of bravado, or unwillingness to seem afraid. Minetti
harps on the idea that Fernet has laughed at him. Fernet’s landlord
comments on his haggard appearance. Fernet dreams. He stays away
from his office, visits the library, and asks for all the works on
poison. After dining alone, he meets Minetti, who persuades him to
have a cup of coffee. Fernet speaks of his reading. He decides to go
away to-morrow. On arriving at his room, he feels sick and is helped
to bed by Minetti. He grows worse; Minetti attends him, and sends
for the doctor. Upon the doctor’s prescribing delicacies, Minetti
prepares several which, in succession, Fernet refuses, and which he
sees are thrown out of the window. At length he manages to tell the
doctor that he is eating nothing, in spite of Minetti’s assertion
to the contrary. The doctor thinks Fernet insane. At the end of the
week, even Minetti says he has eaten nothing. Fernet resolves, again,
to go away to-morrow. But, still doing without food, he grows weaker.
_Climax of Action_: He dies, but not before he hears Minetti’s
laughter and the words: “Without any weapon save the mind!”
The _struggle_ is well elaborated, as the preceding plot outline
indicates, even though it is the one-sided bird-and-snake struggle,
with a predetermined outcome.
CHARACTERIZATION. Compare Fernet with Suvaroff. Which of the two offers
the more difficult problem in psychology? Is it easy to believe that
Fernet submitted to the sway of Minetti? Why, for example, did he not
go away?
Compare, also, the subordinate characters with those in “Laughter.”
What do most of them in this story think or feel about Minetti? How
does the author indicate their attitudes?
DETAILS. Is the angle of narration similar to that in “Laughter”? What
details appeal to the reader’s gustatory sense? Study the symbolic use
of the pepper-tree. Compare it with the cherry-tree in “Cruelties.”
What details of setting emphasize the locality?
THE LOST PHOEBE
STARTING POINT. The beginning of this story lay in a bit about an
insane man in Missouri, a story which came to Mr. Dreiser quite ten
years before he developed it. The story quality testifies to the value
of the long dormant period.
SETTING. Study the narrative, observing with respect to place that
although you may feel you have your mind on the exact locality, it
presently flits to another probable setting. This is because Mr.
Dreiser attaches no importance to the locality of his short stories, so
long as the incidents are American--and either urban or rural. The gain
is, of course, in favor of the essential nationality; the loss is to
the individual community. Does the first grasp of setting bring with it
the atmosphere of the narrative?
CLASSIFICATION. A story of a search, at last successful. It may be
classed, also, as a story of the supernatural, wherein the vision
is one of a crazed brain. So beautifully has the author handled the
fancy and the vision, however, that the reaction on the reader causes
wonder as to whether sanity and insanity are not relative, or even
interchangeable.
PRESENTATION. By the omniscient author, who exercises omniscience
particularly over the mind of the main character.
CHARACTERS. Henry Reifsneider, Phoebe Ann (his wife), and background
characters of the community folk. These last exist to give
verisimilitude, for contrast, and as plot pivots. Cite an instance for
each use.
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Phoebe dies.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Henry “sees” Phoebe until his
mind gives way from brooding. He is possessed of a fixed idea: Phoebe
left because he “reproached her for not leaving his pipe where he was
accustomed to find it.” He searches for her (immediate first steps
given in detail) nearly seven years.
_Dramatic Climax_: He finds her.
_Steps to the Immediate Climax of Action_: He follows her to the edge
of the cliff; he sees her below among the blooming apple trees.
_Climax of Action_: He leaps over the cliff.
_Dénouement_: He is found, a smile upon his lips.
DETAILS. Study the presentation of Henry, which gives so clear an
impression of his unbalanced mind. Study the motivation for this
insanity, the author’s analysis of Henry’s psychology, Henry’s acts,
and his speeches. What contributory effect has the _calling_ for Phoebe?
Would you agree that atmosphere is the dominant element in the story?
Is a supernatural story likely to be one of atmosphere? Why?
Study the way in which the author has made vivid the picture of the
Reifsneider home. Observe the skill with which he has contrasted the
dull, even sordid, realism of the actual setting with the beauty of
Henry’s visions. Why should the final one be the most beautiful? What
color words do you find? How does color, or lack of it, aid in the
unified effect?
Read Mr. Dreiser’s “Free” (see volume bearing this title) and compare
it with “The Lost Phoebe.” Which do you regard as the more significant
story?
LA DERNIÈRE MOBILISATION
This is a sketch, wherein the mist, the fog, the forest, and the
shadowy figures combine with the muffled sounds into a dim monotone. It
is a picture galvanized into life. Notice that the narrative tense is
not preferred.
The meaning of the sketch emerges in the last sentence. It is the
_idea_ which lends significance to the picture.
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM
CLASSIFICATION. A novelette. The length (around 20,000 words), the many
and rapid changes of scene, the shifting from character to character,
the broken progress,--these are the outstanding characteristics not of
the short-story but of a more leisurely type of fiction, one having a
wider canvas, a larger significance.
STUDY
I
What part of the quotation prefixed to the beginning does the
story emphasize? Has the quotation an interpretative value, even a
constructive value, for the story?
What is the locale? Does the author know his setting or has he fancied
it? (Read his “Stamboul Nights.”) Study the locale with a map at hand
(preferably one showing both Turkey and Persia). With this map before
you, note the scene of each phase of the action.
Do you follow easily the identities of the boats and passengers in
Division I or is it necessary to study the situation?
What is the significance of the “translucent” look in Magin’s eyes?
In the deck-house description why is attention drawn to the lion?
Why is so much space given to Gaston as early as page 4 of the story
(page 150, Yearbook)? Do you, having read the story, think that Gaston
is sufficiently played up to serve as the climax figure of the whole
action? Are you satisfied that Matthews drop out of the story so
inconsequentially, after his earlier prominence?
What is the purpose of the echo--“A bit of a lark!”
What dramatic value has the mention of the year 1914 (page 151)? How is
emphasis given to the date?
What is the purpose of the first meeting? The showing of the treasure?
Why is the _dame de compagnie_ mentioned, by way of climax, at the end
of Division I?
II
Significance of “propelled their galley back”?
Where is the city of Shuster? Notice its position with respect to the
city of Dizful and the Persian Gulf.
Significance in the use of the German tongue (page 156)?
What is the purpose of the scene between Magin and Ganz? Its relation
to the scene between Magin and the Englishman?
The “coronation” (page 158) refers to what? See also page 162.
“Are you the Emperor of Elam?” Who, by the suggestion, is?
Who is the Father of Swords?
Who is Magin, as revealed in part by the last paragraph of Division II?
Has Mr. Dwight a fine sense of terminal emphasis?
III
The scene shifts to Gaston and Matthews. After the dangers and
difficulties of passage, the two reach Dizful.
Note the brief summary of the disposition of Gaston (page 161: So he
packed off Gaston, etc.). Is it too casual?
Where has Bala-Bala been mentioned previously?
In the descriptions, pages 162, 163, 164, what is the dominant
impression?
On page 166 the Father of Swords speaks of his friend Magin. Do you see
the point of the allusions?
What is the meaning of the paper signed by Magin? Whose emissary is he?
What dramatic value has the last speech of Matthews in Division III?
Why is it given the place of emphasis?
IV
This division opens with the Father and Magin, at Bala-Bala. On the
second page, however, it shifts to Matthews, at Dizful.
Notice that Matthews’ interest in Dizful is crossed by the “Agent” of
Magin.
What is the purpose of the scene at the beginning of which Magin
presents himself at Matthews’ gate?
Why did Magin glance at the make of Matthews’ cigarettes?
Study the scene for the effective contrasts between the English and the
German points of view.
Why does Magin try to bribe Matthews to go away?
Is the dramatic forecast at the end of this Division (IV) justified? Is
it good, in itself?
V
Notice the comparatively trivial manner in which Matthews is removed
from the scene. The real cause for his going away is “a stupid war on
the continent.” This expression indicates that the cosmic significance
of the war had not dawned upon Matthews.
Why did Matthews not pause to hear Magin play? Why is so much attention
given to this playing?
What is the significance of the “Majesty” in Ganz’s first speech, page
190?
Is the dramatic forecast (page 191) justified?--“What if ... some
little midshipman were to fire a shot across your bow?”
VI
What artistry is there in the repetition of the meeting between the
motor-boat and the barge?
Why is so much space given to the knife (page 192)?
What note is re-sounded in Gaston’s remark (page 193) “Monsieur, you
travel like an emperor!”?
What is the meaning of Gaston’s speech (the last on page 195) regarding
the object of virtue?
Why does Magin give his recent barge the slip and order Gaston to turn
the motor-boat upstream?
What is the purpose of Gaston’s long speech on page 199?
What idea enters Gaston’s mind at the close of Division VI? Is it
justified as dramatic forecast?
VII
This final division is almost, in itself, a short-story, and with very
little work on the author’s part might have contributed to a brief
narrative of decided power. At the end of so long a one, its value
diminishes; for the dénouement is out of proportion, even out of line,
with the beginning of the narrative.
What does the incident of Magin’s finding the knife mean?
Study the struggle between the two men.
The superb climactic speech of Gaston compels admiration: “This at
least I can do--for that great lady, far away.”
The method of the novelist is again used, by way of epilogue, when the
author turns to the peasant on the bluff.
THE CITIZEN
CLASSIFICATION. A thematic story: dreams and ideals are the real power.
The ideal citizen is also emphasized. Classed more directly, the work
is a paean of patriotism.
THE OUTER SETTING. An audience of two thousand foreigners who have just
been admitted to citizenship.
THE CHARACTERS. Ivan, Anna, his wife, and the speaker--the President of
the United States.
How is the President characterized? How is Ivan contrasted with him?
How related to him?
Has Anna real place in the action?
THE PRESENTATION. The real story is recounted after the climax has been
implied. Ivan and Anna are here. One knows the Dream has been made
real, and reads to see how it all came about.
THE PLOT. The dream of freedom, liberty, motivates Ivan’s determination
to come to America. He and Anna successfully struggle to save money
for the voyage. The actual journey to America constitutes something of
a struggle, in itself, for the poor ignorant peasants. But they are
upheld by the dream, and are victorious.
DETAILS. Compare the episodes of the Russian police and the American
police.
What can you say about the style as related to the theme?
THE GAY OLD DOG
CLASSIFICATION. Miss Ferber recognizes the difficulties of boxing
into the shorter form the material which would accommodate a larger
space. “The tale of how Jo Hertz came to be a loop-hound should not be
compressed within the limits of a short story. It should be told as are
the photoplays, with frequent throw-backs and many cut-ins. To condense
twenty-three years of a man’s life into some five or six thousand words
requires a verbal economy amounting to parsimony” (page 209).
She has, however, achieved the short-story effect in creating one
dominant character,--in unifying the action, and in conserving one
purpose.
PROPORTION. One of the greatest problems in developing the action of a
story which covers twenty-three years is that of proportion. To hover
over the “purple patches,” to skip the unimportant stretches, and to
link them all up in a coherent organization--this requires a sense
of relative values. Why has the author developed the little scene at
the death of Jo’s mother? Why, that is, did she not merely leave a
statement of the promise? Why is the rather full space (pages 210 ff.)
given to the sisters? How, even in characterizing them, does the author
keep Jo before the reader as the prominent character? “Which brings us
to one Sunday in May” (page 213) indicates an episode of importance.
How much time has, supposedly, been passed over? Why is this particular
Sunday worked out in scene form? Why are the stages of Jo’s and Emily’s
love passed over by leaps and bounds? Why is one brief paragraph,
only, given to the final disposition of Emily? Why is greater length
comparatively taken up in the disposal of Eva and Babe and Carrie? How
many years are covered in pages 219 and 220? Why is a fair amount of
development placed on the gradual withdrawal of Eva and Babe?
Roughly, fifteen pages are given to the narrative so far (208-222),
covering, say, twenty years. The remainder of the story (pages 222-233)
covers about three years, or the period from the beginning of the
war in 1914 to the time when America’s first troops for France were
leaving. What is the logic of this proportion with reference to the
climax? to interest? to current events?
What does the scheme of the proportion, in short, emphasize?
PLOT. The struggle is between the individual, Jo Hertz, and the
conditions of his life. The latter triumph, even though they leave the
conquered one outwardly successful.
_Initial Incident_: Jo Hertz’s promise to his dying mother.
_Main Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Jo “takes care of the girls”
for a number of years. At length, he falls in love with Emily. They
wait three years. The “girls” are still unmarried. Emily and Jo part.
Emily marries. (So passes the first minor climax.) Eva marries.
Babe (Estelle) marries. Carrie takes a settlement job. Jo, free,
finds that he does not even think of matrimony. The sisters fail to
“marry him off.” He is gradually left lonelier and lonelier. (The
greatest depression of Jo’s fortunes, financially, combines with his
loneliness to intensify his deserted bachelor state.)
_Dramatic Climax_: The turning point in Jo’s financial or external
condition comes about through the War and the fact that leather goes
up. Jo’s fortune is made.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The “gay dog” business begins:
Jo buys a car, he takes expensive apartments, he tries to solace
himself with the friendship of a _demi-mondaine_. Eva sees him buying
a hat for the woman; Estelle crosses them in a restaurant; Ethel,
Eva’s daughter, meets him in her company at the theatre. Eva and
Estelle determine to visit Jo and call a halt. They drive to his
apartment. Meantime Jo has been watching the boys marching, has come
across Emily, has helped her to see her boy (Jo) march, and has told
her good-by.
_Climax of Action, and Dénouement_: The climax is dramatically worked
out in the scene between the sisters and Jo. They flee terrified
at Jo’s counter-charges. “The game was over--the game he had been
playing against loneliness and disappointment.”
Draw a diagram to indicate the minor climaxes and other points of
interest.
CHARACTERIZATION. What is the first picture the reader receives of Jo?
Why is it given first? As related to the order of plot events, is it
the dénouement picture?
How does Miss Ferber enlist the reader’s sympathy for Jo at
twenty-seven? How is his unselfishness displayed? Why is it more
credible presented in the little scene-suggestions (pages 211, 212)
than if affirmed by the author? How does his falling in love with Emily
reveal his character? What trait is emphasized in his letting Emily go?
What traits are responsible for his development as a loop-hound? Is he
consistently developed? Does the story, through Jo, present a universal
situation?
What traits of the girls, as a group, are contrasted with the
dominant one of Jo? What ironic moral is visible, between the lines,
in the dénouement on the respective advantages of selfishness and
unselfishness?
How is each sister respectively individualized without requiring too
much of the reader’s interest?
What are Emily’s most dominant characteristics? Is her portrait on
pages 229 and 230 the fit successor to the earlier one?
Is there any objection to the names--Eva, Estelle, Emily, Ethel--used
in the same story? Why?
DETAILS. To use Miss Ferber’s own adoption of the photoplay term,
“throw-backs,” how many times has she reverted to preceding action?
How many times, to note the counterpart of the throw-back, has she
introduced an act or picture which has its chronological place later
on? What is the dramatic value of having the sisters wait for Jo, to
see him enter with red eyes, after which the author pauses to narrate
the cause of his emotion (page 228)?
What double purpose has the author in describing Jo’s bedroom (page
227)?
Point out striking examples of economy. An excellent one, for
naturalness, suggestive power, and mere word-saving is to be found in
the telephone message (page 225). Economy, in general, is also bound up
with the operation of the excellent proportion.
What quality of style is most marked in Miss Ferber’s stories? How is
it achieved?
BLIND VISION
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Esmé attempts to fly to Brander, dying.
Motivation for the incident lies in Esmé’s friendship for Brander.
_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: Esmé is attacked by a German plane;
in the struggle the two planes fall inside the German lines. Esmé is
tortured. At length, he consents to take up a photographer.
_Dramatic Climax_: Esmé throws out the photographer.
_Steps toward Climax of Action_: He arrives inside the lines of
the allies. He tells his story to Marston, his friend, who shocked
at Esmé’s defection, declares him a murderer. Esmé, in turn, is
appalled; he is unable to understand Marston’s different code.
Marston walks out of the tent.
_Climax of Action_: Esmé returns to the German lines, to “render a
life for a life.”
_Dénouement_: Marston finds Esmé’s note. In a revulsion of feeling,
he recognizes that he has failed his friend.
PRESENTATION. The story is told by Marston to a nurse, some time
after the event. From Marston’s point of view, therefore, the tale
gains pathos, since his regret is still as unceasing as unavailing.
Further, the method allows the reader a large share in constructing the
story; and, best of all, by changing the chronological order of the
events to the logical (they are also chronological as far as Marston
is concerned), the author gains suspense. Reticence characterizes
the handling of the uglier details, which every reader will fill in
for himself. The enveloping action closes with the breaking of the
wine-glass. (Compare query, page 34.)
CHARACTERIZATION. The tragic failure of friendship, in the struggle
with conflicting ideals of honor, gives the story its poignancy. It
belongs in the group, therefore, with “The Knight’s Move,” by Katherine
Fullerton Gerould, and “Greater Love--,” by Justus Miles Forman. If the
ideal of the mental man is typified by his appearance and behavior, how
well has Miss Freedley succeeded in the creation of Esmé and Marston?
To what extent has she indicated the reaction in each after crucial
moments? How far has she subdued the outer “I” narrator? If anticipated
sympathy on her part motivates Marston’s telling her the story, has the
author justified the hypothesis?
IMAGINATION
COMMENT. In “Imagination” the author has directed his skill toward
revelation of character--a free revelation produced by subtle
provocation. A man has reacted under a certain stimulus in a given way;
under recollection of the incident, twenty years later, he reacts in a
manner that intensifies and gives significance to his earlier behavior.
PLOT, then, is minified; situation is magnified. At his club,
Orrington, literary adviser, is dining with the narrator and Reynolds,
a popular writer. Orrington relates an incident of the day, about a
story and its author: what might have been imagination proved to be
fact--the author of the story was hungry. Orrington has found a job
for him. The conflict, by virtue of which the story interest develops,
lies in the opposing views of Orrington and Reynolds. The latter holds
“It’s a very great pity that young men without resources and settled
employment try to make their way by writing.” Orrington then cites the
case of twenty years ago. On the very day that he, a young editor of
a magazine on its uppers, was offered a “peach” of a job, he read a
manuscript which seemed to indicate that the author might be starving.
He surrendered his chance of the new position, recommending the author
of the story. He has never received a line of thanks; he has often
wondered how the man “got on.” Incidentally, as an apparent by-product
of his quixotism, his own stock began to rise from that time. Reynolds
states, at the close of Orrington’s story, that he was the author who
had been given the “boost,” and that he had been too busy writing the
articles to send a note of thanks. He had supposed that he was the
recipient of a usual “tip.” He declares, further, that he had not been
in extremes, and that his story was solely the product of imagination.
After he leaves the club, Orrington then reveals to the narrator: “Of
course I knew. Later, of course, much later. The man who had hired him
to do those articles bragged about it to me,” etc.
The author has skilfully used the incident of the day to force out the
larger incident wherein Reynolds figures. They are similar, and yet
bear to one another a peculiar contrasting relation. The young man of
Orrington’s immediate experience had written from facts; there is a
rather strong suggestion that he may amount to something. Reynolds had
written from imagination; the whole characterization of his success,
great as it seems, indicates that it is an “output,” so much the worse
for literature.
CHARACTERIZATION. “You add to my pleasure by bringing our friend”--what
trait in Reynolds’ character is announced in these first reported
words? Follow the trait throughout the story as it is expressed in his
speeches or acts; as it is suggested by the narrator, and by Orrington.
“In motion he resembles a hippopotamus” ... “his rather dull eyes” ...
“his fat hand” ... “shrugged his heavy shoulders” ... “as if he had
been some fat god of the Orient” ... “Orrington goggled”.... Study the
portrait of Orrington pictured in these and similar strokes by the
narrator, and notice the evidences of “contrast between his Falstaffian
body and his nicely discriminating mind.” What first ingratiates him
with the reader?
Why is the first person the best one from whose angle to present the
story? What is his function in the dramatic situation?
THE KNIGHT’S MOVE
CLASSIFICATION. A “problem” story: the setting forth in the guise of
fiction of this question, “Shall a man useful to society lay down his
life for a social member far inferior to himself?” The problem is
argued through the concrete instance, and by two characters.
SUMMARY OF THE INSTANCE. When the _Argentina_ went down, Ferguson
saved himself, rather than old Bronson or the Neapolitan peasant women
and children. The world was the gainer by Ferguson’s survival. Later,
Ferguson loved and became engaged to a girl. One day as they were out
walking, they saw a bandy-legged, sore-eyed youngster dash upon the
railroad track in front of a train. Ferguson could just have saved
the youngster at the cost of sacrificing himself, and although he
alone knew this, he allowed the girl to understand that he had made a
choice. She “rounded on him,” and “spurned him in the grand manner.”
Ferguson, loving the girl, died. He probably committed suicide, not
because he had changed his own views, but because of assuming the
girl’s view to be correct. “He couldn’t have admitted in words that she
was right, when he felt her so absolutely wrong; but he could make that
magnificent silent act of faith.”
PRESENTATION. Ferguson’s story is given by Havelock to Chantry.
Skill is evinced in so breaking the rehearsed narrative as to allow
discussion at proper stages. The answers to the problem, supposed
above, are in opposition. Herein lies the basis of the discussion, as
of the struggle which Ferguson underwent.
Does the author in the presentation subtly convey her own attitude on
the question? What is it? How does it emerge in her characterization of
the men? In the final sentence of the narrative?
SETTING. Why in the story of Ferguson does the author subdue setting?
Why is the setting of the rehearsal emphasized?
* * * * *
Read in connection with “The Knight’s Move,” and for purposes of
comparison, “Greater Love--” by Justus Miles Forman (_Harper’s_, April,
1908).
IN MAULMAIN FEVER-WARD
STARTING POINT AND FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES. “The starting point for ‘In
Maulmain, Fever-Ward’ is in the first four words of the tale: ‘Flood
time on Salwin River.’ Flood time! Then the flowers are rioting, the
traders are coming in and of course all things else follow.
“Of course, I’ve read Poe’s ‘Descent into the Maelstrom.’ Who has not?
I do not believe that had anything to do with my use of the whirlpool
in the story. The situation had been created; it was inevitable that
the agent of the priesthood of Siva, most subtle of all in the whole
world, would bring the two, or the girl, into the folds of the python.
But where? Surely, the only place for this to happen was in the
profundities of the whirlpool, traditional abode of the mother of all
pythons of that whole region. Hence the necessity for the flood itself
to climax the action, to form the whirlpool at its most tremendous
phase, to take them down. I wasn’t thinking of Poe when I sent them
down into the abyss. I went with them--and brought them out.
Did I know a person who had made a whirlpool descent? Yes; myself. A
fearless swimmer in youth, I often dived under the swirls of falls and
at the tails of rapids, looking up to admire the way the whirls refract
light and to listen to the curious overtones the reverberations of the
water take on, and the singing of the gravel as it churns ceaselessly.
... The superstitions--I call them the religious phases of the
tale--are taken from the real life of those people. I could give you a
map of the region, drawn to scale. And there’s a temple in a certain
Karen town, and in that temple a god with a necklace of human heads,
or was, once in a way. (There never would be, however, a snake, I
think, in a chest in a temple of Siva. Neither do they worship the
snake, _per se_. They look upon it as one of the agencies by which the
Destroyer works and will not even kill a snake that gets into a house
or bed.) When I say Karen town, there are many, for the Karens are a
race and have many towns. Of course, I didn’t specify which one I meant
in the story. And I guess there isn’t such a whale-swallowing whirlpool
in that gorge, but I needed one right there and what a fellow needs in
fiction, he takes.”--_George Gilbert._
PLOT. An excellent construction, the framework reveals only one or two
crudities to the eye of the critic. The author has motivated every
act, which is followed by a logical effect; and in the presentation of
the story, he has chosen the order best calculated to win the reader’s
interest, curiosity, feeling of suspense, and finally of satisfaction.
_Initial Impulse_: Pra Oom Bwhat invites the man who calls himself
Paul Brandon to visit the temples of Karen. (Motivation: He hopes
Brandon will free Nagy N’Yang. Where, in the story, does the reader
learn this motivation?)
_Steps toward Minor Dramatic Climax_: Paul loves Nagy N’Yang; she
will prove to him why it is folly. (Follows the capital temple
scene.) It is clear that she belongs to Siva. She leaves the temple.
Paul learns that she is married, but has been claimed by the priests
on her wedding day. He makes known the conditions on which she will
be freed. The priest threatens: “I can call her back or kill her”....
Paul crushes the cobra, thereby drawing upon himself the curse of the
priest.
_Minor Dramatic Climax_: He takes Nagy N’Yang away. In the first
struggle, Paul has been successful, but has unwittingly incurred the
enmity of Pra Oom Bwhat. This enmity motivates a deferred major
dramatic climax.
_Steps toward Major Dramatic Climax_: Nagy N’Yang tattoos Paul’s head
with the mark of Siva. (What is her reason?) Pra Oom Bwhat arrives.
(How does the author apparently motivate his entry upon the scene?
At what point in the narrative does his real motive become known?)
Nagy N’Yang is afraid. (Does the reader guess why?) The rains come.
Pra Oom Bwhat wears an air of mystery. Ali Beg presents Paul with
a throwing knife. (Thrilling dramatic forecast.) The stream roars;
flood-tide approaches. (A fine harmony, in that the dramatic climax
approaches with it.) Pra Oom Bwhat presents Nagy N’Yang with a gift.
(What is the effect on the reader, who is at the moment ignorant
of the real nature of the gift?) He asks her to walk apart. Paul
supposing he is Nagy N’Yang’s “brother” permits them to go together.
The succeeding steps, not immediately presented, are these: Pra Oom
Bwhat binds Nagy N’Yang to a teak log and leaves her to be swept down
the whirlpool. He returns to kill Paul, but in the struggle, or
_Dramatic Climax_ (the real turning point), Paul kills him with Ali
Beg’s throwing knife. Before he dies Pra Oom Bwhat lays the curse
of Siva upon Paul. This curse motivates, then, further steps in the
action.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Paul rushes out to rescue Nagy
N’Yang, but finds that the teak log, bearing its dark burden, has
swung farther out. He notices the chest and momentarily hoping it may
be a boat lays hands on it. As he raises the lid, the giant python
glides out and disappears at the river brink. (Here is an obvious
manipulation, although the average reader will lose sight of the
management. Is it likely that Paul would have tarried to open the
chest?) Paul then swims to the log and crawls upon it just before it
takes the whirlpool plunge. In the bottom the python coils about the
trunk and Paul. As they emerge, Paul contrives to kill the python
with Ali Beg’s knife which he has taken from the dead body of Pra Oom
Bwhat, but not before the snake has given him the glancing blow on
the brow, over the tattoo mark. Ali Beg finds Paul and Nagy N’Yang,
unconscious, and takes them to the hospital. Paul tells the story,
himself learning from the nurse the detail just stated.
_Dénouement_: He receives the scale from the python and burns it over
the night taper, so removing the spell. He learns that Ali Beg and
Nagy N’Yang are with him, and says he and Nagy will not go up-country
again.
THE NARRATOR. The first person is preferable; for since Paul learns but
tardily certain steps of the complication, the reader (who knows only
what Paul knows) must remain in suspense. Try telling the story from an
objective point of view, placing every step in its chronological order.
What does the story lose?
CHARACTERIZATION. Compare the characteristics of these Oriental figures
with those in “A Simple Act of Piety.” What have they in common? Why
does Mr. Gilbert choose a half-breed as his narrator and hero? Point
out every example of Paul’s fearlessness. Why does he not appear
conceited or egotistical, as the first person narrator is in danger of
seeming? What is Pra Oom Bwhat’s distinguishing trait? Point out all
examples of his duplicity; of his religious or superstitious nature.
Show that love, in one guise or another, largely motivates every stage
of the action, with certain exceptions, which result from thwarted
love. To what extent does religion motivate the acts?
Is the python a “character”? What is Nagy N’Yang’s chief rôle? Is Ali
Beg’s part too obvious?
LOCAL COLOR. Why and how does the author emphasize the setting in
the first paragraph? Where is the snake _motif_ introduced? Trace
its progress, not only for its plot value, but for its contribution
to the reader’s realization of setting. Where are the rains first
mentioned? What inanimate objects contribute to the local color? What
customs? What beliefs? Is the story primarily one of setting, plot, or
character; or have the elements been harmonized into an evenly balanced
narrative?
ATMOSPHERE. Is the mood or “feel” of the story a trifle too near
melodrama? What phases of the action, if any, would you subdue?
DETAILS. “Take away the medicine” (third paragraph). Does this
indication that a sick person is the narrator surprise you? If so, is
the technique sound?
Why are the details of Paul’s courtship left to the reader?
Is the fight between Paul and Pra Oom Bwhat presented economically?
convincingly?
Good dramatic moments are found in such passages as those wherein the
noise in the chest is indicated _immediately_ after Paul says he would
seek the way of love; in the stirring _immediately_ after Paul says,
“I can kill the snake”; in Paul’s crushing the cobra and so drawing an
immediate curse, etc. Point out several other examples.
Make a list of the struggles in order as they occurred.
What are the three main settings or scenes?
Does the happy dénouement convince you?
AUTHOR’S CONCEPT OF THE TERM SHORT-STORY
“No mere relation of harmonized incidents, no recurrent crises, can
make a short story. There must be an inner voice. To explain my
meaning: I do not count Chekhov’s ‘The Darling’ a short story. It is a
fine character sketch. It has a beginning, a very fine working out, but
it gets nowhere. Three-fourths of the Russian short stories, so-called,
are not stories at all. They are sketches, narrations of incidents.
They are like a song, finely wrought, but with no dominant chord to
resolve them into a real end.”--_George Gilbert._
A JURY OF HER PEERS
TITLE. The intimate relation between the one-act play and the
short-story may be seen in the fact that the narrative here told has
its dramatic counterpart in the stage production entitled “Trifles.”
The latter was presented in the season of 1916-1917 in New York City.
What is the excellence of each title?
GERMINAL IDEA. “A long time ago, when I was a reporter in Iowa, I went
to the house of a woman who was being held for murder, and while the
circumstances were not at all those of ‘Trifles,’ it was out of that
experience the play grew.”--_Susan Glaspell._
FACTS OF THE PLOT. Minnie Foster marries John Wright. Basis for
trouble lies in the fact that Minnie is a lively girl, with a love
for color and action, while John is a hard man, and “like a raw wind
that gets to the bone.” They have no children, and as the years go
by, Minnie is more and more lonely. The neighbor women leave her to
herself; her isolation is pronounced. At length, after many years,
she comforts herself with a caged bird. In a fit of rage, John wrings
the bird’s neck. Minnie, half-crazed, lays aside the body of the bird
in her sewing basket. Shortly after, while her husband is asleep, she
strangles him to death with a rope. The next morning, she explains to a
passing neighbor, who drops in on a business visit, that John has been
strangled by “somebody”; that she is a sound sleeper, and sleeps on the
“inside” of the bed. The neighbor notifies the sheriff. Minnie is taken
to prison. The next day, the sheriff, Peters, with his wife and the
district attorney go out to the Wright place to make an examination.
Hale, a neighbor, and Mrs. Hale are with them. The men seek a cause,
a motive, for the killing of Wright, but find nothing. While they
are making large and futile observations, however, Mrs. Hale and
Mrs. Peters discover the dead bird and other evidence. With awakened
understandings, the women conceal the evidence--Martha Hale takes the
bird away in her pocket.
MANAGEMENT OF THE FACTS--THE DEVELOPED PLOT. The most noteworthy
and striking management lies in corralling the whole story into one
“cold March morning,” and only part of that. Unity of setting, the
Wright home, is a less difficult achievement. Notice that the story
_introduction_ calls up a setting outside the Wright home, whereas the
play (“Trifles”) used only the kitchen at the Wrights’. Which is better
for intensification?
The chronological order of the plot is rearranged for artistic purposes
and for interest. The author begins at the point of the visit to the
empty house by the sheriff’s party.
To understand thoroughly, the difference between the order of plot
presentation and the order of chronological growth, make out a list of
the details as you gather them from the story progress. Then compare
them with the “Facts of the Plot,” set forth above.
STORY PRESENTATION. The narrative is given to the reader according to
the detective story method. Martha Hale’s point of view is used at the
start, after which the dramatic method is employed, the spot-light
shifting from one woman to another, occasionally lighting on the men,
but lingering most often on Martha Hale. Why is she the best one
through whom the reader may understand the entire situation?
Where do you first feel yourself responding to a sense of mystery? How
does the author convey this? What is the effect in the first paragraph
of these words?--“It was no ordinary thing that called her away,” etc.
Observe the little apology (bottom of page 258) by which the author has
kept the search delayed until the second day, after Minnie has been
taken away. Why is the latter accomplishment a plot necessity?
What contributory worth has the emphasis (page 259) on Mrs. Hale’s
Harry?... How is it used to effect contrast?
Pages 260 and 261 in effect convey a rehearsal; but they have dramatic
worth also. Why? (Note that Minnie’s speeches are quoted, not
summarized.) See following pages for similar dramatic accomplishment.
Study the natural way in which Hale and Peters are pushed off the stage
(page 263), leaving the women together with the attorney. Purpose of
his remaining a moment?
Observe the care with which every important detail of the plot is
_motivated_.
Study the scene wherein the women, with an eye for little things,
arrive at the truth. Is their solution stated, or is it suggested?
What do you deduce from the stove with the broken lining? From the
crazy stitches in the sewing? From the bird-cage of the broken hinge?
What double meaning lies in the concluding sentence, “We call it--knot
it, Mr. Henderson”?
SETTING. Has the actual setting an influence on the characters with
respect to the story action? How is the setting given in the finished
narrative? How is it connected with the theme?
CHARACTERS. Make a list of the characters and state the reason for the
existence of each with regard to the action, to the verisimilitude,
and to the need for contrast. It is a difficult thing to focus clearly
before the reader a character who never “comes on the stage.” Has Miss
Glaspell succeeded in evoking for you the person and the individuality
of Minnie Wright?
Does one desire in a story of this nature _types_ or _individuals_?
Which character should be most individual, here, as regards the
author’s purpose?
THE SILENT INFARE
STARTING POINT. “Most of my dialect stories have some basis of fact in
their incidents,” says Mr. Gordon, “and in them I have sought to depict
phases of the life and characteristics of the negroes whom I grew up
among as a boy, and have known more or less intimately since.
“‘The Silent Infare’ was a real occurrence, as was the pillow episode
in ‘Mr. Bolster’; and the story of ‘Sinjinn Surviving,’ in _Harper’s
Magazine_, is in its main features true. Nearly all, if not all, of the
stories in the ‘Ommirandy’ book had some foundation of fact, and the
characters are amplified portraitures of ‘darkeys I have known.’”
CLASSIFICATION. Not a short-story, in the limited sense of the term,
but an interesting reflection of life in the story that is short. The
action is not all directed toward one end; the main episode is almost
incidental in the casualness of its occurrence--as incidents occur in
life;--character is the connecting link between the earlier and the
later stages of the narrative phases. Incidental action contributes,
rather to character than to action; _e.g._, the business of the guinea
nest is a high light on Ommirandy, on the boy, Tibe, and on the
mistress of the house, whereas it has only slight suggestive value for
the plot. Emphasis on the nest at the close emphasizes the realistic
qualities of the story.
The method of the author shows that he is “a born story-teller.” He
has an appreciation of the life about him, he has the gift of literary
expression, and he writes perfect dialect. Interested in larger
literary worth, he can afford to disregard the technicalities of the
short-story--which may be, or may not be, a very well executed piece
of work and still fall short of permanent excellence.
CHARACTERIZATION. Who is the main figure? What pictures of herself do
her own speeches contribute? How does her attitude toward Mis’ Nancy
emphasize the portrait? Mis’ Nancy’s relations with her emphasize
what qualities? Does the author’s own comment help the reader to an
appreciation of Ommirandy? Where?
Give several examples of contrast and comparison noticed in your
studying the portrayal of the various figures.
PLOT. Studying the leisurely progress of the story, should you
pronounce it a growth or a construction? Is there a struggle? Is the
main incident presented in its chronological order? How is it enhanced
by being given through the words of Ommirandy, rather than from her
point of view, as she looked through “de winder over de kitchen do’,”
but in the words of the author?
SETTING. What is the locale? Measuring the “local color story” by the
dictum that it could have its action nowhere except in the time and
place indicated, would you agree that this is a story of local color?
What other Virginian has used similar scenes? What stories akin to
this, in regard to the value of setting, do you find in Mr. O’Brien’s
collections?
Mr. Gordon once said in a letter to Rudyard Kipling, so he states,
that he regarded as the four best stories in the English language,
“Wandering Willie’s Tale” (In “Redgauntlet”), Bret Harte’s “The Luck of
Roaring Camp,” George W. Cable’s “Posson Jone,” and Kipling’s “The Man
Who Was.” In which of the four is the element of setting foremost?
GENERAL METHOD. “If I should venture to say anything about the writing
of a short story it would be this: the first consideration is that the
writer must have a short story to tell; and the second consideration
that, after having learned by long and constant practice to write
clear and vigorous English, he must tell the story naturally, after his
own fashion. No one else’s fashion will do.”
This explicit statement of Mr. Gordon should be considered by every
would-be writer of stories. Notice that he does not say nothing can be
learned from reading other stories, or from studying their mechanism.
Would his own stories be what they are if a long line of American
writers had not preceded him? Would Shakespeare have written his dramas
if his immediate predecessors and contemporaries had not lived? In
another age, when another literary _genre_ was foremost, Shakespeare
would have foresworn drama for the prevailing style.
THE CAT OF THE CANE-BRAKE
STARTING POINT. Frederick Stuart Greene wrote this story out of his
experiences and observations as an engineer in certain Southern
districts. The pine woods, the wretched cabin, the cane-brake, the
rattlesnake, the brogan shoes--these are concrete instances of his
familiarity with the setting. The immediate germinal idea lies in an
incident he recalled of seeing a severed rattlesnake head fastened to
the leg of a man in camp.
PLOT. The compactly wrought plot is one of the best in recent fiction.
It is formed, in the main, from the interweaving of two lines of
interest. One has to do with the struggle between the yellow cat and
the woman, Sally; the other spins out the sordid love affair between
Sally and the young engineer. The climax of action shows a double
defeat for the woman. The husband is the connecting link, as he is the
third figure in the triangle story, and is the partisan of the cat in
the other line of interest.
_Initial Impulse_: Sally throws the stick of wood at the cat. Outward
indication of latent animosity.
_Steps in the Action_: Sally promises her lover to meet him at
midnight. She prepares the liquor-trap. She hears of the big snake.
She insists that the cat be killed. Jim refuses. He orders her to
lay the mattress in the “dog-trot.” She sets the liquor-trap. Jim,
caught, drinks a toast to the cat. Sally lies waiting for midnight.
_Dramatic Climax_: The cat finds the snake-head. It passes the
bed. Sally mutters and strikes out in her sleep. The cat drops the
snake-head.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Few, but significant. Sally
wakes, raises herself on her right palm; her wrist meets the fangs of
the rattler; in agony she tries to wake Jim for help, but he lies in
a drunken stupor. Meantime, the young engineer who has waited long,
now sets out to reconnoitre. He makes his way toward the cabin.
_Dénouement_: In it is bound up the climax of action which has, in
part, already occurred in Sally’s death. The engineer sees the dead
woman, the drunken man, and the purring cat. He flees.
Apart from the clever workmanship of the plot construction, what
examples of poetic justice do you find?
Was it fate, chance, or tactics of hate which caused the cat to drop
the snake-head?
CHARACTERIZATION. In a story of plot prominence, the characters
need less individualization. Are these, in your opinion, types or
individuals? Which is the best drawn? Which the least convincing? How
does Sally, early in the action, forfeit your sympathy?
DETAILS. How is Jim’s love for liquor (a hinge on which the plot is
made to turn) prepared for early in the action?
How does the manner of the cat’s disposition of the fish-head make
logical its subsequent interest in the snake-head?
What intensifying value has the “sad, gray moss”?
What effect has Sally’s second encounter with the cat?
Study the naturalness, the dramatic development, and the enriching
quality of the scene wherein the rattlesnake is discussed. How does it
make plausible, also, the fact that the cat found the snake-head?
What contribution is made to the final effect in Jim’s toast to the cat?
What do you think of the final sentence by way of conclusion?
What is the length of the action?
This story, the first Mr. Greene wrote, after taking up the study
of story technique, is particularly excellent for showing early
recognition of plot demands. If its structure is, on investigation, a
trifle obvious, it will be all the better for the student’s purpose.
On comparing it with later stories by the same author, he will find
that growth which means ability to conceal mechanism--or to forget it
altogether.
The student needing exercise in plot construction should read Captain
Greene’s “Molly McGuire, Fourteen” (_Century_, September, 1917; also
reprinted in “A Book of Short Stories,” edited by Blanche Colton
Williams), and should study his diagram of the lines of interest and
their complications (See “A Handbook on Story Writing,” by Blanche
Colton Williams, page 94).
THE BUNKER MOUSE
CONDITIONS WHICH PRECEDED COMPOSITION. First, Mr. Greene’s
profession--that of engineer; second, an acquaintanceship with two
Irishmen having characteristics which suggested Larry and Dan; third,
several hours in the hold of a freighter, immediately before writing
the narrative, on a voyage down the Eastern Coast.
PLOT.
_The Struggle_: This story is one of the best in the collections for
exemplifying the struggle element. There are two main conflicts: that
between Dan and Larry, and the struggle between man’s wit and power
against the fury of the elements.
_Initial Incident_: What is the impulse that sets the story in action?
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Mark the principal stages toward
the turning point in the action. Is the struggle against the storm or
the one between Dan and Larry the prevailing interest?
_Dramatic Climax_: Observe the proximity of the two turning points.
Page 299, “the first hope came ... there was a ‘feel’ ... that ribs
and beams and rivets were not so near the breaking-point.” And page
300, “Larry had fallen!” Show that each event is the dramatic climax,
for the individual lines, and that the close succession means an
increased dramatic effect for the whole narrative.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Name the important stages,
observing that the author has achieved a master-stroke in his moment
of ease. After the hardship of the struggle, comes the period of
rest. See page 305, “At five o’clock a Port Eads pilot climbed over
the side,” etc.
_Dénouement_: The dénouement reveals a relationship which may be, or
not be, a surprise to the reader. Does it matter whether the surprise
exists? To what conclusion does your answer point in regard to the
value of a “surprise ending”?
Is the dénouement satisfactory?
Did you learn from the clues in the first scene, between Larry and
Mary, more than the author intended?
Wherein do you find the preparation for the accident which does for
Larry? (See pages 289 and 290.)
What is the worth of the minor climax, page 295, where the two
struggles reach corresponding points?
CHARACTERIZATION. Make note of all the devices and methods by which the
author draws sympathy to Larry. Show that the emotional reaction you
experience arises directly from the concept of his character and his
acts.
What are the dominant traits of Dan? What is the purpose of the scene
wherein Dan knocks out the stoker?
Originally, Mr. Greene called his character, Dan, by the name of Mike.
Why did he accept the advised change?
Is the personality of Mary properly subdued? properly elevated? In
connection with your answer, notice the value of having her introduced
early in the action.
Who are the background characters? Do they usurp too much of your
interest?
DETAILS. What is the length of the action?
Is the business on pages 297 and 298 too technical for a layman’s
comprehension? If so, can one, nevertheless, apprehend sufficiently
to derive pleasure from the recountal? To what effect do the various
mechanical appliances and parts contribute?
Study all the details by which Mr. Greene has conveyed the _feeling_
of the big storm. Where is the first preparation for the fact that
the incidents of this story will be connected with the time of the
Galveston Flood?
How did Larry receive the appellation of The Bunker Mouse? Why is the
episode told out of its chronological place? Are any other important
incidents presented out of their time order?
From whose angle is the story told?
Intensifying worth of the sentence?--“So’s a trout; but it’s got a damn
poor show against a shark” (page 289).
Reason for this statement of the author?--“I wanted to say that Dan
purred like a tiger, but it was a jungle figure, and of course I had to
give it up.”
Point out instances of the author’s keeping the reader aware of
locality.
Show how the mood or feeling is harmonized with the plot, which is
itself one of complication wherein the stages of the two main struggles
are kept beautifully parallel.
WHOSE DOG--?
CLASSIFICATION. This seven or eight hundred word short-story
illustrates the extreme type. The setting is the end of a pier; the
time, only a few minutes; the action represents a crisis in the life of
one character, the village drunkard; the struggle--which culminates in
the suicide of the drunkard--is between him and society. The unities
are, therefore, well conserved; the singleness of effect is pronounced.
It is a _tour de force_ in its manipulation of story elements.
Is the motivation for John’s suicide sufficient?
What social relation does the policeman bear to the drunkard? What
contrast does the author employ?
THEMATIC VALUE. Society is not arraigned: a case is posed. Has it
propaganda value?
MAKING PORT
COMMENT. A capital example of a short-story built on two lines of
interest neatly joined. One line arises from the desire of Old Tom to
reach Liverpool; it illustrates a passive struggle between wishing and
waiting on the one hand, and fate or chance on the other. The second
line arises from the situation of Spike’s being in prison, a situation
motivated or brought about by the physical struggle between Spike and
the bo’sun, and is marked by Spike’s attempt to escape. The two lines
are connected by the fact that Tom has a queer animosity for Spike, and
that he is made the guardian of Spike. Old Tom’s relation to his wife
offers a parallel to the relation between Spike and the mission girl.
Old Tom is unsuccessful, ironically so; Spike escapes.
Is the motivation for Tom’s surrendering the keys of Spike’s prison
strong enough? What is it?
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Spike kills the bo’sun.
_Steps to Dramatic Climax_: Spike is chained in the locker. Tom is
given the key. Tom is tempted to give up the key. He refuses, hearing
that the ship will go on to Liverpool, knowing moreover that if he
betrays his duty his chance will be lost. After four months the ship
comes to anchor. Meantime Spike has filed his chains. The girl comes
on board. She beseeches Old Tom to let him go.
_Dramatic Climax_: “Take him.”
_Steps to Climax of Action_: The escape in the mission boat to the
tramp steamer. Spike gets aboard.
_Dénouement_: Tom must remain here. Irony in the understanding that
the tramp is bound for Liverpool.
PRESENTATION. Who tells the story? Has he any part in the action? How
does the narrator bridge over the long passage so as to secure emphasis
on the story action?
CHARACTERIZATION. How many times does the narrator refer to Old Tom’s
scratching his ribs? Is the repetition of an act, emphasis on a habit,
a sound method of character delineation? Is it too “easy”?
What idea do you form of Tom from his speeches?
How does his animosity to Spike serve to portray him?
By what means does the narrator elicit from the reader sympathy for
Spike? How does he hold it?
Study the picture and the character of the mission girl.
ATMOSPHERE. Try to define the mood or feeling of the narrative. What
influence has Fate in creating the atmosphere? Study the contribution
toward the atmosphere in the dramatic forecast on page 165. How is this
forecast properly subdued? Has the superstition of sailors a dramatic
value? How is the setting made contributory to the atmosphere?
RAINBOW PETE
SETTING. Mushrat Portage. The setting is of unusual importance, since
nowhere else, probably, would the action be possible.
CHARACTERS. The woman employed at Scarecrow Charlie’s; Rainbow Pete;
Pal Yachy; minor persons. Who is the narrator? Has he an acting part in
the story?
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Rainbow Pete and the woman are married.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Mushrat is disappointed at Pete’s
silence. He goes away, after a time, to the North, “dreaming of
gold.” The woman, his wife, becomes head of Charlie’s establishment.
The town booms. Pal Yachy arrives. He sings. Pete’s wife lured by
the voice fears she may be untrue to Pete if he does not hasten to
return. Pal Yachy offers a prize for the first child born on Mushrat.
_Dramatic Climax_: Pete returns. (See the scene in the eating place.)
_Steps to Dénouement_: He hears Pal Yachy singing to his wife.
Outside of the cabin, he sees the singer near his wife, with the
gold prize. The wife of Pete flings the gold clear of the bed. Pete
enters; throws out Pal Yachy, and the gold after him.
_Dénouement_: Pete discovers his son. Pal Yachy goes, leaving the
family united.
DETAILS. Does the explanation of Rainbow Pete’s name tie itself up
with a clue to the final action? (See page 310.)
Study the story for the musical effects: Pete’s flute, Pal Yachy’s
singing.
Is there a resemblance in any way to the opera, “Pagliacci”? Is the
result of the voice similar to the effect of Chautonville’s singing?
Are there other instances of the power of music superior to the one of
the sirens?
What suggestion is bound up with the idea, “Gold lies at the foot of
the rainbow”? Has the author handled it skillfully?
Compare this story with film productions, which you have doubtless
seen, of the North Country. Wherein lies the popular success of such
photoplays as those in which William S. Hart appears?
With Rainbow Pete’s point of vantage outside his cabin, compare that
which the narrator enjoys in “Ching, Ching, Chinaman,” when he looks
under the window-shade into the room (Page 455, Yearbook, 1917). Has
Ommirandy a similar good post? (See “The Silent Infare.”) Find other
instances. What contribution does such a physical point of view make
toward the vividness of the picture?
LIFE
COMMENT. A student of the present critic made this comment on “Life.”
Do you agree with it?--“The opposing forces are the man’s desire to
know the meaning of life, and the darkness of his vision. It is hard
to say which force wins. For though he does not discover the meaning
of life, he discovers a simile sufficiently revolting to suit his
mood.... It is really a single incident, made worthy of expansion by
its significance and symbolism.”...
Get the final implication which completes the story. In short, what is
the final sentence when rounded out?
Read “The Workman,” by Lord Dunsany (in “Fifty-one Tales”) and compare
it with this narrative for atmosphere and philosophy.
THE FATHER’S HAND
GERMINAL IDEA. “What started ‘The Father’s Hand’ was the quotation from
the fifth, no, the sixth, book of the Æneid,
_Bis conatus erat casus effingere in auro
Bis patriæ cecidere manus._
I happened to have been reading it the day before. Then I could not
go to sleep the next night, and it occurred to me that the lines were
perhaps the most touching I knew, and that they were an example of
the modernity or rather the timelessness of all art. Then I tried to
imagine a situation today that they would fit, and the whole story was
worked out before morning. My own reaction about it is that I have
stolen Vergil’s thunder.”--_George Humphrey._
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: In the first few months of the war there comes to
a small English village a refugee from Alsace-Lorraine, a monument
carver.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: He refuses to go into shelter
from the frequent air-raids and learns from watching the planes that
they pass a certain point before turning toward London.
_Dramatic Climax_: Acting upon his information the gunners bring down
a German plane.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The carver finds himself a
hero. It is decided to erect a tombstone over the dead aviator, with
the inscription “Here lies a fallen German.” The stone-cutter is
deputed to carve the inscription. The relics of the raid are exposed
for view in the little museum. The personal effects of the aviator
consist largely of a young, fair-haired woman--“Meine Mutter.” The
stone-cutter goes out to buy a chisel and to visit the museum. On his
return he seems ill but goes to work on the inscription.
_Climax of Action_: He dies before completing the epitaph.
_Dénouement_: The dead aviator was his son, as the picture had
revealed to him, and as the unfinished inscription, “Bis patriæ m--,”
revealed to the Dean.
PRESENTATION. Mr. Humphrey has seen fit to present this tale as a
rehearsed one. In so doing, he has secured mellowness--consistent
with utmost economy, sympathy for the stone-cutter, and an excellent
apology for the Latin phrases. He evidently had in mind, whether at
the beginning or later, the resemblance between a fallen aviator
and the luckless Icarus. To emphasize the relation, he needed to
requisition classical atmosphere as well as classical fact. This he has
accomplished through the stone-cutter’s interest in “Phœnix-Latin,” and
the Oxford Dean, who lectures on Latin poetry.
CHARACTERIZATION. The reserve of the refugee stone-cutter is used to
advantage in conserving economy and in suggesting facts, rather than
stating them, to the reader. The Frenchman tells almost nothing of
his past life, of which much is nevertheless revealed through the
illuminating high lights of the action.
SETTING. Why is an indefinite English village the best locale?
T. B.
GENERAL. Fannie Hurst is represented in three collections of “The Best
Short Stories.” The reason lies in the facts that she is one of the
skilled technicians of the time, one of the hardest workers--sparing no
pains to achieve that sound structure and perfection of detail which
only the seasoned artist knows how to achieve; that by narrative,
which stands without emphasis of didactic or propaganda purpose, she
yet manages to convey an idea much larger than the story itself, and
that she has quite literally created a unique world of men and women
who nevertheless in their behavior reflect a part of the myriad-minded
and many-mooded contemporary life. Any one of the present stories will
prove the truth of this assertion.
STARTING POINT OF “T. B.” “The flint that struck spark for ‘T. B.’,”
says Miss Hurst, “was the sight of a humpy looking girl standing before
the window display of a Tuberculosis exhibit.”
PLOT.
_Initial Impulse_: Sara Juke faints at the Hibernian Hop. How is this
event prepared for in the finally developed story?
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Sara and Charley leave the hall.
This stage is succeeded by others preparing for the counter-play
and emphasizing the T. B. motif. They see the Tuberculosis exhibit,
and visit it. The pink-faced young attendant gives Sara a circular.
Sara fears the disease. She revisits the display. The attendant,
Eddie Blaney, shows his interest, advising her to go to a clinic for
examination. At Sharkey’s Sara tells Charley the doctor’s verdict.
What obvious steps in the action has the author omitted, thus giving
the reader the chance to help in constructing the story?
_Dramatic Climax_: Charley leaves Sara. (This climax is, of course,
intensified by its juxtaposition to the doctor’s verdict; in fact,
the two details together may be regarded as a double climax. Miss
Hurst is one of the best authors to study for duplication of dramatic
climax effect. See also, for example, “Ice Water.”)
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Eddie Blaney meets Sara and
takes her to the country. (Has this step been prepared for duly?
Why is it one not left to the reader’s imagination--that is, the
engagement made previously?) Eddie encourages Sara, telling her she
will be well by Christmas.
_Climax of Action_: (Deduced by reader.) How has Miss Hurst in the
developed story suggested the inevitable ending?
CHARACTERS. By what speeches and acts does the author flash the
personality of Sara? By which ones in particular does she draw the
reader’s sympathy to her? How is Hattie Krakow used to emphasize the
appeal of Sara? What other purpose does Hattie serve? How is her
interest in Sara motivated? How far is Charley one of a type? To what
extent individualized? Is the type or the individual more necessary
to the author’s purpose here? How does Charley’s treatment of Sara
enhance the reader’s interest? How is Blaney’s solicitude for the girl
motivated? Do the three characters constitute the three figures of a
“triangle” story? If so, is the triangle one of distinctly new features?
SETTING. How many times does the scene change? How is contrast employed
in the construction of settings? Does the change in scene conform to
the plot action? Has this relationship a necessary unifying value? What
is the time of the story?
DETAILS. How much space does the author consume before gliding into the
introduction of character and setting? What is its worth? A student
once asked Miss Hurst why she chose such openings, suggesting that
quite frequently the reader found it difficult to see the connection.
Miss Hurst smilingly replied that it was her idiosyncrasy. “That’s
where I take _my_ fling.” Is there more back of her words than her
modesty allowed her to assert? What is the real contribution made by
page 84?
What are the principal features of the economy by which she presents to
the reader the opening situation?
Note the many details by which throughout the story the author keeps
vividly before the reader the actual setting. Although her method is
that of the romanticist, her result is one of reality. In listing
these details, notice that another purpose is also effected--another
economical device. “On a morning when the white-goods counter was
placing long-sleeve, high-neck nightgowns in its bargain bins,” page
85, conveys the season, better than statement could do (because more
picturesquely) at the same time it builds up the scene.
How has the author enriched the main narrative by contrast with lightly
suggested situations? (See the Van Ness passages.)
Study the narrative for sounds and odors as well as for pictures.
Contribution to vividness of reality? What contrasts do you find in
these sense appeals?
How does Miss Hurst make most of her transitions in time and place? Is
the double space well used? What is the acting time of the story?
From whose angle of narration is it told? Is there a shift from the
objective to the omniscient point of view? If so, is it justified by a
gain?
“ICE WATER, PL--!”
STARTING POINT. According to Miss Hurst, “Ice Water, Pl--!” had its
germinal beginnings in the self-imposed query: Given, a mother whose
joys are largely the vicarious ones that come through her daughter, to
what extent can her own personal life become more and more submerged?
SETTING. The locale of this story is the same as that of “T. B.” Point
out evidence, explicit or implicit, of its being New York City. In
general, notice that the larger setting of Miss Hurst’s stories is
frequently St. Louis or New York. Account for this fact. How long is
the action of “Ice Water, Pl--!”?
PLOT. The _initial impulse_, the force that sets the story-action
going, is Mr. Vetsburg’s invitation to Mrs. Kaufman and Ruby to “come
down to Atlantic City over Easter.” (Fill in the important steps toward
the dramatic climax.) The _dramatic climax_ is a double header: First,
Ruby accedes, after a struggle, to her Mother’s wishes that she accept
Mr. Vetsburg. Second, Mrs. Kaufman gives in to Ruby’s marrying Leo.
By this clever duplication, not only is the turning point made more
emphatic, but the sympathy of the reader is evoked for both mother
and daughter. It is another excellent instance of economy joined to
strength.
The _climax of action_ follows without much delay: It is bound up with
the dénouement, since in it Mrs. Kaufman learns that it is herself--not
her daughter--whom Vetsburg loves.
CHARACTERIZATION. What is Mrs. Kaufman’s outstanding trait? Ruby’s?
Vetsburg’s? Is Mrs. Kaufman’s dominant characteristic logically
connected with her capability as a boarding-house keeper? Are the two
so portrayed as to make satisfactory the dénouement, by which Mrs.
Kaufman will be married to Mr. Vetsburg? What preparation leads to the
happy outcome?
How is Ruby akin to her sisters, Sara Juke and Selene Coblenz? How is
she differentiated? Is the individualization stronger than the type
resemblance?
Close your eyes after finishing the story and call up images of the
two main women characters and of Vetsburg. Go over the narrative and
see how the author has given you these pictures, and also observe
how accurately you have registered the impressions. If there are
discrepancies between your memory and the presentation, whose fault is
it?
What purposes are fulfilled by the background figures? Recall instances
of humor to which they contribute. Have you ever met Irving Katz?
Why is Leo so slightly touched? Do you notice other measures taken to
keep in the foreground the middle-aged pair? What are they?
DETAILS. What popular attitude does the philosophy of page 181 subtly
criticize? What is the link which connects the generalizing preliminary
with the particular instance? (Notice that the slide is effected on the
towels.)
Where is the first scene laid?
Who, in the first scene, reveals most of the situation to the reader?
Page 187 contains an important clue to the subsequent action. What is
it?
What is the purpose of the next fully developed scene (in Mrs.
Kaufman’s apartment)?
What is the purpose of the continuation of the scene (after Vetsy’s
exit, page 194)? Does the division into two parts (before and after the
women retired) contribute to more than an impression of reality?
Study the transition between the night scene and eleven o’clock the
next morning. What value has the paragraph (page 205) beginning “At
eleven”?
How does the author effect the return of Vetsburg and Mrs. Kaufman to
the apartment? How is Ruby disposed of? (See page 107, “Down by Gimp’s
I sent her,” etc.).
Miss Hurst is an expert scene-developer. Her setting is clear; her
characters move as they move in real life; the action is in the right
tempo for the conditions and the time at hand; no scene exists without
a definite purpose. It is the fine scene-work which gives to her
stories a dramatic quality equalled only by that of the stage.
Compare the scene-work of this story with that of “T. B.” and of “Get
Ready the Wreaths.”
Has the Easter season a contributory significance?
GET READY THE WREATHS
GERMINAL IDEA. “‘Get Ready the Wreaths’ was, of course, inspired by the
overwhelming drama of the Russian Revolution and my own feeling that
even Siberia had at last been justified.”--_Fannie Hurst._
ANALYSIS. The predominating interest and hence line of action, since
it composes a line of action, is Mrs. Horowitz’s desire, struggle,
to return to Russia. This struggle has been going on for years; it
has its roots and beginnings in the past. Alone it would not make a
short-story; for the conflict is too level, too empty of actual event.
The beginning of the complication is the engagement of Selene Coblenz,
her love affair constituting the second line of interest. This is
the truly complicating line, although there is also a third line of
interest, properly subdued. It enters as a factor, first, in the first
line. Mark Haas shows his interest in Mrs. Coblenz by offering to
arrange for her the details of the Siberian journey. For a long time
this interest exists, seemingly, only as a means for developing the
main struggle: there is an entire amalgamation of the two interests.
(See e.g., page 342, “Mark Haas is going to fix it for me,” etc.).
Selene Coblenz’s request brings on the immediate struggle. It is
only a step, however, in Mrs. Horowitz’s long fight to get back. It
turns out to be not a deciding step, but one in complication. See
that by considering the old lady’s struggle and the daughter’s mental
anguish, Shila’s search for ways and means starts from it, rather
than is decided by it. There is no specific struggle after it, only a
complication waiting to be solved. Mrs. Coblenz could not have started
for Russia until after the reception, anyway. If Mrs. Horowitz had
lived, she could have gone. Nothing is determined by this minor climax:
much mental trouble starts from it for Shila. It simply advances events
to a state, where at a later moment they will need a struggle and a
decision.
But for another reason this decision of Mrs. Coblenz’s is a big
crisis, though not the big plot crisis; especially is this true
if you regard the story as a character story. Shila’s devotion to
her mother: her devotion to her daughter--which will win? Will her
sense of duty triumph over her indulgence? The girl’s reasoning,
the impracticability of her mother’s desire assist to “play up” the
struggle. Selene is dominant with Shila. She is a great-hearted woman,
but she has a weakness. If she had not had, Selene might have been a
less self-centred girl.
With the news of the reception evening, the three lines of interest
come together; the high point of the complication is reached. There is
a momentary crisis for Mrs. Coblenz. Her mother can go back to Russia
now; she will insist. Selene’s line enters as an accomplished fact to
prevent: It helps with the other to compose a crisis here. The third
line is present as a factor to assist: But Mrs. Coblenz is blind to it:
it is a suspended resource.
If, as you might have expected, the writer had derived her solution
from that line, she would have done the obvious thing. Also she would
have made Shila’s escape from her weakness, easy. And, last of all, she
would have finished a struggle which had its derivation in blood and
sacrifice with a conclusion too quiet and unheroic.
The author did what technically might have been a very bad thing.
To get your solution out of a physical or natural stroke, by sudden
illness or an accident of nature, is equivalent to using a god from
the machine,--a charge often laid at the feet of Euripides. But here
the death is so logical a consequence--so well prepared for--that you
cannot quarrel with it. And there is a heroic touch in having Mrs.
Horowitz die beneath her tremendous recollection and appreciation of
all the triumph had cost. The outcome is satisfying: she died in a high
moment. Shila is not too much to blame, and consolation for her is at
hand. And Selene, being right from her angle of youth and life, is both
happy and sufficiently rebuked.
The story, then, has both an opposing and an assisting line. The climax
at which all meet and the forces balance is the Revolution news. It is
not the deciding moment in the Selene story: that is over.
* * * * *
The emotional effect of this story represents in a high degree one of
the author’s best achievements. Her stories are notable for their human
appeal. One man went so far as to state to the present critic that he
would willingly have bartered his soul to enable that old lady to go
back to Russia. Study all the ways by which she reaches your sympathy.
* * * * *
GENERAL METHODS. “Almost invariably my plots emerge from characters,
rather than characters from plots. I doubt if this latter is ever as
sound in method except in the detective or picaresque story.
“I have never based a short story upon a concrete incident, written
a character directly from ‘life,’ or, except rarely, incorporated a
speech actually heard into dialogue.
“A situation may suggest the beginnings of a story, or a chance word be
the seed of an idea, but most often I find myself puttering around the
hypothetical psychology of folks....
“... Unity of Effect, no matter how the unities must be smashed
to attain it, I consider the corner stone of short-story writing.
Without it, architectural beauty and continuity of development are
impossible....”
--_Fannie Hurst._
MR. EBERDEEN’S HOUSE
STARTING POINT AND FIRST PROCESSES. “Mr. Eberdeen’s House” was to
have been originally only the effect of an old New England House upon
a New Englander who had become rather enfranchised from his austere
beginnings, and returned to find them only more crabbed, more grim,
than ever, and himself strangely, inexplicably connected with them.
The explanation of how he was connected with this distasteful setting,
and of why it was distasteful to him evolved the author’s theme.
The hero’s great-grandmother had fled from the same grimness and
straight-lacedness and puritanism by running away with a Frenchman,
just before the birth of her child, of whom Mr. Eberdeen was, contrary
to his bleak, orthodox suspicions, the father. The author’s plan was to
have Mr. Eberdeen, representing all that was distasteful to the hero
(Hastings) in the New England character, the hero’s ancestor without
his knowing it--the great-grandmother after she had fled, having
presumably taken the name, for herself and child, of Tremaine.
The ghosts seemed to Mr. Johnson the only media through which to tell
the story pictorially. Whether one believes ghosts in a story real or
not is, in his opinion, beside the point, so long as they _seem_ real
enough for the sake of the telling. They may be compared to the _deus
ex machina_ of Euripides, of to the scenes in motion pictures which
show what some one is dreaming or thinking.
ANALYSIS OF THE DEVELOPED STORY. Some inner stories may be detached
from the outer husk as a letter is drawn from its envelope (find
examples in these collections). Others are a necessary part of the
external interest and refuse to be separated without damage to each.
This story is one of the latter sort.
Jack Hastings and Julia Elliott are betrothed. He has come to New
England, after some time in Paris, to make her a visit. It is
understood, at the end of the action, that they will go abroad to live.
So much for the outer wrappings which are bound so closely to the heart
of the matter, as is indicated in the
_Preparation for the Significant Part, or the Inner Story_: Jack’s
mystic knowledge of “Mr. Eberdeen’s” house; his strange mood; “they
talked of it bein’ ha’nted.” These details are followed by the more
immediate preparation; Jack is ill and sleepy, he sleeps. (Or _does_
he sleep?)
Here, then, the outer story merges, by way of Jack as a medium, with
the inner.
_Dramatic Climax of the Entire Story_: (Formed by the developed scene
which constitutes the inner action.)
_Explanation_: The characters are Jack Hastings, his counterpart,
and the woman. Jack in his dream or vision apparently represents in
his thoughts part of the personality of his great-grandfather; the
ghostly counterpart represents that ancestor as he really behaved,
at what must have been the original enactment of the scene. (Except,
of course, that Jack was absent from that drama, played long before
his birth.) This unique treatment of dual personality should be
studied with Markheim, William Wilson, Jekyll and Hyde. For daring
and yet naturalness combined with mysticism, it surpasses them. The
end of the scene, in Jack’s vision, shows the ancestor about to do
violence to his wife (Jack’s great-grandmother), but restrained by
Jack himself. (Interpreted, this is to say that the better nature of
Jack’s ancestor had actually triumphed and he had rushed from his
wife.)
_The Climax of Action_ (_Whole of the Story_): Jack Hastings awakes
to find that he has been ill. He lies in a state of semi-realization,
of semi-lapse into the world of his recent adventure.
_Dénouement_: Julia and Hastings plan to live abroad. The old man
whom Jack had met appears and suggests that he saw the lady of the
house go from it to meet Henry. (Is this old man a figment of the
fancy or is he real?) In this addition to Jack’s vision is furnished
the _dénouement_ of the inner story, Julia leads Jack to Mr.
Eberdeen’s room, which proves to be the one wherein he had seen the
ghostly drama. The original of “John” is the portrait Julia had hung
upon the panel. Julia reveals that when Jack came downstairs he had
looked like the portrait. Clinching the reality of the whole thing is
the discovery of the gray chiffon, with the bloodstains.
COMMENT. This, then, is a narrative the mystery of which must be
explained by each reader to his own satisfaction. If the reader
“believes” in the supernatural, he will take the whole thing, ghostly
scene and all, as somehow occurring. If he does not “believe,” he
will then accept the scene as the obsession of a sick man--with a
few details left in mystery. I should class it as a story of the
supernatural, wherein the appearance is visible to the sick or the
clairvoyant mind. Knowing that the germinal idea had to do with the
effect of a house upon a man, and that the story is developed by
emphasis on this feeling, deepened by a ghostly visitation, one would
find it impossible to characterize the story as other than one of
atmosphere. And it is the best atmosphere story in the four Yearbooks.
The right way to achieve an atmosphere story, Stevenson told us long
ago, is to begin with a mood induced by a place; Mr. Johnson has
pursued the plan.
Atmosphere is, then, bound up with setting; plot interest follows in
importance; character is of note mainly in the unique manifestation
of dual personality. A dreamer, an artist, an idealist--any sensitive
medium--would fittingly play the part demanded. The love interest
enriches the action and humanizes the character.
THE VISIT OF THE MASTER
COMMENT. Mr. Johnson has here produced a satirical character study,
wherein Mary Haviland Norton well nigh stands in place of the story;
but in playing up the visit of Hurrell Oaks he has secured narrative
interest. That a mere visit should have loomed as an event, and that
the loss of it should have proved so disappointing becomes the test
of Miss Haviland’s character. Building a story upon so negative an
incident is a feat worthy of Henry James--or Mary Haviland Norton.
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Miss Haviland invites Hurrell Oaks to Newfair.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: It appears that the great man can
stop only for an hour or so. To receive him worthily, Miss Haviland
decorates her apartment in borrowed and elegant trappings; she
invites a select few to meet him. George Norton, who is devoted to
Miss Haviland, is not included.
_Dramatic Climax_: Hurrell Oaks arrives earlier than he is expected,
while Miss Haviland is in her bath-tub, and since there is nobody to
receive him he goes away.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Miss Haviland rushes out to
detain him as the possibility occurs to her that his knock may have
heralded the famous guest. He is gone. She betrays to one of her
students her bitter disappointment.
_Climax of Action_: As the guests arrive she tells them that Hurrell
Oaks could not wait, though he and she have spent an “immemorial”
hour together.
_Dénouement_: Two days afterward she announces her engagement to
George Norton.
PRESENTATION. The story is recounted ten years later, after a formal
dinner, by the student whom Miss Haviland had helplessly, impulsively,
taken into her half-confidence. Her auditor is the narrator, presumably
Mr. Johnson, himself. The related story is exceptionally well told
with regard to the assumed narrator; she betrays just enough of the
school-girl character and manner to enliven the drama of middle age.
From a stylistic point of view, the narrative testifies to the author’s
craftmanship; for it is almost as if told by a young woman.
CHARACTERIZATION. Mary Haviland was interesting to the girl narrator
because of her native ability, determination, and her acquired
connoisseurship. Harmonizing her fundamental power with her culture,
hitting off little discrepancies and exaggerations that the reader
might see her whole--these demanded a highly conscious technique.
Further, to regard her half-seriously, half-lightly, yet in the end
to demand the reader’s sympathy and admiration for her, required
nothing short of Meredithian genius. Finally, the bubble of fun blown
out at the last: “She was no doubt _in the tub_,” etc., indicates an
irresponsible humor which makes play of the whole situation.
THE STRANGE-LOOKING MAN
THE STARTING POINT. “I got the idea for ‘The Strange-Looking Man,’”
says Mrs. Costello, “from reading of the homecoming of a Canadian
soldier, limbless, partially blind, wholly demented, to his young
wife--Homebringing, I should have said. As I read, I simply _saw_ the
story as it was written, nor could I help feeling as I wrote that my
little boy symbolized Germany as she is and my young man life, as we
are now so strongly hoping it may come to be.”
The statement from the author serves, also, to explain her symbolical
treatment.
SETTING. Should you judge, from the connotation, that the time is the
near or far future? What is the place? How is it indicated?
ACTION. Brief; it begins “One morning,” page 363, and ends with the
final words, page 364. Do you foresee the dénouement?
The narrative is remarkable in that it supposes a condition the
reverse, in many respects, of life in ante bellum days. The _child_
rocks his _father’s_ cradle. He is frightened by a whole man. The
wrecks of men, in the pictured setting, contrast sharply with the
traveler, pages 363, 364.
THEME. State the underlying idea, and show how it is intensified by
subsidiary ideas.
VENGEANCE IS MINE
THEME. Like “The Strange-Looking Man,” this story is pre-eminently one
of idea. Written before the United States declared war against Germany,
it none the less is of the Allied spirit. At the same time, it hints
that Germany has an ideal. (See page 151: “a vision which it alone had
understood.”) Would the same author probably hold in 1919 his original
concept? Does his dénouement negate the ideal?
How is the “fear or desire” (page 145) bound up with the dénouement?
SETTING. What is the place of the dream? The time _of_ the dream? What
outer occurrences emphasize it? (See, notably, page 152, where the
place of emphasis is given to the “bold boom of the batteries.”) Give
an external and an internal proof of the fact that “Christmas Eve,
1916” is the time _in_ the dream.
How much of the prophecy (pages 147, 148) has been fulfilled?
THE NARRATOR. In what branch of the service is the narrator? Value
of his point of view? Why does he use the dream device? By what
difficulties is the dream method usually attended? How successful has
Mr. Jordan been in avoiding them?
THE ACTION. What is the chief incident of the inner action? How does
it emphasize the theme? What relation has the outer action to that of
the dreamed action? Compare the technical device with that of “Mr.
Eberdeen’s House.” Wherein lies the power of the dénouement? Why does
the narrator say, “I thanked God for the Germans”?
THE CALLER IN THE NIGHT
THE STARTING POINT. Mr. Kline is not sure of his beginnings; perhaps
it came to him out of the ether “or whatever it is that niggardly
generates ideas.” “If it had any starting point, perhaps it was in a
talk I remember once having with Braithwaite. I kicked because the
embattled farmers and others of New England never seemed to fire a
shot but some ready recorder was instantly on hand to jot it down in a
paean of praise; while Pennsylvania, with pretty good history of its
own, too, and full of legend and lore, had gone totally unreported by
comparison. Maybe I started out to hunt up its legends.”
After this pleasant admission, Mr. Kline confesses that “The Caller in
the Night” is no rendering of an actual legend. “So far as I know there
never was a Screamer Moll, and no skeletons. The thunderstorm probably
happened. The rest is all made up.”
The statements are invaluable to one who sets out to judge a piece of
work with due regard to the author’s purpose. His motive, in brief, is
comparable to that of Washington Irving. Father Knickerbocker is the
“created legendary” figure in which New York will take pride forever.
THE PLOT.
_The Dominant Features_: Fannie and George kill Ned. Fannie and
Mollie escape to Pennsylvania. Later George joins them. He falls in
love with the girl. The mother’s power returns. Occasion throws the
girl with George. At his protests, Mollie understands he is trying to
“make a fool of her,” as he has of her mother, Fannie. She runs from
him. The incident of the storm. Mollie later finds Fannie and George.
She (evidently) kills them. Long years after, she tells her story.
She dies.
_Presentation_: The details as just suggested are woven in the lurid
narrative Mollie tells Mrs. Pollard and Mrs. Reeves. Study the
details--they are the essential “story”--and observe how skillfully
the author has rearranged them. To illustrate, he necessarily begins
with what formed the final step in the series above. What is the
reason for the _incoherent presentation_ of the story Moll tells?
Mark out the steps in the plot, Initial Incident, and so on to the
Dénouement, using the scheme found throughout this book.
SETTING. What is the locale of Mrs. Pollard’s home? Is this setting
in any way a part of the plot, or does it merely provide background
for Moll’s story? Is it near the setting of the rehearsed narrative?
Why does the thunderstorm form an essential part of the setting? How
are the weather, the time of day, and the place harmonized in the
atmosphere or mood of the entire narrative?
CHARACTERS. What characteristics of Mrs. Pollard and Mrs. Reeves make
them especially desirable, for story purposes, as listeners?
In what ways is the portrait of Moll given? What is the significance of
the fact that she is _introduced_ by her “unearthly cry”? (Page 369.)
The main image of her person is given (page 371) as “the tall and thin
but heavily framed figure of an old woman.” Is this picture emphasized,
for cumulative effect, or is it left to stand alone? Are Moll’s first
words well calculated, as her initial speech? Why?
Through Screamer Moll’s story, the story of an insane woman, Fannie and
George appear striking in certain details; dim in others. Is this both
a necessary fact, under the circumstances, and also better for the
author’s purpose? Describe Fannie.
DETAILS. Mr. Kline used the rehearsed method of telling the main story
as an unconscious effort, no doubt, to heighten the effect of legend,
of “something by and gone, all shadowy as recalled.”
Where, in the finished story, does the author first sound his legend
idea?
Why does he introduce the thunderstorm? Even if Moll had not died,
would it have had logical place in the story? That is, would the
repetition of the storm scene cause a reaction from her crazed brain
which would impel her to speech? Does the duplication of the storm (the
one of the inner story echoed by the one of the setting) increase the
totality of effect?
Why is the place of emphasis (the end) given to the finding of the two
skeletons?
What are the chief sound effects? Are they in harmony or contrast?
GENERAL VIEWS OF MR. KLINE. He thinks Mr. Braithwaite is right. “The
only test of a short story is, ‘Has the writer something interesting
to say, and does he say it in a manner to interest me?’” (See, by
way of comparison, Mr. Donn Byrne’s statement.) Mr. Kline further
believes that the great writers have never had to thrash the air with
“plot”--“from Hawthorne and Poe and Bret Harte, from Balzac and Gautier
and Maupassant, from Tolstoy and Turgenev and Dostoievsky, down to our
own O. Henry.” According to his statement and illustrations, how is he
probably considering the word plot? What difference is there between
plot invention and plot presentation? Does De Maupassant show skill in
arranging the plot _order_ in “The Necklace”? What would have happened
to the story had he not created the surprise? What would be the loss
in these stories of O. Henry had he not carefully constructed his
plot--“The Gift of the Magi,” “A Double-Dyed Deceiver,” “The Furnished
Room”?
Mr. Kline thinks that the only way to learn to write is to write and
keep writing, under wise and kindly criticism of course. And he adds
that if one can be severe and honest enough one’s own criticism is
best. “To be a real writer, one must master himself, master the world,
and master his art.”
IN THE OPEN CODE
PLOT.
_Initial Impulse._ George Roberts, freight engineer, drinker and
fighter, on the way to ruin and discharge, falls in love.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: He passes every day the home of
his sweetheart and toots his whistle in a musical code fashion, “to
let her know he’s safe.” The whistle has a softening effect on a
crowd of woodsmen, engaged in restoring a Virginia manor house and
grounds. “The world seemed a bit better for it.” The signal ceases.
The cynics say the engineer is probably drunk again. But one of the
men, Gordon, makes a special trip to the village to find out.
_Dramatic Climax_: The engineer and the girl, he learns, are married;
they are away on their honeymoon.
_Steps to the Climax of Action_: The signal is resumed farther along
the line, where the engineer and his wife have set up a home of their
own. For three weeks the signal is faithful; then it ceases, again,
abruptly. After four days Gordon goes again to the village. Just as
he returns, the men hear the signal fainter and farther away.
_Climax of Action_: Gordon tells the men that the wife is dead and is
buried farther down the line; he whistles “to let her know he’s safe.”
PRESENTATION. “It made a neat little story,” Mr. Kline says of the
engineer’s reclamation and present custom of signaling. But without the
supporting band of workmen to throw it into relief it would hardly
stand alone. The group becomes, then, an integral part of the 1,500
word narrative which is given to the reader.
CHARACTERIZATION. The girl, whose name is not even mentioned, is the
most potent character--or, perhaps, love as expressed through her makes
her, symbolically, dominant. The engineer is the most important, by
virtue of his active rôle; the workmen are the background characters,
as they come under the influence of the simple demonstration of
affection; they are the foreground characters, as the story is
presented. What traits are manifest in various individuals of the
group? How do these traits sharpen the dénouement?
SETTING. Why is Virginia chosen?
DETAILS. What contribution is made by the choice of “Annie Laurie”? On
what thought does the final bar end? Did you, as you read, notice this
sinister clue? Why not?
LITTLE SELVES
STARTING POINT AND STRUCTURAL PROCESSES. “You were right,” Miss Lerner
says, “about my knowing ‘the prototype of old Margaret.’ And every one
of her storied recollections is a real one, told for the most part
in her own words. She still insists so stoutly on the reality of the
‘little old man with the high hat,’ the bewitched churn, the fairies’
chairs and tables, that one ends by believing in them, too. So you see
the material came ready to my hand. All I had to do was to vivify it,
and cast it in the most dramatic form possible.
“Old Margaret is not dead, however. She reads and re-reads ‘Little
Selves,’ and says she can smell the peat fire and hear the kettle
humming on the hob. It was an old friend of hers who died--of cancer,
as the story ran; and Margaret used to spend many an hour talking with
her those last days. Their reminiscences, however, were of the time of
their young womanhood; they did not meet in the old country.
“All this cherished material had long lain in my mind. Its greatest
appeal to me perhaps depended on the fact that I, too, had always been
an inveterate ponderer of moments of my extreme childhood. Even at
eight or ten, I used to re-live isolated moments of particular interest
from my ‘past,’ which even then seemed bathed in a ‘livelier light.’
“The final impulse came one day on hearing Stevenson’s phrase, ‘Nothing
matters much that happens to a boy after he is seven.’ At once I saw
the whole story. Margaret must die, of course, and dying revisit the
scenes of her childhood. That bit of manipulation would heighten and
intensify the whole tale. She must be a single woman, too, instead of a
wife and the devoted mother of a difficult but promising daughter. She
must be considerably older. She must retain her skill with the needle,
and her piety. So I simply jotted down half a dozen words to name the
several incidents of her dream, then began to write, visualizing the
opening scene as I went. It was like transcribing at some one else’s
dictation matter already an intimate part of one’s spiritual life.
Isn’t that the way one’s best things come? I wrote only one rough
draft, then the final copy. Hardly a word was changed. The title, oddly
apt, I think, came to me when I wrote the line, ‘She recreated her
earlier selves and passed them on, happy in the thought that she was
saving them from oblivion.’”
This full description of the constructive process renders almost
superfluous either questions or further comment. It should be compared
closely with Mary Brecht Pulver’s similar résumé of her “Path of Glory.”
“Little Selves” constitutes a happy cross between the “evoked ghost”
story, such as one finds in Kipling’s “They,” and the pictures frankly
labeled as memories, in a multitude of stories. For as Margaret says,
the earlier selves “is realer” than the children of flesh-and-blood who
surround her.
THEME. In what does the merit of the narrative lie,--theme,
characterization, or plot? In connection with your own answer observe
that Miss Lerner says, “As for plot versus theme, I think theme usually
dominates. I have some idea I wish to expound--to illustrate by means
of interplay of character and action. Idea, I feel, is really _The
Thing_, rather than mere complication or rapidity of action.”
In how many stories of these collections, do you feel the dominance of
the underlying idea? In which, if any, is it lacking? In which do you
feel the predominance of idea to such an extent as to swamp the story
values?
PLOT. Show that the sentence on page 224, “Her voice choked with
sudden tears,” is a sort of dramatic climax.
Why is it more artistic to leave the climax of action, the old woman’s
death, untold?
CHARACTERS. In what sense is the narrative a “character story”? Is a
whole life really re-constructed? Is the author’s chief object this
re-living?
How is Margaret best visualized for _you_?
What is Anna’s chief characteristic and what her main place in the plot?
SETTING. In what respects is the story a national representative? How
do the two larger settings, as indicated, aid each other? Which is
thrown into subjection? Why?
THE WILLOW WALK
PLOT. In constructing his plot, the author devised a plan whereby a
robber might escape with stolen money. Having invented it, he tested
each part to make it _seem_ detective proof; and in following up this
process he created a novel variety of the detective story genre.
Similar stories have effected a resolution of the complication by
a pull at some loose end left hanging through inadvertence of the
criminal, and have so conserved justice. Mr. Lewis, avoiding this usual
device, has requisitioned the peculiar advantages of dual personality
to bring about the downfall of his criminal. (Compare with this
_motif_, the one found in Frederick Stuart Greene’s “Galway Intrudes,”
a story which has much in common with “The Willow Walk.”)
A thief, therefore, who plans his get-away by first _inventing_ and
then _pretending_ to be his own “brother,” ultimately becomes the
brother. The transformation is made plausible through the histrionic
gifts attributed to the robber whereby he _is_, rather than merely
_acts_, the represented character.
To the end that ultimate confession will occur, the brother must be
religious; to the end that punishment is efficacious, the confession
must be received with incredulity. These are necessary, if unconscious,
preliminaries to this representative of the series which begins with
Poe’s “William Wilson,” and which includes “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
PRESENTATION. The author first sets forth details that lead to the
beginning of the action, the most important of which convey that Jasper
Holt is acquiring a new hand-writing, that he is a respectable paying
teller, that he is a good actor.
_Action Antecedent to the Present_: Read the story, and find under
its superstructure the groundwork of Jasper’s plan. How much
preparation has been necessary? How long has it required, probably,
to accomplish it? Has the author begun at the best point possible in
the story action?
_Incidents of the Complication Leading Immediately to the Dramatic
Climax_:
1. Jasper Holt prepares the hiding place.
Taking his car from the garage, Holt starts toward Rosebank, but
turns aside to buy candy, which he has packed in boxes that imitate
books. He purchases two novels. To one who recognizes him, he
pretends he is looking after bank property. He reaches Rosebank; he
enters the house of the willow walk, removes the candy to the paper
wrapper, and places the two imitation books, with the novels, on the
bottom shelf of the book-case. (Incidentally, he makes use of the
principle exploited by Poe in “The Purloined Letter.”)
2. Jasper establishes his identity as “John Holt.”
He takes down a religious work, from which he selects a name to
“spring”--Philo Judæus. He changes his clothes and becomes his own
brother, hermit and religious fanatic. Downstairs he speaks to a
neighbor; he makes purchases at the drug-store and the grocery; he
visits Soul Hope Hall, speaks on Philo Judæus and prays for his
brother Jasper.
3. He removes signs of his recent preparations, and re-establishes
himself as Jasper Holt. (Note the significance of the Community
Theatre scene.)
Jasper changes to his own clothes. On his way to town he throws
out the candy and gives away his groceries. He burns the wrapper,
later, in his boarding house. He takes part in theatricals; it is
significant that he is a good actor, really becoming the part he
plays.
4. Jasper prepares for the robbery and his sure escape.
Five days later, he complains of a headache. He takes a day off.
John calls at the bank and emphasizes the contrast between himself
and Jasper. Jasper afterwards suggests that in the event of his
robbing the bank John would undoubtedly aid in bringing him to
justice (dramatic irony, here).
* * * * *
5. He completes his preparations outside.
“Persuaded” to go away for a week-end, he drives south to
Wanagoochie, but circuits back to St. Clair. Two miles from
Rosebank, he investigates a lake. En route to St. Clair, he puts
his machine out of order and leaves it at a garage, giving his
name as Hanson. Arriving by train at Vernon, he says his car is
at Wanagoochie. He announces to his landlady that he is taking
two suit-cases to Wakamin.
6. He robs the bank. (Minor climax.) He escapes.
With the road clear for flight, he transfers the parcels of
bills to his suit-case. He takes the train to Wakamin, but
gets off at St. Clair and retrieves his car from the garage.
He drives toward Rosebank; spreads his lunch near the lake. At
nightfall he runs his car over the cliff into the water. With
his suit-cases, he walks into Rosebank, and at the house of
the willow walk destroys all evidence of himself as Jasper. He
stores away $97,535 in the empty candy boxes. He goes to bed as
John Holt.
_Dramatic Climax_: “I suppose John would pray,” etc. Jasper Holt
ceases to exist; John begins to exist as a constant entity.
_Incidents of the Solution Leading to the Climax of Action_
1. Jasper “acts” John.
John learns of the theft, calls on the bank president and
begs that his house be searched. President gets rid of him.
He calls on the detective, who finally searches John’s house.
John directs attention to the shed where Jasper kept his car.
The police refuse to search. Jasper has thus further entrenched
himself, outwardly, as John.
2. Jasper changes, subtly, to John.
John prays for Jasper. He plans a trip south, but continues his
religious studies. It is obvious that this modern Frankenstein
is rapidly becoming the monster of his own creation. At the end
of one and a half years, he has sloughed off most of his Jasper
nature and acquired that of John.
3. He endures a period of final struggle.
The John part of him wishes to confess; the dying Jasper refuses
to take him back to the bank. But at the Soul Hope Fraternity,
he confesses that he stole. For a week he stays at home; then he
goes out. On his return he discovers that the money is missing.
_Climax of Action_: He goes to the bank and confesses; his story
is not believed. He has changed natures, completely.
_Dénouement_: The jail refuses to take him. He finds work at the
sand pits.
For parallelism of the final situation, read Edith Wharton’s
“The Bolted Door.”
CHARACTERIZATION. Bear in mind that the diverse personalities of Jasper
and John are bound up in Jasper, that although “John” was originally
invented and then assumed, he finally dominated. The dramatic climax
marks the point at which the outer Jasper disappears; the climax of
action marks the disappearance of the inner Jasper. The man who goes to
work at the sand pits is, essentially, John.
DETAILS. Suspense, one of the best features, in the earlier two-thirds
of the story, operates progressively, the cause shifting with the
various steps of the action. For example, perhaps the first important
question aroused is, “What is Jasper doing all this for?” The second,
“Will he succeed in carrying out his well-laid plans?” Meantime,
subordinate questions arise, to be satisfied by the author in the
unfolding of the narrative. Show that suspense works of necessity
less forcibly toward the end, where the outcome becomes more and more
inevitable.
Do you know what became of the stolen money? Should that trailing
thread be gathered up, or is it better left as it is?
Mr. Lewis declares that “The Willow Walk” has, so far as he can
remember, no history at all. But he contributes the following by way of
his views on the short-story:
“Technique defeats itself. The more nearly perfect it becomes, the
nearer it is to stagnation. This rule holds true whether it be applied
to ecclesiastical ceremony, to that humorous art known as ‘the manners
of a gentleman,’ to the designing of motor-car bodies, or the practise
of the arts. Once your motor-body designer has almost approximated the
lines of a carriage, an innovator appears who boisterously ridicules
the niceties of that technique, and, to the accompaniment of howling
from the trained technicians, smashes out a new form, with monstrous
hood and stream-line massiveness. Within two years he has driven out
all the old technique, and is followed by a ‘school,’ neatly developing
a new technique, in its turn to be perfected--then destroyed by some
vulgarian who is too ignorant or too passionate to care for the
proprieties of design.
“Once the technique of the academic school of painters of still
life and landscape and portraits was practically perfect, a noisy,
ill-bred, passionate crew of destroyers appeared, under such raucous
labels as ‘futurists,’ ‘vorticists,’ ‘cubists,’ and despite the fact
that their excesses have not become popular in plush parlors, these
innovations have forever ruined the pleasure of picture-gazers in the
smooth inanity of the perfected old technique. And now their followers
in their turn----! As I write, the perfect militarist technique of
the German empire has cracked into socialist republics. In time those
republics will build up a perfect technique of bureaus, and be ready
for the cleansing fire.
“Technique defeats itself. I have repeated the word ‘passion’ because
that is the force that starts the rout. The man who is passionate
about beauty or scientific facts, about making love or going fishing
or the potentialities of Russia or revolt against smug oppressors, is
likely to find himself cramped by the technique of the art which he
chooses as a medium, to discard it, and to find a technique of his own.
Austin Dobson could endure the triolet for the expression of delicate
inexactitudes regarding French curés, but when Shelley was singing a
world aflame, he made for himself a new mode of expression which, to
formalists, seemed inexpressibly crude.
“And so to the short story. I am not afraid of this new technique of
the proper beginning, the correct ending, the clever dénouement, the
geometrically plotted curve of action--because I do not believe that
anybody who passionately has anything to say is going to cramp himself
by learning its pat rules. But I do believe that--before they go and
smash the technique, anyway!--young writers may be saved much spiritual
struggle if they be taught that there is nothing sacred, nothing they
unquestionably must follow, in any exactly formulated technique.
“They will, of course, if they succeed, make a technique of their own.
That is a short cut to salvation for them. It is only when a technique
is that of other writers, when it is so crystallized that it can be
definitely exhibited, that it becomes dangerous. I know that Joseph
Hergesheimer in such absorbingly beautiful short stories as ‘Wild
Oranges,’ ‘Tol’able David,’ or ‘Asphodel’ has a technique, a very
definite idea of what he is doing; or what he is going to do before
he starts, and of why he has done things after he has done them.
But he has not obediently imitated the technique of other writers.
None knows better than Mr. Hergesheimer the great art of such men as
Conrad, Galsworthy, George Moore; but none has less imitated them, less
accepted their technique as his guidance.
“Curse Stevenson for that ‘playing the sedulous ape,’ which has led so
many thousands astray. It was Stevenson’s weakness, not his strength,
that aping; and because of it his light is flickering, while that of
his contemporaries, Rossetti, Hardy, Swinburne, Flaubert, who were
not sedulous apes but men passionate about beauty or the curious ways
of daily man, burns evenly and forever. Stevenson had an unequalled
opportunity; he was a pioneer, with a pioneer’s chance to stake out
the first claim; yet once Kipling galloped into sight, roaring at
deft Stevensonian technique, irreverent and violent as one of his own
Rajputs, doing really dreadful things to the balanced decencies of
proportion and melody, he routed Stevenson in a handful of years ...
and today we have read Stevenson, but we do read Kipling.
“Of course, of course, of course. ‘Freedom is no excuse for violence.’
‘The young man must train his mind.’ ‘From a study of the elders youth
learns to avoid their mistakes’ (but he doesn’t!). ‘Only the strong
are able to govern themselves, to make their own codes of ethics or of
beauty.’ All those sage warnings--used equally against Martin Luther
and the Bolsheviks, against the bad boy in school and Rodin. Basically,
the disagreement between classicists and modernists is temperamental,
and will, under various guises, endure forever. Only, let it be clearly
recognized for what it is; let the classicist not mistake himself for
a modernist; let the innovator not suppose because O. Henry is still
so living a force that his followers have not already hardened his
technique into a form classic and very dead.”
THE WEAVER WHO CLAD THE SUMMER
_Comment._--The death of Harris Merton Lyon gives added poignancy to
the story whose idealism and inspiration made for it a place in the
first of Mr. O’Brien’s collections. Judged by the test of Beauty, it is
perhaps first on the list. The satisfaction vouchsafed each reader will
be in proportion to his own Spirit of Work and his acceptance of the
theme.
THEME. Since the Idea is foremost, it is quite fitting that it should
be sounded early. The first approach is on page one (153, Yearbook)
and in the form of a wonder as to what there could possibly be “in
being a worker at the other, the evanescent thing.” The answer, or the
satisfaction of the wonder, is given in the essential story, stripped
of its covering, pages 158-170. The theme is emphasized, strongly, in
the sentence on page 170: “_You did the Work of your Hand!_”
THE INNER STORY, which allegorically satisfies the questioner, is the
beautifully tenuous tale of the Mariner. It is woven of words in a
style perfectly to suggest the spirit of summer and the evanescence
of her garments, yet underneath the light superstructure are the
foundations of the short-story. The _struggle_ of the weaver, Andy
Gordon, was successfully repeated for forty years. He died, knowing
that he had been “a master-worker in a fabric that immediately
dissolved,” yet content. His death is the _dénouement_ of the tale,
just as the dialogue between the Voice and Andy (pages 159-161) forms
the _initial incident_. What is the _dramatic climax_?
PRESENTATION. Andy Gordon’s story is told in an Italian restaurant,
Pigalle’s, over a poker table. The narrator is at first denominated
the Ancient Mariner; eventually he proves to be the Andy Gordon of his
tale. (See pages 158 and 171.) What new evaluation of the weaver’s
story do you make after learning that Andy was a violinist? Had
you guessed any part of the whole situation before reading to the
dénouement of the enveloping story? The narrator of the external action
is, presumably, the author himself, who uses the first person “I.”
Contrast, between the restaurant scene and character on the one hand
and the summer scenes with Andy on the other, is the chief aid used to
enhance the narrative. Point out particular examples of its operation.
DETAILS. Division I emphasizes the character of the Mariner, at the
same time it repeats the theme. (See above), in the words, “Sufficient
unto eternity is the glory of the hour.” Why does the author give an
entire division (III) to the lines: “Abruptly the old man left and went
out into the snowy night. For there were tears in his eyes.”
What value has the reference to Bernhardt, page 153?
Why is it well to set the rehearsal on a _snowy_ evening? (Study the
story for the answer.) Where is Pigalle’s restaurant?
What effect has the tinkling of the door-bell, at eleven o’clock?
What principle of emphasis is at work on the description of the maid
who bore the “sweet ineffable name of Philomene”? On the Mariner (as
described, page 155)?
What do you gather from the absinthe and the _cigarettes jaunes_?
What addition is made to the comprehension of the Mariner in the
suggested resemblance to Socrates and to Verlaine?
What colors and materials are used in Summer’s dresses? Would others
have served as well? After knowing the dénouement (that Andy was
a violinist) how do you interpret the passage “Andy was about
twenty-eight years old then,” etc., through the words “done by hand”?
What other passages need similar interpretation?
How are the forty years so passed over as to emphasize, without
needlessly repeating, Andy’s Work?
What is your own reaction to this story?
THE SUN CHASER
STARTING POINT. “You ask about the germinal idea of ‘The Sun Chaser.’
How can I tell you, for how do I know, what the germinal idea of my
story is! I can recognize it after the story is written. But that makes
it all the more difficult to say with certainty that the ‘idea’ is
germinal. What Ambrose seeks is what every one of us in the world--even
a Sun Chaser--wants: HAPPINESS. And the more ill-balanced or crippled a
nature is, the more importunate is this demand for happiness....
“It is easier to tell you how I came to write ‘The Sun Chaser’ than
to tell you anything about it.... Early one morning in October I was
sitting at my writing table in my little log cabin up in the Maine
wilderness. It was about half past five, and I had started my fire and
had my cup of cocoa and my crust of bread and was ready for work. But
I sat there watching the dawn. Ahead of me I had one of the endless
pot-boilers to do by means of which I provided bread and butter and
met my responsibilities. The very thought of doing another of these
‘things’ made me feel ill and tired. Suddenly up over the field before
my cabin with the dawn I saw the fleeing figure of the SUN CHASER
running towards me. More I cannot tell you except that it was like
listening to wonderful music as I sat there seeing the story unfold.
I did nothing that morning except ‘listen.’ And for the next month I
did no pot-boilers, but work on this story.... January first of that
year I took up college lecturing and since then I have written no
pot-boilers....”--_Jeannette Marks._
CLASSIFICATION. A novelette of twelve divisions, almost epical. (But
see Miss Marks’s own comment, below. It is noteworthy that the present
analyst uses the word “epic” to characterize the story, whereas Miss
Marks sees in it a _lack_ of the epic quality. Or so the implication
runs.)
Apart from length, the character interest shifts from the Sun Chaser
to his daughter, and his wife; the dénouement emphasizes the child’s
sacrifice. The epilogue emphasizes the inhumanity of man to man, and
its abeyance in one case because of the sacrifice.
(The designation of the work as a novelette is, in all its bearings,
indicative of values greater than those of the short-story.)
PLOT. Enumerate the earlier stages of the plot action. The _dramatic
climax_ is formed by the vividly summarized struggle between the Sun
Chaser and his wife and child. Important _steps toward the end of
the action_ are: the placing of the Sun Chaser in the town lock-up;
the mother’s leaving Pearl alone while she goes to return the wash;
Pearl’s journeying to feed her father. (This journey is, in itself,
the largest struggle _within_ the narrative; for, the struggle to find
happiness--as Miss Marks has indicated--is the chief one.) Study the
various phases of the child’s battle against the forces of nature.
_The Climax of Action._ Pearl falls in the snow.
_Dénouement._ Her body is found.
CHARACTERIZATION. The most remarkable characterization exists in the
case of the Sun Chaser. Miss Marks’s ability to reflect the mentality
of his brain is particularly worthy of study.
In contrast to the Chaser, and yet not in violent opposition, is his
wife. Study her portrait, looking for her sense of the practical,
softened by her own love and gentleness. What reaction on _you_ is
effected by her effort to keep her husband from the lock-up?
Pearl is tenderly and delicately drawn, and yet she evinces the
practicality of her mother. See, e.g., pages 227, 244. In what ways
is she the character who most compels sympathy? Would she do so, apart
from the final supreme sacrifice?
DETAILS. The clip-clop of Ambrose’s walk is a good example of the
_sound_ effects which increase the dramaturgic quality. Point out other
instances. The lamp in Ambrose’s home, “torch of flame and blackened
stream of smoke,” is illustrative of the _color_ contribution. Give
other examples. But, in this story, greater in value than either sound
or color is the sense of motion. Mr. O’Brien calls attention to the
“rhythmical progression” of the narrative. To this suggestion, add your
own interpretation of the movement. Is there in the idea of the search
for happiness a connotation of something never achieved, never-ended?
and with the search a constant necessity for “Going--going--going”?
How does the story affect you emotionally? With regard to individual
moments, how does the behavior of the liquor dealer move you? Is
“contempt” the feeling you have for him, or is it stronger? What is
your predominant feeling for Ambrose? Sympathy is incited through a
combination of human relationships: 1. Pearl’s love for her father;
2. Sybil Clarke’s love for Pearl, and 3. her pity for Ambrose, her
husband. What reaction is aroused by the incident wherein Pearl and
David figure?
* * * * *
AUTHOR’S COMMENT. “Is ‘The Sun Chaser’ any longer than some of
Stevenson’s short stories, or Balzac’s or Guy de Maupassant’s?...
And what is a short story, anyhow? Isn’t the range of narrative the
question involved in a short story? In a play I can tell from the
‘feel’ of the material whether it is a one-acter or full dress length.
Isn’t there a suggestion of the epic tendency in the novelettes as
well as the novel:--the incidental use of incident, for example,
contributing to the sense of mass? This is the sort of tendency one
may not admit to short story or play where concentration is so
much greater. As I see it, now that it is done, ‘The Sun Chaser’
structurally as well as spiritually is marked by extreme concentration,
and for that reason, personally, it would seem to me to be a short
story.... The short story appeals to me from the technical point of
view because it is more perfect than the novel, even as I consider the
play to be more perfect structurally than the short story. I believe
in concrete foundations and steel superstructures, and these, I think,
can be built for the play, but not for the short story any more than
for the poem.... It seems to me that the well-equipped artist always
has a feeling for structure. Analysis, however, does not precede
creation. Because of the nature of the creative artist’s mind, it does
not necessarily follow creation, either. There may be actual inability
to analyze. It’s as difficult to see the sum total of the work you’ve
done as to see the sum total of yourself. The creative artist is
not an analytical chemist of his own mental processes.... I have no
standards.... I think that the thing which ‘arrives’ in short story or
play is, like beauty, ‘its own excuse for being.’”--_Jeannette Marks._
THE STORY VINTON HEARD AT MALLORIE
In this work Miss Moseley has presented a story of the war, a narrative
of the supernatural having points in common with Mr. Rhodes’s “Extra
Men.” In each, there is the spirit-world visitor, in each the truth
conveyed by him which gives the story its thematic character, and in
each the living power of the dead made manifest. As I have pointed
out in “Representative Ghosts” (_The Bookman_, August, 1917), and
elsewhere, mankind will be interested in ghosts so long as earth
endures. The most decided impetus to fiction given by the war has been,
so far, in the direction of the supernatural. It is interesting to know
that Mr. O’Brien considers this and Frances Gilchrist Wood’s “The White
Battalion” the two most enduring legends contributed this year to the
supernatural literature of the war.
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Young Mallorie is killed in action.
_Steps toward the Climax_: His body is taken home to Mallorie Abbey,
where masses are held over it. A Zeppelin appears, ready to discharge
bombs just over the chapel, when an aeroplane swoops noiselessly
down; the Zeppelin falls. The Germans are all killed. The aeronaut
descends. He accepts the invitation to stay awhile at Mallorie
Abbey and remains almost a week. Lieutenant Templar, as he calls
himself, occupies dead young Mallorie’s room and wears his clothes.
He plays tennis and behaves in general like a normal healthy young
Englishman, but that he has unusual powers is evinced by the words
of the visiting general officer, “How does he _know_?”
_The Climax_: Lady Maurya’s questions of the aeronaut terminate in
the answer, “Because in me is the strength,” etc., revealing his
supernatural character. He disappears.
PRESENTATION. The single incident becomes subdued, rather than
emphasized, by representing it as told to Vinton who, in turn, repeats
it to Ware and Abigail. Credulity is gained in assuming for each
narrator an implied or expressed belief,--“I said to her that I was
the most believing man since the Dark Ages.” And their faith acts
cumulatively to compel the reader’s acceptance. By rehearsing in New
England the story of English background and atmosphere, Miss Moseley
gains for it sharpness and, at the same time, a certain _nuance_. The
stormy night supposedly affects the hearers’ credulity, and through
them, once more, the reader’s.
HEART OF YOUTH
COMMENT AND QUERY. “For me,” says Mr. Muilenburg, “the best story is
the one that gives the reader the greatest after-mood, and this can be
done with very little action. To give the feeling of an environment, to
show character absolutely in a life-like manner, and to give nature and
man an equal place: these I consider necessary to almost every story.”
Using his own criterion, how well has Mr. Muilenburg succeeded in every
respect mentioned above? What mood does the story give you? Where is
the environment? Does the feeling that arises from it emphasize the
general atmosphere?
Pages 172 and 173 introduce the boy, Frank, in his setting. Which is
more important--character or place? Again measure your answer by the
author’s ideals.
“Both stories have kept close to realism,” says Mr. Muilenburg, “as
the greater part of both have been taken from my own experience, and
circumstances are reproduced rather than fancied.” Is there anything in
the characterization of the boy that tells you he is, in some measure,
a reflection of the author himself?
“Isn’t it possible,” asks the author, “that only the stories that have
some situation where the characters must be shown in primitive fashion
are enduring?” How would you answer this question in general? What is
the situation in this story? May it be termed “primitive”?
DETAILS OF COMPOSITION. Pages 173, 174 recount an incident which shows
the elements of conflict in the boy’s soul. How does it prepare for
the greater struggle? (See pages 179, 180, 181.) What purpose has the
scene between Frank and Bill with respect to later developments and
particularly the struggle?
What contribution to the boy’s character is made in his ceasing work
only when the shadow of the cottonwood tree pointed north? in his
taking the milk-pails from the hooks? (Page 182.)
In the “heart of youth” conflict (page 180) what emotions are arrayed
against each other?
What value has the episode of the bird and the snake? What conditions
make it an integral part of the action, not a forced parallel?
What details of setting and circumstance, and what traits in the boy
combine to solicit your sympathy?
The little story is unified in character, place and time. It reveals
by concrete symbol the significant phases of the struggle. It performs
a _tour de force_ in avoiding an extended analysis of the boy’s
psychology. Even though the narrative is told from Frank’s “angle,”
the reader knows what he thinks by what he does and says, rather than
by the author’s analysis of his mental state. Further, the work makes
a small contribution to literary history, since it is representative
of a period of life in the Middle West, through which the author has
passed; and it is reflected there now, to some extent. The fact that
there is a strong vein of poetry throughout is because “poetry is
found naturally in the life of a people who must struggle with a hard
physical environment.”
AT THE END OF THE ROAD
Mr. Clayton Hamilton says in “A Manual of the Art of Fiction” (page
187), “--although the novel may be either realistic or romantic in
general method, the short-story is almost of necessity obliged to
be romantic. In the brief space allotted to him, it is practically
impossible for the writer of short-stories to induce a general truth
from particular, imagined facts imitated from actuality: it is far
simpler to deduce the imagined details of the story from a central
thesis, held securely in the author’s mind and suggested to the reader
at the outset. It is a quicker process to think from the truth to
facts than to think from facts to the truth.” And in illustration
of his statement, he adds that Daudet and de Maupassant, who worked
realistically in their novels, worked romantically in their _contes_,
also that the great short-story writers of our own language have been,
nearly all of them, romanticists--from Poe to Kipling.
With this interesting tenet in mind, look over all the realistic
stories in the four volumes we are studying, and try to apply to each
the same methods by which the romantic stories are studied. Does the
application break down? How far can you follow it? Try, for example, to
analyze the plot of “At the End of the Road” according to the type used
again and again in this book.
Why is this story told in the first person? Try telling it in the third
person, beginning that is, “The latter part of the summer found _him_
tramping,” etc., and see what is lost.
Recall stories which have for setting a picnic ground, a fair ground,
or other community gathering. Read Thomas Hardy’s “On the Western
Circuit.” (In “Life’s Little Ironies.”) Why is such a setting good for
many types of story--whether realistic, romantic, comic, tragic?
Who is the central figure in Mr. Muilenburg’s Iowa story? Would
his story gain importance if detached from the subjectivity of the
narrator--if the musings, observations and feelings were cut? What
would happen to the whole narrative if such a change were made? Sum up
the gist of the “story” in a few words.
What is the struggle? Wherein lies the human appeal?
What is the end of the action? How do you know?
The drunkard is an age-old figure, whether humorous or tragic. What is
the essential difference between the tragic and the humorous portrayal?
Why, for instance, does one laugh at an actor who plays the part of
Cassio, in the drinking-scene from “Othello”? Why does one “feel sorry
for” Bill as here conceived?
* * * * *
What theme is lightly touched and where?
What has this example of Mr. Muilenburg’s work in common with the
preceding story by him?
What color comes to mind instantly on thinking of his chromatic
effects? Is it in harmony with the other story-elements? Are there
notes of contrast?
AT THE END OF THE PATH
The artistry of the author has worked consciously or unconsciously
to create a finished piece of work. Told as a single episode in the
experience of a traveler, it has the _magnitude_ of the short-story.
PROPORTION. This essential is placed first, here, as being the chief
means by which the effect is obtained. This effect comes, cumulatively,
and is increased by giving climactic value to a coincidence. The
coincidence, properly prepared for, is not of the kind that would have
had great worth at the end of a longer story.
To illustrate how it might have been diminished, rather than increased:
Throw the time back to the youth of Giovanni and Rosa. Develop, at
length, the love affair of the two young people. (This, alone, would
require several pages.) Show the struggle of the girl, torn between
religion and love. Present her prayer to the Virgin, the answer, and
her decision (done dramatically, all this, perhaps in two pages), and
her entrance into the nunnery. (So much would be done, logically, from
Rosa’s point of view.) Shifting the spot-light to Giovanni, show him
stabbing the picture of the Virgin; his disappearance; his meeting
the funeral, and his being informed of Rosa’s death. The fact that
it occurred at the time he stabbed the picture, as the coincidence,
revealed after so long a development, would lack comparative height or
worth.
Consider such treatment, and by force of comparison see that the author
did best to treat the occurrences at a time long after they happened.
The rehearsed story is in this instance undoubtedly the best. Further,
by its use, the last words (page 188), “I am Giovanni,” are possible,
intensifying the effect.
Considering the plot, what should you say are the chief steps in the
development? Analyze both the inner story and in its relation to the
enveloping action. The initial impulse, for instance, in the whole
narrative is, the motivation for the monk’s telling his story. The
dénouement, similarly, is the fact that Giovanni and the monk are
identical. What are initial impulse and dénouement of the rehearsed
narrative?
SETTING. What is the worth of the setting in such a story, both as
regards unity and convincingness? Note all the details which are
distinctly Italian. What connotation have the cypress trees? Do they
intensify the mood? In connection with the immediate scene in the
chapel, what value has the sentence, “Beneath it, on a little stand,
lay a slim-bladed vicious knife, covered with dust”?
CHARACTERIZATION. What added _theme_ is conveyed in the description,
“He was old, the oldest man Blagden had ever seen, etc.”? Does one get
it on first reading, or on reflection?
Is Blagden a character, or a reason for telling the story?
DETAILS. Point out the several examples of mysticism.
THE WHALE AND THE GRASSHOPPER
CLASSIFICATION. “You are right,” says Mr. O’Brien, “about ‘The Whale
and the Grasshopper.’ It is a sort of fable and like the other sketches
in my book it was written for the sake of the philosophy and humor. The
starting point of the narrative was the remark of Padna Dan ‘As the
Whale said to the Grasshopper,’ which I considered a good title, and
accordingly wrote the phantasy.”
Read as a sort of parallel, Emerson’s “The Mountain and the Squirrel.”
What is the difference in the mental attitude of the two authors?
SETTING. Why is such a fable particularly well set near Castlegregory
on a June morning? Note the intensifying of the setting by means of
dialect. Would the place be realized without the Irish speech? Study
the selective processes used to make the dialect easy to understand and
yet distinctly characteristic of the Green Isle.
CHARACTERS. Standish McNeill and Felix O’Dowd seem to be real
people,--at the very beginning, because of their names. The writer
who is less careful would have endowed them with Mike or Pat. How are
they kept up from start to finish as real? Why, for example, do you
know they took that walk? What characteristic (at once Celtic and
individual) of Standish enables him to “put across” so vividly a yarn
which one _knows_ all along can be only fable?
GENERAL METHODS. Mr. O’Brien states that he does not know how much he
believes in or practices technical distinctions. “Writing, I think, is
the art that must evolve out of ourselves. I began life as an artist
and specialized in sculpture, but finding there were things I could not
express through such a medium I took to writing. When I am impressed
by some important event, it fashions itself in story or drama form
in my mind, without any conscious effort on my part, and when I feel
intelligent--which is not often--I write.”
IN BERLIN
“In Berlin” is a _tour de force_ of short-story construction. Miss
O’Reilly has followed the well-known principle of beginning near the
climax, that the story may gain intensity. The result is excellent for
this one principle. But the whole composition of 125 or 150 words in
reality plays up a single dramatic moment--not a single Incident.
The advantage to the student in reproducing similar “dramatic moment”
stories will be to show the value of material in magnitude and worth,
to teach him to appreciate climax, and to feel the advantages--and the
disadvantages--of economy.
Read Chapter III in “A Handbook on Story Writing,” describing and
illustrating the Anecdote and the Incident.
THE INTERVAL
STARTING POINT. Mr. O’Sullivan states that the story arose primarily
from his foreseeing, in 1915, that one result of the War would be a
revived interest in the supernatural. This foreknowledge illustrates
that the author must be a little ahead of his time, rather than a
little behind it.
The clearness of his prevision is illustrated in such stories as Gordon
Arthur Smith’s “Jeanne the Maid” (1915), Edith Wharton’s “Kerfol”
(1916), Alice Brown’s “The Flying Teuton” (1917), and Frances Wood’s
“The White Battalion” (1918). It would be safe to hazard that these
authors foresaw a similar demand.
TITLE. Meaning of “The Interval”? Is it apt?
SETTING. Why did the author choose London, rather than an American
city? Is it clear from the story alone that Mr. O’Sullivan is
thoroughly familiar with English locale and character?
In the first paragraph occurs the sentence, “A dense haze, gray and
tinged ruddy, lay between the houses, sometimes blowing with a little
wet kiss against the face.” What color effects are in harmony with the
atmosphere of the story?
PLOT. The _struggle_ is in the mind of Mrs. Wilton. She wishes to be
assured that “it was not all over, that he was somewhere, not too far
away,” etc., page 385. The _situation_ is here disclosed, suspense
having been used as to Mrs. Wilton’s purpose in the previous pages.
“This must be the tenth seer she had consulted since Hugh had been
killed,” page 384 is the most revelatory sentence.
Is the struggle successful?
The _initial incident_ is this visit to the clairvoyant who “sees” Hugh.
Which of the incidents constitutes the _dramatic climax_?
“She slipped out of bed hastily ...” (page 390) is the _climax of
action_, or as much as is expressed. The reader must finish it for
himself.
(The final sentence, with seeming carelessness dropping the information
that “after her death the slippers could never be found,” is an
incentive to the reader’s fancy. It has no plot value, except by
_suggestion_.)
Did Hugh really return, or did Mrs. Wilton see him as a logical result
of her brooding? If the former choice is made, the inference is that
the reader accepts Hugh as a bona fide ghost; if the latter, then he
is only existent through the sick-woman’s mind and the mind of the
clairvoyant. (See article, “Representative Ghosts,” _Bookman_, August,
1917.)
DETAILS. Does the author believe the clairvoyant was genuine? If so,
why does he say (page 384), “A look of complicity, of cunning, perhaps
of irony, passed through the dealer’s cynical and sad eyes”?
Are the visitations of Hugh arranged in climactic order?
Is Mrs. Wilton’s illness adequately motivated? What is the double
explanation of it? Do you accept the natural or the supernatural
reason?
THE TOAST TO FORTY-FIVE
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: On August 16, 1866, at Paris, Vermont, was held
a banquet in honor of sixty-odd returned heroes. It was called the
“Forty-Five” banquet in honor of the boys who had not returned.
Captain Jack Fuller proposed to save one bottle of vintage, the seal
of which should be broken when in the course of years only two of
the sixty heroes remained. On their final reunion they would drink a
toast to “Forty-Five.”
_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: Captain Jack was the first to join
Forty-Five. He left a son, who grew up, married, and died, leaving a
son, young Jack Fuller.
In 1910, eleven heroes are living; by August 16, 1912, the ranks have
dwindled to four old men. On August 17, 1912, Jack Fuller, grandson
of Captain Jack of Civil War fame, in a drunken fit accidentally
kills his baby. Sobered by the tragedy, he promises reformation.
Succeeding months witness his hard struggle. He wishes, as a final
safeguard, to join the National Guardsmen, but his wife, Betty,
begs him to stay with her--she cannot bear alone the memories. Jack
raises a company, becomes their captain, and drills them as Fuller’s
Fire-eaters. (The Mexican trouble motivates this step.) In August,
1916, three of the Forty-Five are left: Henry Weston, Uncle Joe
Fodder, and Wilber Nieson. In February, 1917, the United States
severs relations with Germany. In July, half of Fuller’s Fire-eaters
have been called upon to make up the Paris quota. Jack’s name has
not been drawn; but he wishes to enlist, the more so as his men will
enlist in a body, not waiting for the draft. Betty implores him to
remain; as she breaks down physically, he is torn between love and
duty. Wilber Nieson and Henry Weston die. Only Uncle Joe is left; the
toast cannot be pledged, after all, as planned.
Jack makes up his mind to enlist with his whole Company--Minor
Climax. A dinner is proposed for them in place of the old reunion.
Hundreds of Parisians gather; the largest assembly hall obtainable
is crowded. Sam Hod, editor, is toastmaster by virtue of having
three sons in the Fire-eaters. Uncle Joe Fodder sits at his right.
Captain Jack Fuller at his left. Hod announces that Uncle Joe has
requested that the toast to Forty-Five be given under the present
circumstances. Uncle Joe offers a toast to Captain Jack Fuller and
his posterity.
_Dramatic Climax_: Jack’s glass is raised; as he hears the words of
Uncle Joe, he sees his wife’s face. He pours out the wine and makes
his toast with water.
_Climax of Action_: Betty sends Jack away--with a smile--and she goes
to work at the box factory.
DETAILS. Is there a constant struggle for one character, or does it
shift from Jack to Betty?
Is there, accordingly, a stronger or a weaker effect? Is the action
unified?
Did you find the time element confusing or anywhere difficult to follow?
What details mark the action as belonging particularly to Vermont?
How many themes do you find in the narrative? Are they brought into
essential harmony? What purpose of the author interests you most? What
does the author mean to convey in the recognition of Sam Hod and
others that Jack’s toast is almost identical with his grandfather’s?
What do you think of the introduction and the emphasis on the wine?
How does the following statement heighten interest?--“that liquor was
consumed in the pledging of a toast.”
Why does the author add so long a conclusion after the story action has
been completed? Is he wise to give the final place of emphasis to the
sentence, “All over America her name is legion”? Why?
THE BIG STRANGER ON DORCHESTER HEIGHTS
THE STARTING POINT. Mr. Pentz states, regarding the story and its
inception, “Substantially true in fact, it was told and retold to
appreciative friends; then it was written at their suggestion. Probably
it gathered moss during its latent existence and probably something was
lost....”
Technically, the story is an Incident. It has, however, an underlying
significance elevating it above the Incident type. This significance
becomes manifest in the dénouement, which reveals the influence of
Lincoln.
PRESENTATION. The story is told by the omniscient author, who uses
Paul’s “slant.”
SETTING. South Boston, March, 1860. Point out details which keep the
locality before the reader from beginning to end. Why 1860, rather than
1861 or 1862?
PLOT. The plot being slight requires only a clear exposition of events
in natural order. The author has made use of his one chance to create
suspense and utilized it in holding up the name of the Big Stranger.
One suspects, but is not sure until the last words.
CHARACTER. The main value of the story lies in its description of
Lincoln, both in the words of the author--from Paul’s angle--and by
what the great man says and does. Which is more forceful?
* * * * *
Mr. Pentz’s prescription for a story is brief: “Having the material
write it out.” He believes, further, in the use of simple language.
“The average reader must not be sent to the dictionary; it divides
the interest and weakens the effect. A writer should eliminate his
personality altogether; what he may know of other languages, or of
intricate English, will not interest a reader who is busy with a
villain in pursuit of the heroine. ‘The play’s the thing.’”
“A CERTAIN RICH MAN--”
CLASSIFICATION. A perfect specimen of the short-story, even of the
extreme type-form since all the unities are beautifully maintained. The
setting is a dinner table in a home of wealth and refinement; the time
is the present; the length of the action is, perhaps, an hour.
STARTING POINT, AND FIRST STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION. The author was
present at a dinner where a young man of wealth, the host, remarked in
the course of a discussion of the war that he would willingly give his
life if through that sacrifice he could bring an end to the blood glut.
The remark impressed every one deeply and was discussed at length.
After due thought, Mr. Perry feeling the “story” in the situation,
decided that it lay in having the man make good. He mulled the matter
over for weeks before finding an answer to his next difficulty “In what
way could he make good?” Then there occurred to him the expedient of
having present an inventor who had invented an appliance which through
its complete death dealing qualities would end the war forthwith. Here,
then, was the complete thread of the story. Characters and descriptive
background followed in due course. The author has an objection to sad
endings and would like to have made it clear that the man came through
his test safely. But the whole spirit of the story militated against
this. So he left the outcome uncertain, but the inference is that
Colcord yielded his life.
CHARACTERIZATION. There are nine persons, each deftly made a living
part of the assembly. They are, in approximate order of importance:
Nicholas Colcord and his wife Evelyn. (They may be spoken of as untried
gold); Professor Simec (the assayer); Jeffery Latham and Sybil his
wife (tried gold); Arnold Bates (alloy); Jerry Dane and his wife Bessie
(baser metal); Dr. Allison and his wife(?).
In spite of the rather generous number of characters, the part each has
is so definite, serving by contrast and comparison to emphasize the
main character--Nicholas Colcord--as to seem well-nigh indispensable.
Moreover, apart from plot values and unity of effect, the number at the
table works for verisimilitude. It is just the right size for a party
in a conservative home, and it embraces the variety of types one finds
in any similar group.
The dramatic method of characterizing is used to greatest extent:
the men and women describe themselves in their remarks and in their
behavior, particularly in the matter of measuring up to the test
proposed. Go through the story with an eye to the speeches of each. Is
any one person given many remarks? Who is the prominent spokesman? Why?
ANALYSIS OF PLOT AS PRESENTED. The _first significant step_ in the
action lies in Nick’s remark (page 399) that he would give his life
if in so doing he could end the war. (The foil to this remark is in
Bates’s, “I’m with Nick.”)
The _dramatic climax_ is sounded on page 403: “Suppose ... that I could
make this absurd condition ... exist....” It is emphasized in the clear
call on page 404: “I am going to ask you to make your offer good.”
_The climax of action_ lies in Colcord’s words (page 408): “When do
you want me?” (This speech is emphasized by contrast in Bates’s, “I
withdraw right here.” It is strengthened by Evelyn’s acceptance of her
husband’s sacrifice.)
_The dénouement_ is left to the reader.
DETAILS. Carefully study the circumstances preceding the initial
impulse of the story action noting the details of preparation. For
example, the “national colors merged with those of the allied nations”
(page 391); “Rumor credited to him at least one of the deadliest
chemical combinations” (page 392); “There’s a sort of grace given, I
fancy” (page 396); “Sacrifice, Mrs. Colcord” (page 397) deepening the
note of patriotism.
Whose angle of narration is used? Does the author anywhere depart from
it, preferring his own angle? Does he anywhere seem to turn from the
angle of the chosen one, putting her under the spot-light, instead? If
you find these shifts, can you justify them by showing that the author
makes a gain greater than the loss he sustains? If he makes no shift,
how does he widen the narrow range afforded only one person?
By what preparation does Mr. Perry create the needed impression that
the Colcords were fully aware of the sacrifice involved? (Note,
especially, the preparation in Evelyn’s response to Latham’s comment,
page 393, ... “you make me shiver!”)
Page 405: “He raised a thin forefinger and levelled it along the
table.” What image is called up?
By what detailed description and exposition does Mr. Perry make you
“believe,” at least momentarily, that Simec had really invented the
appliance?
What locale is suggested, outside the immediate setting? Does it
matter, in a narrative of this kind?
GENERAL. Mr. Perry’s views should be spread abroad to all who would
master the art of story writing. “No art is rarer, or more difficult of
attainment.... First there is the plot. I think the good short story
demands a plot. Stylistic writing designed to atone for the lack of a
definite idea, or to stand in lieu of a definitely worked out plot is
not to my way of thinking a pure short story. There must be a plot, a
plot peculiar to itself and peculiar to the medium in which it is set
forth. Very rarely, I believe, may the perfect short story plot be
adapted to any other vehicle. Nine times out of ten it would not serve
as the motif of the play, the novel, the film or the sketch. The piece
of short fiction, thus, is _sui generis_. Again the scope is limited.
There may be no leisurely characterization, no extended dissertation;
descriptions are admissible only where they assist in carrying on the
action--or at least do not interfere with it--and in the telling of
the tale there is no place in the scheme for aught save the ultimate
objective.
“Thus carried out and presented in type we have something which we may
regard as the polished gem of literature, establishing a mood in the
reader out of all proportion to its size--and perhaps its importance.
For the short story very largely is designed for entertainment, and
rarely bears the moral purpose of the great novel or the didactic
intent of the essay.
“I say ‘very largely.’ There are, of course, short stories written with
a purpose--some great ones--but that purpose is best realized when
the essential characteristics of the story form are observed, when
the reader in other words feels whatever emotions, or grasps whatever
lesson the writer intended to convey, through the medium of a strong,
deeply marked plot carried with precision from situation to clash to
dénouement.”--_Lawrence Perry._
THE PATH OF GLORY
STARTING POINT AND FIRST PROCESSES. “It so happens in the case of ‘The
Path of Glory’ that I can give you exactly the germinal idea from
which the story sprang. Three months before I wrote it a friend put
into my hand two letters. The first was written by Piatt Andrew of The
American Ambulance at Paris and gave the full details of a wonderful
funeral accorded a young American volunteer driver who was killed on
an early trip; the second was the last personal letter of the young
man to his family--the letter of a young man of education and breeding
and in no way similar to the Nat letter of my story save as they both
expressed a fundamental human longing. Copies were being made and I was
offered some. I carried mine home and laid them by. But they haunted
me. ‘There’s a story there,’ I thought. However, I didn’t seem to get
a story--at once. Nevertheless my mind played with the letters. That
funeral! The story of course lay there, but how to set it off, enhance
it properly. One day thinking it over idly--I have a vagabond mind and
never attack a problem in any logical fashion--the solution dawned
quite suddenly. It would be best set off by contrast, of course, with
some unthinkably shabby funeral, and would receive its greatest force
by being reconstructed through the minds of a people to whom a funeral
is a precious event.”--_Mary Brecht Pulver._
After a statement to the effect that she knows “people to whom the
trappings and ceremonials of death take on a sense of privilege,” Mrs.
Pulver continues:
“Just here I got some paper and a pencil and wrote the story. Or rather
it wrote itself--as my stories usually do. When I began describing
the lonely farm in which my people lived I had not the least idea who
the people were--how many, what sex, age, race, or previous condition
of servitude. There was a family in that house. A family preferably in
hard luck. Then at the foot of the hill I saw a lame boy driving a cow.
I walked along with him--and recognizing him as Luke, and acquainting
myself with his ideas and frame of mind, I knew of course who his
people were, how many, their habits, their names--‘all’s to it,’ as
Luke would have said.
“And so I told their story--and about how one of them went to France
and got killed. And how indirectly he helped them out of their hard
luck. That is all there was to ‘The Path of Glory.’”
PLOT. Note, first, that since the presentation is consistently from
Luke’s angle, the plot events are given in chronological order _for
him_; but that from the point of view of actual occurrence they are
presented with some inversion. (For example, the experience of Mrs.
Haynes in the town precedes her summary to Luke.) In this respect, the
author--perhaps unconsciously--shows ability to mass plot material to
best advantage through artistic adherence to one angle of narration.
Many short-story writers appear to understand this principle, yet fail
to master it.
_Initial Impulse_: The story impulse lies, dormant, in the business
of Nat’s funeral. Where does it become active?
_Main Steps in Action_: Nat’s visit home. A direct forecast of the
climax lies in the reason for his going to Europe. Another important
stage is the death and burial of Father Haynes, “Paw.”
_Dramatic Climax_: The combination of “Paw’s” home-made burial
and Nat’s death. The two come near together and constitute the
lowest turn of the Haynes wheel of fortune. In Nat’s death lies the
possibility for change. (In the presentation of the plot, this
climax is _reported_ through the letter, the reception of which is,
in itself, a step toward the _climax of action_.)
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The letter telling of Nat’s
death. Mrs. Haynes’s stony grief. The second letter; Nat’s funeral
and the _croix de guerre_. “Maw” awakes; she is “going downtown.” She
shows the letter, and soon understands that Nat has given glory to
Stony Brook. The letter is to be published. It is to be read aloud
at the schoolhouse and Nat’s story retold. There will be a memorial
service at the churches. There will be a big public service in the
Town Hall. (Other details make the change of fortune explicit and
complete.)
_Climax of Action_: “Maw” returns home, rehabilitated, and rehearses
the day’s experience to Luke. He recognizes that Nat has done
“somethin’ big for us all.”
CHARACTERS. If one test of the “short-story” is that no character
should enter who does not assist in the action, will this story stand
it? What, for example, is Tom’s part? Would you give him up? Is it
permissible to introduce characters to enrich the action? There is no
question about the value from a literary consideration.
The part of each main character is well-defined. Luke, self-conscious,
lame and sensitive, offers the medium through whom the story is told.
“Maw” suffers; it is she to whom the turns of fortune mean most; she
is the chief character. “Paw” is the cause of the Haynes status in the
community. Nat, the prodigal, is the one through whom rehabilitation
comes.
The personalities that enrich the action are: 1. Clem, his wife, and
S’norta. They do so (a) by intensifying “Maw’s” sense of poverty, (b)
by furnishing contrast in worldly goods and in character; 2. Tom. His
misfortune enhances the wretchedness of the main actors, and the
probability of his being made sound in mind emphasizes their changed
fortunes. 3. Background characters. All, practically, whom Mrs. Haynes
meets on her famous day in the town.
Apply to these primary and secondary characters the tests suggested in
previous exercises. Do they _live_?
SETTING. What does “Stony Brook, New York” suggest by way of physical
and spiritual conditions? How is the locality an integral part of the
atmosphere?
DETAILS. The “human appeal” in this narrative will make it hard for
any reader, however crusty, to refrain from tears or an awakened sense
of pity. By what measures has the author brought about this desired
result? The list should be long. After you have made it, see how far
you can generalize from it as to provocation of emotional reaction.
“What I like in reading a story,” Mrs. Pulver says, “is a simple
gracious English, a shade whimsical perhaps, that concerns itself
with a situation and people who palpitate, in whose fate you become
sincerely interested, as humans, not merely a clever bit of literary
bridge. And the whole must be laced for me with a dash of humor, that
tender fun-poking that will save the written human appeal from being
heart-throb stuff or the handiwork of a sob-sister.”
Some examples of contrast have already been offered. Point out others,
even stronger.
In Division II (pages 421-425) the focus is on Nat, the action
seemingly held up, meanwhile. Did you, in reading, feel this long delay
to be irksome, or were you compensated by the matter itself and the
vision of its promise?
In Division IV, what intensifying value has the rain?
In Division V, what intensifying value has the first sentence?--“It was
dusk when Maw came back; dusk of a clear day, with a rosy sunset off
behind the hills.”
GENERAL. Mary Brecht Pulver declares she is afraid she is that
“hooted-at and disbelieved-in thing,” an inspirational writer. “Given a
major premise, an argument, some slight flash of idea, for a chart and
I am ready to sail over the smooth white main. My crew will come to me
ready named, ready behavioured, and will navigate my bark for me....
All of my stories are pictures. They unroll like a cinema in colors
just off my left shoulder. They move so fast my wrist aches to keep up
with them. I never rewrite anything unless an editor requests it. My
first draft is the only one. As you see, this is not intellectual but
emotional work. I can do only a thousand words at a sitting because of
the emotional strain. This seems deplorable, considering the product
but it seems necessary. Like the Jap in the legend, I must mix a little
blood with my clay to get any kind of pottery.”
At first, this passage would seem to say, “There’s no use trying to
learn to write.” And it may be urged here that the young fiction
aspirant who feels _impelled_ to create, and according to his own bent,
should give his genius a full chance. Any student may glean this,
however, from the words of Mrs. Pulver: Without emotion of one’s own,
success is impossible.
EXTRA MEN
STARTING POINT. “Somewhere I read in the summer of 1917 a reference to
a legend of either a poor saint living as a hermit or a holy abbess
(I can’t really remember which) who entertained a company of horsemen
one night. In the morning the field where the horses had grazed was
untouched and the realization came that a troop of angels had been that
way. I am sorry not to be more definite as to this source.
“Washington and the war are wholly of my own invention, and the miracle
of the meadow grass became incidental as I wrote the story, which I had
at first planned to call ‘The Green Meadow.’ As to the actual processes
of invention I should say no one can quite explain the least important
of them.”--_Harrison Rhodes._
CLASSIFICATION. On concluding “Extra Men” if a reader asks, “What
is its purpose?” he will reply in substance, to his self-query: “To
convey the thought that spirits of our heroic dead support the boys
at the front.” Theme is dominant. “I cannot say that I believe in the
supernatural or miracles,” Mr. Rhodes states, “but I believe the story
of ‘Extra Men’ to be essentially and symbolically true.”
PLOT. Plot sinks, therefore, into comparative insignificance. A single
incident serves to convey the truth. Whereas the miracle of the meadow
grass might have been the chief event, its purpose here is rather that
of a detail, substantiating the visit.
CHARACTERS. The spirit of George Washington is the main character
of the incident. Since, however, it is fitting that the past be
subordinated to the present (in conformity with the author’s purpose),
the old lady is introduced previous to the story-action, and is,
therefore, the main figure of the entire narrative.
Notice the suggestive method used in identifying the spirit of
Washington--nowhere is he openly named. For example, he speaks of
Arlington, “the house which once belonged to a relative of mine”; and
says elsewhere, “You would not now know Valley Forge.”
Mrs. Buchan was favored with the visit not by accident. The motivation
for it is unobtrusively and perhaps even unconsciously conveyed, but
none the less with potence. How has the author enlisted sympathy for
her.
What is the rôle of young Buchan? Is there a reason for his
name--“George”?
What plot value has Al Fenton, “the farmer”?
SETTING. The scene is important, since nowhere else could the action
have occurred with equal fitness. “The quaint name” of the hamlet at
once calls up the historic episode of Washington crossing the Delaware.
ATMOSPHERE. The realistic mood of the story contributes to its power of
conviction.
THE WAITING YEARS
CLASSIFICATION. This short-story illustrates grouping for sake of
climactic effect. Events of forty years are illuminated by the
happenings of a day. The narrative has both an outer and an inner
action.
PLOT. The plot of the combined inner and outer story is quite simple.
The _initial impulse_ consists of Mark Faraday’s interest in Miss
Allison Clyde. The _dramatic climax_, if such it may be called, lies
in the finding of the love-letters which his Uncle William had written
and never sent to Allison. The _climax of action_ is his handing the
package of letters to Allison.
The inner plot is found in the letters. The _initial impulse_ of
William’s love for Allison operates until the _dramatic climax_.
This dramatic climax is William’s knowledge that he must die and his
feeling that he must never speak again to Allison of his passion. Up
to the _climax of action_ (his death) his letters have the note of
renunciation; before the dramatic climax they looked to union with the
girl he adored.
The two parts are linked in William’s giving the package to
Allison. Would you have been satisfied to see him read them without
passing them on to her? Are you satisfied to construct your own
dénouement--Allison’s emotion, etc.?
CHARACTERIZATION. Since development or deterioration of character is
difficult to indicate within the compass of the short-story, this
specimen shows a distinct advantage in massing the incidents near
the climax. For Allison may be shown finished, perfect,--the lovely
“personage,” to quote the oracle, Mrs. Herrick,--whom Mark finds. At
the same time, her development is made logical by the emphasis on
her youthful beauty of mind and heart as her lover saw it. Study, in
the usual way, the many methods by which Mrs. Roof has made vivid her
portrait. Mark’s point of view regarding her is particularly good;
also, the foil, Stella, serves adequately to set her off. Observe, too,
the relation she bears to her setting, her fitness for it.
Since Mark is the one through whom the reader learns the facts of the
action, his mind is open to the reader’s vision. Is there too much
of the artist about him, not enough of the man? Would you have him
different? Is he the nephew of his uncle, from a consideration of
sentiment?
What effect is produced by the names, in connection with their
owners?--Mark, Stella, Allison, William?
DETAILS. What is the intensifying worth of the sundial? Of the buzzing
bee? A second line of interest may be said to lie in the music theme,
which intensifies the line of the love interest and Mark’s interest in
Miss Allison.
Do you feel jarred or pleased by the shift to Allison’s angle (in her
letter, page 204)?
Does Mark too easily come across the daguerreotype, or does the casual
manner of his finding it fit into the smooth and leisurely progress of
the story?
Why is the picture of Allison “standing by the tall mantle in the
candle-light” one that lingers? Why does one remember the picture of
Beatrix (in “Henry Esmond”) coming down the stairs in white, with
cherry colored ribbons, holding the candle in her hand?
Do the letters of William strike you as having been composed by a man
or a woman? Why?
ZELIG
CLASSIFICATION. “Zelig” is a character story, with decided emphasis on
the character. There is just enough plot to lift it from the realm of
the sketch into that of the narrative.
PLOT. The _struggle_ lies in Zelig’s attempt to save sufficient money
for returning to Russia. It is unsuccessful.
What is the _initial impulse_, the first hint of a story motive?
The dramatic climax is preceded by a minor one: the death of Zelig’s
son. The real turning point, the _dramatic climax_, is made up of
the wife’s statements (page 224), the most important of which is the
reference to the son’s death.
The _climax of action_ and the _dénouement_ fall together in the final
speech of the story, being suggested rather than stated.
CHARACTERIZATION. The old man is characterized by the author’s
description (the direct method, so called); by the summary of what his
brethren felt and said (combination of direct and indirect methods); by
the opinion his fellow-workmen held of him; and by Zelig’s own acts and
speeches in addition to his habitual manner. Has he the greater part of
the stage for most of the time? Purpose of his wife? Son? Grandson? Of
the background characters?
SETTING. “New York’s East Side.” The second value of the story lies
in the setting. Indeed, the character value would be lost without
it, and the unification is therefore noteworthy. Is the setting made
contributory to atmosphere, also?
DETAILS. Are you satisfied with the ending? Is the sense of tragedy at
the failure of the human element striving against circumstance relieved
by the recognition of Zelig’s rehabilitation, or revivification? Has
he, in a deeper sense, conquered in that he has conquered self?
GENERAL METHODS. That Benjamin Rosenblatt creates his characters, not
“lifting” them from life, is manifest in his statement: “As to Zelig, I
really haven’t met any one just like him, so that I couldn’t have had
any individual case before my mind’s eye when I wrote the story.”
THE MENORAH
STARTING POINT. “A few years ago I passed one of the congested East
Side streets just when a fire broke out in one of the tenements. I
saw climbing down the fire escapes of the burning building a very
old Jewess dragging some of her belongings with her. Among these
belongings was a pair of old-fashioned, common-place candlesticks
used for ‘Sabbath blessing.’ That started me on the way to ‘The
Menorah.’”--_Benjamin Rosenblatt._
CLASSIFICATION. “The Menorah” offers itself as a fit companion-piece
to “Zelig.” In the latter, the setting is New York, the character is
an old man, the struggle is successfully unsuccessful. In this, the
setting is “a little town in Russia,” the chief character is an old
woman, the struggle is successfully unsuccessful. It is to be remarked
that the two settings are equally well-known to Mr. Rosenblatt.
PLOT. The _struggle_ is on Lea’s part to preserve appearances in her
rapidly deteriorating circumstances, to find a match for her daughter,
and to keep the Menorah. The last is the most important. Although she
fails, she does so in a way to relieve the reader’s distress at her
failing.
A _minor climax_ is in the death of the younger girl.
The _dramatic climax_ is the securing of the proper young man as
bridegroom for her daughter.
With the dramatic climax is bound up the _climax of action_ (of the
largest struggle): the Menorah must be sold.
CHARACTERIZATION. The story is told, as was “Zelig,” from the
omniscient author’s point of view with the omniscience exercised
over the chief character. Study the portrayal of Lea, as you were
recommended to study that of Zelig. What is the purpose of Reb
Schloime? Compare him with “Paw” Haynes in “The Path of Glory” as to
his function.
DETAILS. These two stories by Benjamin Rosenblatt perform a service
for the Jewish people, in rationalizing the desire for money, a desire
about which volumes have been written. It is to be observed in these
narratives that the possession of worldly treasure in each case is
secondary to another ideal. In Lea’s case it is her love for her
ancestors and their glory joined to a sensitiveness at the fall in her
worldly station. What is the primary ideal in “Zelig”?
What clue to the disposal of the candelabrum occurs earlier in the
narrative?
What national and racial customs intensify the setting?
“To me, a narrative that has for its aim to interest the reader in
its plot is an anecdote, be its plot ever so thick. A narrative that
aims to interest the reader in a slice of palpitating life--the joys
or sorrows of people--be its plot ever so thin, I call it a short
story.”--_Benjamin Rosenblatt._
THE SURVIVORS
CLASSIFICATION. This work, and the following one, “Penance” might be
characterized as stories that are short, rather than short-stories. If
the point were argued, however, it might be said that because of the
situation, the theme quality, and the historic interest, all of which
contribute to unity of effect, the two are outlying specimens of the
_genre_. The time of the action, here, is forty years. So it is in “The
Waiting Years” (Page 172), but whereas there the time of the action is
only twenty-four hours (see the management) here it is the full forty.
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: The initial impulse of the struggle lies in the
unseen, and therefore unreturned, wave of Adam’s hand. The _struggle_
lies in Adam’s own soul. He holds out against the friendly overtures
of Henry at the same time he desires Henry to ask him for something.
He wishes a position of superiority. Is the termination of the
struggle successful?
_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: Fill in the chief incidents occurring
in the forty-year period. Do they form part of the transition? Why
does the author emphasize the time element?
_Dramatic Climax_: Ed Green’s being kept in bed is really the turning
situation, since it means that Henry must walk alone, and Adam will
have his long desired opportunity of serving Henry.
What are the immediate steps preceding the climax of action?
_Climax of Action_: “Henry’s face blanched ... Henry’s step faltered
and grew uncertain.”
_Dénouement_: Adam joins Henry: they walk together.
THEME. It arrives fully in the reader’s understanding the significance
of the dénouement, or seeing in it a symbolic unity between North and
South.
DETAILS. What trait of human nature is displayed in Adam? Is it
consistent in its operations?
What is the setting? What integrative worth has it? How greatly does
the possibility of a “story,” in the first place, depend upon it?
PENANCE
CLASSIFICATION. See classification of “The Survivors.” Here the
elements all work toward unity of effect: even the thirty year period
contributes to the same unity. It is even necessary to the working out
of the penance. (Could it have been massed in such a way as to give
the reader the same consciousness of retribution as it here conveys?)
But the length of the action is not the length of the best short-story
action.
“Penance” provides an interesting companion-piece to “The Survivors.”
Notice that whereas in the former instance the _initial incident_ was
separated by the long space from the turning point of the action;
here the plot is completed except for the fact that Buckingham’s
understanding (the _dénouement_) comes after thirty years.
PLOT. The _initial impulse_ lies in Buckingham’s interest in Minnie.
Fill in the steps that follow immediately, culminating in
_The Dramatic Climax_: Minnie detains Buckingham.
Fill in the steps that precede
_The Climax of Action_: Buckingham loses the battle: the tide of war
is turned.
_Steps toward Dénouement_: They consist in a summary of the penance.
What contributory value has the idea “... she kept before his eyes
the girl’s eyes” (page 292)? After thirty years he returns to the
battlefield.
_Dénouement_: Buckingham learns of the trick to detain him.
DETAILS. What is your opinion of Buckingham? By what methods did you
receive the data on which you base it?
Where is the guide (page 292) first mentioned? Why is this an instance
of good workmanship?
Is it better that Minnie drop out of the story, not to reappear?
“Minnie stood on the stairway and looked down at him, the light from
the candle in her hand flickering over her.” (Page 287.) See the query
on “The Waiting Years,” page 173.
FEET OF GOLD
CLASSIFICATION. This is one of a series of stories centering around the
life of Ferdinand Taillandy, a lovable hero akin to William J. Locke’s
“Beloved Vagabond” and “Aristide Pujol.” In such a series it is not
necessary or even desirable that the short-story type be sought. All
the narratives, from start to finish, as a complete series, are more
likely to reveal a general structure culminating in a climax (which
will probably require a whole story) than any one of them is likely to
possess definite and clear-cut mechanism.
The three necessary stages of narrative, according to Aristotle, are
beginning, middle and end. These stages, as to action, are well-defined
in the present story. But one feels at the beginning that here is a
hero brought over from a preceding adventure, as one knows at the end
that he is off for new experiences. Is the action in regard to Diane
complete?
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Taillandy meets Diane. No particular struggle
is initiated, however. Taillandy merely takes Diane under his
protection, here in Paris, and after some days leaves with her in a
two-wheeled cart.
_Climax of Action_: Diane is restored to her mother; Taillandy again
becomes a wanderer.
_Body of Story_: Among the chief points of interest are Taillandy’s
reversion to the _boulevardier_ type, and his writing the poem
inspired by Diane. Mention others.
CHARACTERIZATION. For what reasons do you like Taillandy? Wherein lies
the significance of “Feet of Gold”? Read the final story in this
series, “At the End of the Road,” and observe whether the author has
kept Taillandy’s character consistent. Take note of the characters
who know Taillandy in the present narrative, observe the feeling each
has for him, and see how well Mr. Smith has used their opinions to
emphasize Taillandy’s character as described. What does Taillandy think
of each of the other characters?
By what means has the author chiefly pictured Diane? How has she been
enhanced by the two settings? What interaction have character and
setting throughout the story?
DETAILS. What value has the following statement as compared with the
more direct one, “Taillandy was generous”?
“Of that thousand francs Taillandy spent seven hundred and ninety-six
during the next four days--ninety-six, possibly, on himself, and the
balance on his friends.”
What other characteristic is implied, also?
Study the management of suspense (pages 313, 314, 315). Why are you
held waiting?
Why (on page 317) did Taillandy whisper to the driver?
Why (page 298) did Diane weep at the mention of Madame Nicolas’s name?
What place references keep the locale before you?
How in the speeches and manner of the characters are you kept aware of
the French race?
SOLITAIRE
STARTING POINT. “You ask about the origin of ‘Solitaire,’ which chances
to be rather easier to trace than the origin of most of the stories
I have written, since I more often begin with an abstract ‘idea’ and
work outward to character and plot. When a story begins otherwise I
have discovered (and all such things are matters of discovery after
the fact, and never of premeditation) that it is almost invariably the
result of some purely _visual_ impression of a single person, detached
from any incident or complication. A stranger, seen once, who recurs
again and again to my mind, and about whom my curiosity increases, I
have learned to rely upon, in a kind of occult unstatable way, to bring
home his own plot.
“The opening scene of ‘Solitaire’ is an exact transcript of one of
those visual impressions. I did see the man who afterward became
‘Corey’ in the restaurant of a small Paris hotel. My vis-à-vis did
say, ‘Look at the American!’ and I did turn to meet the twinkle I have
described in the story. The curious thing is that I cannot now remember
whether he wore a decorative ribbon or not. My impression is that he
did not, for it was not until several weeks later that the idea of
decorations as a ‘motive’ occurred to me. What mattered, what really
roused my curiosity, was my _surprise_ at seeing him there, when I knew
nothing at all about the man,--my immediate sense of his playing a
strange rôle, of his being away from home. He _was_ a physician, he had
been working in the Balkans, and he was going back again the next day.
Also he had been in Russia. These things he told me after dinner in the
salon, when we talked together; and he was from the Middle West, and
called it ‘God’s country’ and said he wanted to get back. I did not
see him after that night, but he kept coming into my mind, and each
time I would wonder how he had ever come into my mind, and each time I
would wonder how he had ever come to leave his home in the Middle West,
and in the end it became, I suppose, a kind of subconscious abstract
problem. At any rate the solution appeared one day--and all I had then
to do was to write the story. So, after all, it was a story of ‘idea’
worked out to plot,--but a visual impression put the idea into my head.
One thing only, I believe, I knew all the time,--that whatever his
motive was, he was as much in the dark about it as I. That, perhaps,
was what attracted me, what kept my curiosity alive, and what, in the
end, made it an acceptable story.”--_Fleta Campbell Springer._
PLOT. Unsheathed from the tissue of its presentation, the essential
plot of this character story is as follows:
_Initial Impulse_: Dr. Jim Corey, of Dubuque, Iowa, happening to be
in China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion wins, by his medical
skill, the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, and the French ribbon of
the Legion of Honor.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Corey returns to his home,
simple and unaffected. Afterward, though always off to one of the
far corners of the earth, he comes back with the same indifference
to his decorations. Once or twice only he displays them, in a spirit
of comic masquerade or to please his friends. In 1912 he takes part
in the Balkan campaign, and happens to meet in Paris, where he goes
for anaesthetics, the _narrator_ of the present story. (Not the
_author_, it will be noticed.) On his return to Dubuque in the spring
of 1913 he marries. Essentially a home man and now settled down, he
seemingly feels no inclination at the outbreak of the World War to
get to France. In August, 1915, however, he goes to Philadelphia,
where he supposedly remains for two months, conducting experiments.
In reality, he sails for France, goes to the front, and in six weeks
wins the Croix de Guerre. He returns home, as if from Philadelphia.
_Dramatic Climax_: After some weeks his wife finding the Croix de
Guerre and learning the truth, accuses him of being unable to resist
a new decoration. Corey’s faith in himself and the honesty of his
past is destroyed.
_Steps toward Climax of Action_: Corey, in distress, makes a
confessor of his relative, Mr. Ewing. He seems convinced that he is
“rotten” and has been, without knowing it. Shortly, he leaves again,
and it is given out that he has gone to France to help in the war. At
the front he exposes himself to every danger; meantime, on duty and
off he wears his array of decorations. It is noteworthy that nobody
sees anything “funny” in them, however. Volunteering to rescue a
wounded officer, he is mortally injured, and the two are brought to
the relief station together.
_Climax of Action Scene_: The officer, while Corey is unconscious,
tells how Corey shielded him at the expense of his own life. He
manages to despatch a note to General Headquarters. Corey regains
consciousness and calls for his friend Burke, to whom he dictates Mr.
Ewing’s name and address. Burke, hearing that the Medaille Militaire
is to be conferred upon Corey, tells him. Corey hearing that three
hours will be required remarks, “That’s time enough.” He desires Mr.
Ewing to know that “It breaks a man’s luck to know what he wants,”
and that he did not take the hypodermic which would have kept him
alive until the conferring of the Medaille Militaire. He wishes his
wife to hear nothing about the honor he might have had at the last.
_Dénouement_: The Division General arrives too late to confer the
medal. Corey had saved his wife this added disgrace.
PRESENTATION. The facts of the plot, extending over a long time, are
unified through the device of the narrator who, first becoming curious
about Corey and enlisting the reader’s curiosity, learns them from
Mr. Ewing. Ewing, then, becomes an inner narrator, and his story, in
turn, encloses that of Burke. The skill of the author is manifest
in the process by which she has so interwoven the various pieces of
information about Corey as to make a smooth and perfectly joined story.
The element of Chance plays a strong part, but so natural a rôle that
it meets with no lack of credulity. That is, Chance caused the first
meeting, but since in that _contretemps_ lies the base of the story, it
is accepted. Chance also causes the meeting between the narrator and
the only man, perhaps, who could have given the facts about Corey’s
career. But it is naturally brought about, through the setting and the
preliminaries antecedent to the recognition that here was some one who
knew Corey.
Do you anywhere feel that the narrator is a woman? Is the narrator’s
delicacy in the smoking car, for example, greater than a man would have
felt? Would a man apologize for hearing the story.
CHARACTER. The story exemplifies to an unusual degree the unity which
results from emphasizing one character. Every other is ancillary to
Corey. Even his wife is but a human means for bringing home to his own
consciousness the question as to his motives. The others exist mainly
as links between the reader and Corey. The interest in the physician,
for the reader, lies in speculating over his acts, his whereabouts,
and the opposing forces of his nature. In the end, it is seen that he
has been all along a single-hearted American, one who followed his
nature, but who, when his attention was drawn to the sort of nature it
appeared to be, determined upon a course of punishment. The title of
the story strengthens this interpretation. The summary episode of the
Western miner strengthens it: if the miner cheated at solitaire he shot
himself. Corey felt that he had cheated unaware and set himself to the
task of flagellation.
SETTING. The contrast between the Middle West and France emphasizes
the apparent contradictory qualities in Corey’s nature. The shift in
settings is in itself conducive to unity and short-story effect only
through contrast; but the rehearsed method of telling the story, with
the accent on Corey, properly subordinates the divergence in locality
and swings it into harmony.
Fleta Campbell Springer thinks a short-story is whatever the author
makes it. “That is why I believe in it, in its possibilities. The very
fact that you can’t put your finger on it, can’t ticket it, or define
it, is its fascination. Its limits are the limits of the author’s
ability, and there are several kinds of authors in the world. The word
‘short-story’ is sufficient definition in itself, length being the only
quality to come under restriction.”
THE YELLOW CAT
Mr. Steele’s twelve or fifteen years of studying the technique of story
writing have resulted in his mastering the power of suggestion, found
at its height in Kipling, and the clear vigorous expression for which
Stevenson is famous. Without a statement to the contrary from the
author himself it would be safe to assume that they were his models.
“The Yellow Cat” is told in the first person by Ridgeway, aided by
McCord, and it is in part created by the reader. One who likes to
create with ease will find a strain upon his powers of construction;
the more he takes his reading as a narcotic, the less he will enjoy it.
The constructive reader will delight in it.
As a change from the analysis of plot in the presentation, it will be
profitable to construct the events in chronological order.
A. The master of the _Abbie Rose_ fears his Chinaman cook; he enters
his fear in his log, intimating that he may do away with the Chinaman.
B. The second seaman, Bach, also becomes a victim of fear. The two men
find that their revolvers are stolen.
C. (Invented by every reader to suit himself. Perhaps the two seamen
deserted the ship?)
D. The Chinaman is left on board. (Is he innocent?) He climbs into the
shrouds, when he sees the smoke of an approaching vessel.
E. The vessel is descried, soon after C, or D, by the _Mercury_. (...
“the stove in the galley still slightly warm.”) It is seemingly empty
but for a yellow cat.
F. McCord and Björnsen are detailed to steer the _Abbie Rose_ to port,
over a hundred miles distant. McCord is the engineer.
G. Björnsen, going to shake out the foretopsail encounters the Chinaman.
H. (Invented by the reader. Björnsen was probably knocked into the sea,
and may have made his escape to the land. Was he killed?)
I. McCord missing Björnsen, and becoming obsessed by the yellow cat,
begins to consider the theory of transmigration of souls.
J. (Suggested to the reader: McCord thinking the Chinaman is dead--for
he has read the log entries--suspects that his soul has come back in
the body of the cat.)
K. He undergoes a period of mental agony, during which time he brings
the vessel into port. He sees the shadow of the Chinaman; he shoots at
the shadow; he misses the water, etc. He cannot sleep and the cat has
disappeared.
(Note that all the incidents above are of the time preceding the
“acting time” of the story, or the immediate situation and action.)
L. The narrator, Ridgeway, here comes on board the vessel lying in the
upper river.
M. As the men talk, McCord relating his experiences, the cat re-appears.
N. She hears a sound, rushes amidships, and the men follow.
O. They look aloft. (See page 255, top.)
P. (Suggested: McCord sees something in the shroud.)
Q. (Suggested: He shakes down the Chinaman.)
R. The Chinaman escapes, leaving his slipper.
S. McCord from the mast brings down the two revolvers and other things.
T. McCord now understands the whole business; he goes to sleep at once.
Such an order would have spoiled the story. Notice in the presentation:
1. The gathering up of the greater part of the incidents at the
shortest possible distance from the climax of action.
2. The economical and dramatic method by which the preceding
circumstances are set forth. The reader knows only what McCord knows.
3. The large employment of suggestion.
4. The keeping of the place--the boat is the scene of action for three
different groups, only the last group being the immediate actors.
5. The excellent clues to the shrouds as the hiding place. (See pages
237, ... “top-sails being pursed up ... but not stowed”; 238, ...
“handing down like huge, over-ripe pears,” etc.)
6. The logic of McCord’s not finding the hiding place of the cook.
(First sentence, page 255.) This illustrates Poe’s theory as set forth
in “The Purloined Letter.”
7. The use of suspense. The reader wonders whether the explanation will
lie in the supernatural or the natural. Suspense is satisfied only in
the dénouement, after which the end comes quickly.
8. The motivation for the whole story. It lies in _fear_: “the one
universal and uncontrollable passion.” And it is heightened by
placing in opposition representatives of two races, neither of which
understands the other. Here, then, is the real _struggle_.
DOWN ON THEIR KNEES
CLASSIFICATION. This is, primarily, a love story, having a strongly
marked struggle between the first and second characters, and a
complicating thread of interest drawn from the relations between the
first and third characters. It is of the familiar “triangle” type, but
of a unique individuality.
The struggle appears to be motivated by something like hate; but the
dénouement reveals that the acts resulting from apparent hatred or
contempt were only negative or distorted expressions of the real or
positive passion.
PRESENTATION. The narrator is the author (third person), who focuses
the spot-light on Angel.
PLOT. Analyze the plot, marking out the main steps. What is the turning
point in the struggle, or the dramatic climax?
Compare the manipulation of the plot elements with the management of
those in “The Yellow Cat” plot. Which is simpler?
SETTING. Among the Portuguese on Urkey Island. The time is the present.
CHARACTERIZATION. The racial type chosen is one, through which
passionate and contradictory expression might well flow. A
colder-tempered, more logical people, would here be impossible. Or if
individuals of the milder tempered race were chosen, the task of making
them convincing (as a group) would be an added difficulty.
What impression of Peter Um Perna do you receive at first? By what
method or methods of portrayal is this impression conveyed?
Where is the second Peter, his second self, first revealed? Where
in full? What is the significance of the relationship of the one who
explains him?
What is the chief trait of Angel? How is your opinion of her maintained
or changed? At what point, and why, does she leave off caring for
Man’el?
What marked characteristics of Peter and Man’el are contrasted? (See
e.g., page 329: “Yeh!” He had planned to lie about that.”)
What is the value of the older characters--the Avo and Mena?
Why are the life-savers numbered 1, 2, 5 and so on?
DETAILS. Is there anywhere a clue to Angel’s love for Peter? To his for
her?
Wherein lies the element of suspense? Where is your curiosity first
satisfied? What becomes a new cause for reading on? How is suspense
increased near the final outcome?
Why at first reading are you not sure of the place at which Angel no
longer loves Man’el? What purpose of the author leads him to leave the
reader doubtful?
What vividness is given to the description of the setting, in the first
paragraph?
What plot convenience exists in the Avo being Peter’s laundress?
How is the name Philomena used? In what other story of these
collections do you find it similarly _non_-descriptive?
Why is the title “Down on _Their_ Knees”?
What indications in this story, in the way of color and form, do you
find of Mr. Steele’s being also an artist of the brush?
What plot purpose does Man’el perform in his dare to Peter, to “go
fishin’”? Does he serve to get the situation over the _impasse_? Is it
a too obvious trick?
The struggle in the last lap of the action is one against the elements.
What are the two subdivisions of this struggle? Is the outcome
satisfactory? What symbolic value has the final sentence?
CHING, CHING, CHINAMAN
PRESENTATION. The story is told in reminiscent vein by one who uses his
own angle as a boy. It recalls the manner of “Treasure Island,” as “The
Yellow Cat” recalls Kipling. The boy’s angle is faithfully kept, with
excellent results. The first value of the boy’s angle is that much of
the action was unclear to him, as it progressed chronologically, and
this obscurity is carried over to the reader. The reader, then, is kept
in suspense, as the boy was, until the outcome. It is a well-known and
capital means of creating and heightening suspense. The second value is
that the boy’s point of view is the best for unity of effect. Observe
that this is true in studying the
PLOT.
_Initial Incident_: Malden marries Sympathy Gibbs, whom Mate Snow has
been considering for himself. This incident motivates the chain of
events that follow.
(The following is revealed out of chronological order, as the plot is
_presented_. But as effect resulting from cause it follows, in the
plot _construction_, the initial incident):
_First Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: Mate Snow writes in the name of
Gibbs, to Minister Malden, saying he is alive. “Gibbs” demands money
as a reward for his silence and non-appearance. Malden, unable to
bear the thought of his child being a bastard, meets the demand. He
further agrees to stay away from his wife and child. (Do you think
the motivation is strong enough, under the given conditions, to make
the Minister do this?) Sam Kow, a Chinaman sees the exchange of
letter and money.
_Next Steps_: (These are revealed at first reading, but cause wonder
and suspense, as the _preceding_ steps are unknown to the boy and to
the reader):
Malden leaves Sympathy and his baby and lives with Mate Snow,
occupying two rooms over the drug store.
The village wonders but Mate Snow seemingly takes the part of Malden.
Nobody, of course, suspects his villainy.
The Minister tries to “convert” Yen Sin, the Chinaman, and motivation
for this struggle goes back to the antecedent period (first
paragraphs) when the minister had voyaged to heathen shores to work
in “the field.” (Notice the reason given for his return, and observe
that the earthly and divine loves were even then at odds in his
make-up.)
_Step in Chronological Order_ (but held back until the outcome): Yen
Sin receives collars from Sam Kow on which Sam informs him of the
exchange of letters and money. This correspondence keeps up for seven
years.
_Further Steps_: Yen Sin keeps his own reserve and his own religion.
One evening Minister Malden fails to show up at prayer-meeting. Mate
Snow presides. The boy creeps off to the pillar-house, where Sympathy
lives. He sees
1. That Minister Malden enters. 2. That Yen Sin also sees. The boy
makes a visit of a month. He returns to find Mate Snow the big man of
the village. Yen Sin has grown older and feebler.
_Dramatic Climax_: Yen Sin is dying: he asks for the Minister. (It
is from the Chinaman’s death that the change of Malden’s fortunes
arises.)
Steps following immediately, and leading directly to climax of
action.--The boy enters the church to see Snow in the pulpit; he
stammers out the Chinaman’s need for the Minister. Snow answers the
call. The boy hates Snow; he continues to look for Malden. He goes
to the pillar-house. He looks beneath a drawn shade and sees Malden
receiving five hundred dollars from Sympathy; he hears her say, “It
brings us to the end, Will.” He hears the Minister thanking God
it’s Mate Snow who holds the mortgage. But Sympathy declares that
Mate has “sucked the life” out of Malden. The boy screams out that
the Chinaman is dying. Then he rushes off to the scow of Yen Sin.
Now follows the struggle of wills, and of races; Chinaman is pitted
against American, in the
_Impulse of Final Suspense_: The boy hears Snow enjoining the
Chinaman to confess. Yen Sin calls for his collars, and as they lie
curling about him, he mildly asks for Snow’s confession. Snow finally
confesses, “I have coveted my neighbor’s wife.” Here Malden enters.
He reveals that Gibbs is alive, and to save his child, he has paid
hush-money. (See above.) He has promised to stay away from wife
and child, but has gone to them in secret. This is his confession.
Then Yen Sin reveals what Sam Kow has written from Infield--on the
collars--Malden has paid money.... Here Snow goes mad, fearing
exposure, and blurts out enough to show it is he who has demanded the
money. Yen Sin points out that at any time “Mista God” would have
accepted confession, “makee allee light.” Minister Malden begins to
comprehend.
_Climax of Action_: Snow drinks poison; he dies. The villagers rush
him off to the doctor’s. The boy and Malden are alone with Yen Sin.
Malden runs to fetch his wife and child. Yen Sin sends the boy for
the minister. Yen Sin’s departure, “China way,” and Malden’s prayer
for his soul.
Study the interval of time between every two stages of the action.
Observe the quickening of tempo near the close, added to a cumulative
weightiness of effect.
THEME. The story is thought-provoking in its bigness of theme which
every reader will express for himself. Many will see no further than
the concrete events. Others may be tempted, perhaps, to read more into
the story than the author consciously included. But it seems to be
clear that the end of the struggle is in the yellow man’s favor. The
closing sentence emphasizes the irony of mission work.
CHARACTERIZATION. Is the boy’s angle uniform in regard to his
apprehension and comprehension at the age of thirteen? Does he
occasionally seem older? younger?
What attributes of the Minister invite your sympathy? How are his
qualities given--through the boy, or through his report of acts and
speeches?
At what point do you begin to watch for trickery on Mate Snow’s part?
What is his dominant trait?
What trait of the Chinaman is exploited? Is it racial or individual?
SETTING. Point out links that connect the locale of this story with
that of “Down on their Knees.” Notice that the chief scene-settings
are: the Chinaman’s scow, the church, the home of Sympathy Gibbs. Why
is the drug-store residence of Minister Malden not used? Why not the
transactions at Infield? Give two reasons, one with regard to unity,
the other with regard to handling of plot.
Is there reason that the action might have strayed over too much time
and place for the purpose of the short-story? Could a novelette be
constructed out of the material included?
DETAILS. By what early preparation does the death of Snow from _poison_
become so logical as scarce to challenge question? (See page 442.)
“Tubbed box trees,” “the big green door,” “lilac panes,” “silhouetted
against the open door,” “a steam-blurred silhouette,” “shadows of the
uneasy flock moved across the windows,”--these illustrate what ability
of the author? Point out other examples.
Page 447--“If--if one had faith!” To what dénouement is this a clue?
Page 448--“He’s gone out in the back-country to pray alone.” Clue to
what? Do you think it credible that Mate Snow never suspected where
Malden went on these occasions? If he knew, what motive kept him
silent? Where did Mate Snow suppose the Minister got the hush-money?
Page 449--“The door was still open, a blank, bright rectangle giving
into the deserted vestry, and it was against this mat of light that I
spied Minister Malden’s head,” etc. What processes work to make this a
memorable bit of description. Point out similar examples in this story
and in the other stories of Mr. Steele. Point out examples in stories
by other authors.
Study Mr. Steele’s use of shadows, here and in “The Yellow Cat.”
Compare them with Mr. Dobie’s shadows in “Laughter.” The value of
shadows lies in their suggestion. They call up the real thing in
fiction more easily and economically than the thing itself, as
described, can do. The reason is obvious. If there is a shadow, the
reader knows, unconsciously, there must be something to cast it. Hence,
curiosity may be aroused; in any event, “belief” is secured in the
reality of the object.
“Approaching ... I put one large, round eye to the aperture.” (Page
455.) Did the boy think of himself as having a “large round eye”? Or
does the narrator think of himself (now a man of years) as he looked?
Is it sound technique, either way regarded, or would it be better to
leave out the “large, round”?
Is it more fascinating to read of something viewed in part and
surreptitiously than it is to read of the same scene viewed as a whole
and freely under usual conditions? What primitive impulses are appealed
to?
Page 457, in the paragraph beginning, “I shall never forget the
picture,” occurs preparation for the “China way” departure. What is it?
In the same paragraph what excellent bit of description occurs?
What do you think of the idea “--the emotion of humor, which is another
name for perception”? (Page 458.)
Page 459, in the paragraph beginning, “Yes,” he murmured, is an
excellent example of irony. How does it aid the action?
Do you believe that in the struggle of wills Mate Snow would have
given in to the urge of the Chinaman? What circumstances argue for the
result? What is against it?
Page 465. Do not fail to take the full meaning of the paragraph to
heart: “He lay so still over there on the couch.” In what lines is the
thought most poignant?
Page 467. Why is the expression “Urkey’s unwashed collars” used with
fine effect?
What satisfaction do you find in the closing tableau?
THE DARK HOUR
“The Dark Hour” has, in the story sense, no plot. The only action lies
in a fragmentary discussion between the sick man, Hallett, and his
physician who paces the deck of the homeward bound vessel. The only
hint of a struggle lies in the conflicting viewpoints of the two men.
Hallett holds that Germany has a vision--“a red, bloody, damned
vision”--but a vision. The Allies have, as yet, no vision.
The doctor argues that the Allies _want to win the war_.
Hallett replies that this desire is nightmare.--“The only thing to beat
a vision black as midnight is a vision white as the noonday sun.” He
eventually gives the possible vision,--symbolized earlier by his words,
“There’s a bright star, doctor,”--in the thin-worn word, “Democracy.”
He declares that such an impossible Utopia must come--or “Hamburg to
Bagdad.” As the doctor declares that this wild empire of the spirit is
impossible and Hallett agrees, cryptically, that it is impossible, the
watch cries “All’s well.” Hallett then says we may do the impossible,
after all; in all the world is nothing but the sound of the barricades
of revolution. He sees the star, as he has seen it in the beginning of
the dialogue.
The argument thus becomes an optimistic prophecy of the final vision
of the Allies. At Thanksgiving, 1918, the impossible seems about to be
realized: Hallett was essentially right, in his point of view.
The sick man, one who probably dying is assumedly close to the
spirit-world, is well-balanced by the material physician, representing
the earth-spirit.
Besides suggesting a nexus between America and the fighting Allies, the
homeward bound vessel affords from its deck, quite naturally, the view
of the star, which becomes symbolically useful; and, further, the cry
of the watch, “All’s well,” which also conveys a deeper meaning.
* * * * *
The story should be read as the counterpart of Virgil Jordan’s
“Vengeance is Mine.” (See page 119.)
THE BIRD OF SERBIA
STARTING POINT. In “The Bird of Serbia,” Mr. Street desired to say
through the medium of fiction a certain thing. “Perhaps I wanted to
say: ‘Nothing is so small or so nasty that it can not be made to serve
an autocratic ruler in carrying out his designs.’ So, then, I took as
my symbol for smallness and nastiness, the louse. And then I set out to
prove that lice could serve the autocrat who wished to start a war. I
wanted to show how very true that theory is, and I should say that the
quality of truth in that story--the convincingness of it--is the best
thing about it.”--_Julian Street._
PLOT.
_Initial Impulses_, giving rise to the struggle and the
complication.--
Gavrilo Prinzip, a subject of Austro-Hungary, living in Sarajevo,
Bosnia, is a Serb by descent and nature. The revolutionary spirit
he displays at an early age gives evidence of his passionate racial
feeling. In 1913, at the age of eighteen, he is betrothed to Mara.
The two are devoted to each other, but Mara resents Gavrilo’s
constant ideal of a free Serb race. She is, perhaps, “jealous of a
people.”
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Sarajevo plans to have on June
28, Kossovo Day, a celebration greater than usual because of Serbian
independence gained in the two preceding years of the Balkan War. A
few days before, Mara’s relative, a former supposed rival of Gavrilo,
gives her a black song bird--a _kos_. Gavrilo begs her to release
the bird. She feels that she will be giving up her own character to
free it, and persists in keeping it caged. She is confirmed in her
stubbornness through the advice of her relative. The Serbian festival
is forbidden; attempts to commemorate the anniversary will result in
arrest. Austrian manoeuvres will take place, instead. The Archduke
will appear, in spite of advice to the contrary. It is clear that a
plot is brewing. Gavrilo has promised, however, not to participate in
anything violent so long as Mara loves him. She assures him of her
love, whereupon he asks her again, to set the _kos_ free.
_Minor Climax_: She refuses. The _kos_ has become a symbol for
both. Mara in releasing it would surrender her will power; Gavrilo
releasing it would see an emblem of freedom for all Serbs.
Gavrilo engages in the plot, but remembering his promise he refuses
to “participate in certain matters.” He and Mara are happy so long
as the bird is not mentioned. When he puts leaves into the cage,
however, Mara begs him not to do so; she fears they are poisonous, as
the bird is growing weaker. Gavrilo insists that captivity is killing
it.
_Dramatic Climax_: On the evening of June 27, the bird dies. “It was
not a dead bird that I saw, but a climax in a parable.”
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Gavrilo and Mara, filled with
emotion, dispute over the cause of death. Mara insists that the bird
man must determine the cause, and affects to believe that Gavrilo has
poisoned it. He runs from the garden, frantic. The bird man comes; he
points out the lice. Mara sends for Gavrilo. He cannot be found. The
Archduke, his wife, and their suite arrive.
_Climax of Action_: On the morning of June 28, Gavrilo shoots the
Archduke and the Archduchess as they ride through the streets of
Sarajevo.
_Dénouement_: Gavrilo dies, four years later, in prison.
The struggle, then, is one of wills--Gavrilo’s against Mara’s. The two
lines of interest forming the complication are 1st, the love story of
Gavrilo and Mara; 2nd, the relations between Serbians and Austria. This
complication begins with the initial impulse of the story and finds its
solution only with the climax of action.
Examples of good craftsmanship in details are 1st, making Gavrilo a
good shot, and at the same time introducing the bird _motif_; 2nd,
strengthening Mara’s will and antagonizing Gavrilo by the cousin, who
is introduced with the first mention of Gavrilo’s love affair. Point
out other instances of plot finish.
PRESENTATION. The story, as told by a man in a smoking-car, is
immediately and logically motivated by the newspaper account of Gavrilo
Prinzip’s death. The dénouement, therefore, is presented first, though
it appears from the conclusion that the narrator’s fellow-travelers do
not recognize this fact until the series of events comes full circle.
In connection with the plot, notice how the narrator is bound up with
it. What advantages do you find in the author’s presenting the story in
the rehearsed, rather than in the dramatic way? “In order to show what
I was driving at,” says Mr. Street, “it was necessary for me to use the
form of the inner, related story--a form which is always awkward, but
which sometimes succeeds in spite of its awkwardness, for the reason
that the reader becomes so absorbed in the inner story that he forgets
that an individual is supposed to be speaking, and that, too often,
that individual is talking like a book, rather than a human being, let
alone an easy raconteur.
“My story, ‘The Bird of Serbia,’ is not without this fault. The man who
sits in the smoking-room of a Pullman car and relates the inner tale,
would not, in actual life, have spoken altogether as I made him speak.
To that extent, then, the story is imperfect; but this imperfection
is not likely to be noticed by the average reader, because it is not
sufficiently glaring to remind him that the man in the smoking-room is
supposed to be talking all the while.”
CHARACTERIZATION. What traits in the chief actors are most conspicuous?
Are they “played up” convincingly and economically? What value have
the background characters--the mother of Gavrilo, for example? What
points of the Austrian character are noted, because of which sympathy
is diverted from the Archduke?
Is the narrator of Gavrilo’s story, the man in the smoking-car, a minor
character or a disinterested chronicler of the events he followed so
minutely and accurately?
SETTING. Notice that Mr. Street restrains his narrator from _stating_
the name of the place, Sarajevo, until near the conclusion. Does its
reserve increase the final effect? What details indicate the author’s
familiarity with local conditions, customs, dress, and language? To
what end do these local color data contribute?
DETAILS. What clue do you find in the narrator’s statement about the
“microscopic unclean forces of which historians will never know”?
Do you regard the ending as one of “surprise”? If so, is it calculated
as such, or rather a chance offshoot of what was intended, rather, as a
strong closing sentence?
On the subject of story writing in general, Mr. Street makes a valuable
observation:
“It seems to me that there is a tendency, in discussing the art of
short story writing, to confuse manner and matter, and to conclude that
the story with a big, sombre theme must necessarily be superior, as a
work of art, to the story which is lighter in subject and treatment.
When I say ‘light’ I do not mean frivolous or false. De Maupassant,
Leonard Merrick, and O. Henry have taught us better than that. A
story can have the quality of truth, and can be rich in character
and observation, yet be done with splendid deftness of touch--and
oftentimes this very deftness, which we so seldom see in a story, is
regarded too lightly by critics. It is much as though we were to insist
that the wood-chopper has greater skill than the tight-rope walker,
valuing the heavy strokes of the one more highly than the poise and
adeptness of the other. A light touch in a story often suggests that
it has been produced with ease; and a light step on the tight-rope
suggests the same thing; but when we see a man swinging a heavy axe at
a huge tree trunk, breathing hard and sweating, we readily perceive
that he is doing real work. Hard work. I do not dispute that there may
be certain lumber-jacks who handle the two-edged axe with a practiced
skill rivaling or, perhaps, even surpassing the skill of a fair
tight-rope walker; but neither do I hold with those who see art only
where there is sweat and smell and swearing.”
THE BOUNTY JUMPER
OPENING SITUATION. James Thorold, of Chicago, has just been appointed
ambassador to Forsland. Isador Framberg has fallen at Vera Cruz.
Thorold is making his way to the station to meet his son, Peter, who
comes on the same train that brings the body of Framberg.
The _initial incident_, then, of the complete story is the meeting of
father and son.
_Brief steps in action._--The two pay their respects to Framberg’s
remains, at City Hall. This becomes the _motivation_ for the story
Thorold tells his son and for his giving up the appointment. (See final
paragraph.)
PLOT OF INNER STORY.
_Initial Incidents_: Thorold had taken “bounty money,” which was
offered to any one who joined the Nineteenth Regiment at a specified
time.
_Dramatic Climax_: “I slipped past the lines.”... “I was a
bounty-jumper.”
_Climax of Action_: Thorold’s promise to God and to Lincoln that he
would atone for the faith he had broken.
_Dénouement_ (of enveloping action as aided by inner narrative):
Thorold relinquishes the Forsland Embassy. This act, joined to the
confession, forms the expiation. In one sense, the whole rehearsed
story may be said to constitute the dénouement of Thorold’s life-long
struggle.
CHARACTERIZATION. Thorold is the chief figure, emphasized from
beginning to end by the author’s comment, by his own recollections, by
his son’s remarks to him, and by his own confession. The _struggle_ is
Thorold’s. What aspects has it?
The second figure is Framberg--dead. He is the _cause_ of the immediate
phase of the long struggle, the climactic phase. He is the contrasting
element, the heroic young man, even an alien by birth, who was
nevertheless a better American than Thorold. (Notice the information
given, page 262, about his foreign birth.) Through whom does the reader
get most of the information about Isador?
The third figure is Peter, a foil of another sort for his father. He is
the judge. “Our children are always our ultimate judges”--page 268. Is
Peter, at any point, inconsistent with your concept of a sixteen year
old boy? How do you account for the fact, with respect to authorship
and artistic purpose of the author? Are his personality and influence,
joined to that of Framberg’s, strong enough for the motivating force?
That is, would Thorold have told his story? Would he have given up the
ambassadorship?
SETTING, ETC. The narrator brings together in an apparently easy yet
powerful way in a tempo suited to the happenings in real life the
forces of half a century. (Compare with this management that in “The
Waiting Years.”) The action occurs within a single morning. Chicago
is kept before the reader by numerous references. The magnitude of
the narrative is increased by the spirit of Lincoln; the poignancy
of sentiment by the lilac fragrance, the picture of the hearse, the
reminiscence of the dead Lincoln.
PRESENTATION. How consistently does the author keep to the mind of
Thorold in exercising her power of omniscience? When she shifts to
the boy’s mind, do you feel a break in the unity? What alleviating
circumstances help to preserve the unity?
ATMOSPHERE. The tone is restrained, sad from the inner failure of the
man who has known worldly success; yet it is hopeful in the spiritual
outcome of the struggle and in the promise of the young boy Peter.
Is it character or setting which, in this story, contributes most to
atmosphere?
NONE SO BLIND
CLASSIFICATION. A story of situation, suggesting numerous small
struggles. (See below.) It is a remarkable example of the _multum in
parvo_ management required of the short-story. The action requires a
brief part of one day.
PLOT. The _impulse_ of the action lies in the telephone message
announcing Bessie Lowe’s death.
The _dramatic climax_ is in Dick’s perjury: his declaration that Bessie
Lowe was the girl _he_ had cared for.
The _climax of action_ lies in the narrator’s discovery that
Standish--not Dick--had been Bessie’s lover.
The _dénouement_ is the narrator’s “poisoned arrow” flash of light that
Dick had loved Leila and had sacrificed his own fiancée to the hurt to
save Leila’s feelings. With the recognition dawns the realization that
she and Dick must go their ways.
Struggle moments suggested are: 1. In the heart of Standish. Shall
he confess to his wife? 2. In the heart of Dick. Shall he sacrifice
his fiancée to save Leila’s feelings? 3. On Leila’s part. Shall she
indicate that she knows Dick is lying? 4. On the part of the narrator.
What shall she do about it? In each case, the outcome arrives with
celerity, and love is the ruling motive in each struggle. The decision,
as affected by love, testifies to the character of each person.
CHARACTERIZATION. Is each character so described, and does he show
such action and interaction as to make logical the behavior in the
particular struggle? Must the reader accept any one of the decisions on
faith alone?
SETTING. What is it? Has it particular contributory value, or might the
locale have been, say, New York? How is it integrated with atmosphere
and action? (See, e.g., page 468, “Through the purpling twilight of
that St. John’s eve.”)
DETAILS. How might the narrator have hoodwinked herself as to Dick’s
motive? How might Dick have explained so as either 1. to satisfy the
narrator, or 2. to leave her--and the reader--in doubt? Which of the
three choices would have been cheapest and easiest? Which would have
destroyed, altogether, the individuality of the story?
Study the sound effects, beginning in the very first paragraph; Is
there a suggestion of disturbed harmonies, in a spiritual sense? Notice
that the sounds suggest the entire London background against which the
individual tragedy stands out, etched in a few lines.
What value have the poetic passages which Miss Synon is fond of
introducing into her stories? Do they seem to be external, or have they
been made an essentially vital part of the whole?
What does lavender, at the close, signify?
Wherein lies the deepest pathos of the story? How is it conveyed--by
notice or neglect or by a happy restraint?
HALF-PAST TEN
CLASSIFICATION. As a short-story of situation, this narrative achieves
that concentration found in Barrie’s “Half Hour” Plays. It may be
studied as all the preceding examples have been studied, but attention
is called to
SKILL IN PRESENTATION.
1. In the suspense, (a) the reader senses a tragedy, but has not all
the details until the end of the first seven or eight hundred words,
(b) the reader waits the news of Jim’s death.
2. In the new rise of interest after Al’s announcement, “All over.”
3. In depicting the characters almost wholly through acts and speeches.
4. In satisfying the reader. Jim died for a crime committed by another,
but he seems to have deserved death on general principles. Again, the
surviving family have the poor knowledge and consolation that he was
immediately innocent.
5. In the objective method (already suggested under 3) which conveys
directly the grim tragedy and sordid realism.
A slip in the method is found in the fact that the mind of the child is
invaded once or twice. It would seem that at the beginning the author
meant to present the whole tragedy from the point of view of Rhoda, who
would not comprehend it all, of course, and would therefore serve a
purpose similar to that of the thirteen year old boy in “Ching, Ching,
Chinaman.” But either the task proved too difficult, or the author
changed her purpose, without the revision which would have given
perfection to the method. (See, _e.g._, page 349, “Rhoda took stock
of them....” This illustrates her “angle” or the author’s exercise of
omniscience over her baby mentality.)
AT ISHAM’S
Setting and idea overbalance plot and characterization in this
story, which hardly concerns itself with narrative form. True, it
supports--rather than is supported by--an embryonic plot; and, true,
the plot is marked by a struggle element in the guise of antagonism
between two men. But the author is interested in his question and in
the debate.
The starting point of the argument is this query, propounded by Norvel,
at Isham’s restaurant: “If Mars is inhabited by a race so similar
to ourselves, what means of communication between us is there so
unmistakably of _human origin_ that a sight of it or a sound from it
would unmistakably convince them of our relationship?”
As suggestion after suggestion is dismissed, it seems to be clear that
nature can imitate everything. Then Savelle declares that man can only
imitate nature. Philbin retorts: “That’s contrary to every teaching of
Christ you ever raved about.” Philbin goes away. Savelle continues to
maintain that all that is human is imitation.
Then comes the great war. Philbin returns to Isham’s after five years,
in the second of the world conflict. Depressed, old, and distrait,
he announces that he has lost his son. He produces the bronze cross,
bestowed upon his son for saving the lives of two fishmongers. Young
Philbin was going back for the third when he was killed.
Norvel asks what part of nature Mr. Philbin was then imitating.
Savelle affirms, “It is the divine phenomenon of Calvary.” But Philbin
replies, “When my son was alive, he was a man. I believe he, too, died
like a man. I prefer that to an imitation of anything--even God.”
There is, then, no outcome; for the conclusion but emphasizes, further,
the two separate views. A larger truth is conveyed, however, which
as if incidentally usurps the end to which the story seems headed.
It is this: Sacrifice of life for a weaker brother is either Godlike
or manlike. With this dawning thesis in mind, the reader recognizes
that Mr. Venable has answered emphatically the question set up in such
stories as “Greater Love--” and “The Knight’s Move.” (See page 75.)
Are the views of Philbin and Savelle, in the end, the same each held at
the beginning?
DE VILMARTE’S LUCK
PLOT.
_Circumstances Antecedent to the Main Action_: Hazelton, who cannot
sell his “blond” canvasses, paints “La Guigne Noire,” a study in
dark. He is immediately approved by the public. After three years he
has ceased exposing pictures of his earlier and better manner.
_Initial Incident_: While he is engaged on “Le Mal du Ventre,” he
meets Raoul de Vilmarte, an inferior artist but gentleman of means.
The latter admires the former work, and insists that Hazelton should
claim his position as the apostle of light. Hazelton suggests that
another signature might bring recognition. De Vilmarte lightly offers
his name.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: He signs a Hazelton picture,
which is immediately accepted and acclaimed. The two artists decide
to keep the secret, as the best way out of what has become an awkward
situation. Hazelton decides to go on with his “darker” method. Some
months later the two men make another bargain--De Vilmarte buys a
painting of Hazelton. The traffic continues, whenever De Vilmarte
needs a picture or Hazelton needs money. (Notice the motivation for
the needs.) Hazelton, having transferred his affection to his second
manner, feels a mad sense of rivalry. On the occasion of the next
exhibition De Vilmarte wins the second medal. Hazelton has only
one picture on the line. Raoul is sorry; Hazelton says the thing
must stop. But now De Vilmarte’s mother urges a private exhibition.
Hazelton bargains once more, but with the statement that one of
the four must die--he, his wife, De Vilmarte, or De Vilmarte’s
mother.--“There is death in our little drama.” De Vilmarte falls in
love; his agony increases. Hazelton paints an unusually fine picture.
Raoul signs it but declares that it is the end; he has defiled
himself too long.
_Dramatic Climax_: The supposed artist receives the Legion of Honor.
Mme. de Vilmarte comments on the resemblance between her son’s “work”
and Hazelton’s, “as though you were two halves of a whole, a day and
night.” Hazelton gives up his thought of exposing De Vilmarte.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The struggle continues;
Hazelton, at intervals, threatens De Vilmarte; the latter plans to
kill Hazelton, then himself. But he decides to wait until his mother
dies. Affairs have reached this state when war breaks out, and France
claims both artists. Hazelton writes to Raoul that he must not fear
for his mother, if he comes to harm. Both are engaged for some time
in fighting.
_Climax of Action_: Wounded, they meet in a hospital. Hazelton learns
that De Vilmarte’s right hand is injured; he dies in an ironic burst
of laughter that Raoul’s luck holds to the end.
The details of plot are presented chronologically, from the
omniscient author’s point of view. Do you see any value in the
author’s exercising omniscience over the mind of first one character
then the other? Would the story gain if she had invaded only Raoul’s
mind? Hazelton’s?
CHARACTERS. In Hazelton, the dominant character, Mrs. Vorse presents an
interesting study of dual personality. She gains the reader’s sympathy
for him chiefly by showing that his better nature, as revealed in his
“first manner,” lacked appreciation from the artistic world. He was,
in a measure, forced to rely upon his “second” or “darker” manner. In
this respect the narrative offers a novel divergence from other stories
of the type. At the same time, the contrasting features in the man’s
physical appearance, in his craftsmanship, and in his behavior toward
De Vilmarte testify to the indubitable presence of light and shade in
his intrinsic make-up.
De Vilmarte is only a foil, but sufficiently vitalized to share,
proportionately, the reader’s interest.
SETTING. Nowhere except in France could the development of events be so
easily compassed. From the salon of the beginning to the hospital at
the close, the setting is an integral part of the story.
THE WHITE BATTALION
STARTING POINT. “It was in those intolerable days of 1917 when Russia
had fallen away and America seemed perilously unready; when German
intrigue helped by treachery behind the allied lines in France, England
and Italy was winning the war for Germany; intolerable to those of
soldier blood whose years put them beyond the dead line of enlistment
requirements and who could do nothing more than work and earn and give
over here.
I was haunted interminably by the suffering of the women of France
whose men had died on the field of honor--wasted suffering if, in the
end, the German won. I knew the women would fight against any--is there
a stronger adjective of horror now than _Germanic_ odds? How could
these widowed women, or even the dead bear it--and in a flash “The
White Battalion” came.
Always the supernatural stories “flash” in this way, apparently in
answer to a long sub-conscious demand for justice beyond human power to
compass. Other stories build more or less painfully, save for the big
scene.”--_Frances Gilchrist Wood._
PLOT.
_Initial Impulse_: Widows of certain heroic Frenchmen, petitioning
to be entered and drilled as the --nth Battalion of Avengers, are
accepted and trained.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Each woman adds a packet of
potassium cyanide to her equipment. They request, further, to be
assigned to the position which will be in the course of advance to
retake the ground held to the death by their men. Major Fouquet
commands them. Order comes for the attack, and they go over the top,
eagerly, gripping their bayonets as they follow the barrage across No
Man’s Land. When the barrage lifts the women see “thrust shield-wise
above the heads of the Huns--frightened and sobbing--hundreds of
little children!” (This is a minor climax.) The women recognize they
must either betray a trust or cut through the barricade of children.
After an instant only the woman captain makes the sign of the cross
and stumbles forward--on her wrist bound the packet of death! They
will charge, her followers understand, but the poison will erase the
hideous memory forever. The captain falls....
_Dramatic Climax_: As the women grip to thrust, there sweeps down
a battalion of marching shadows in a blur of gold and blue that
outstrips the advance of the Avengers. There is a flash of charging
steel and the waving colors of the old --nth as they sweep over the
untouched children into the trench.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The bravest man in the old --nth
bends over the fallen captain; there is a smile of recognition, then
the woman’s figure springs to his side and sweeps forward with the
Battalion.
_Climax of Action_: The old soldiers of the --nth, led by “a shining
one,” save their women from the “last hellish trap set by fiends”!
The Avengers and the White Battalion retake the ground for which the
--nth gave their lives.
_Dénouement_: Fouquet and Barres, having seen the field from
different angles, report the episode.
PRESENTATION. The rehearsal of this dramatic occurrence, so shortly
after the event, scarcely detracts from its stirring qualities. So
striking are they, in fact, that presented directly they would probably
suffer from over-emphasis and consequent lack of conviction. Moreover,
reality is conveyed through
1. The curiosity of the foreign officers over losing contact with the
French forces;
2. The colloquial way in which the history of the --nth Battalion is
given;
3. The establishing of truth through the mouths of two witnesses;
4. The emphasis on the forty seconds, which under the conditions of
presentation gains significance;
5. The assurance that the children have been sent to the rear to be
cared for.
CHARACTERIZATION. The individual characters of the main incident are
lost in the group--save for the bright passage about the dead woman
captain. Avenging their dead, righting a wrong, holding sacred a trust,
keeping faith with the Fatherland, dying in performance of duty--of
all these the avenging women were nobly capable. The _struggle_, in
its relation to woman nature, is one of the most psychologically
true found in fiction. It was all over in forty seconds; yet the
so-called instinct of woman--in reality her ability to judge and decide
quickly--terminated the struggle between tenderness and trust, with
ample time left over. Faith would be kept, even at the expense of their
mortal bodies and of their immortal souls.--The characteristic of
the White Battalion is the spirit of protection. The characteristics
of Fouquet and Barres are simplicity, honesty and an almost homely
every-day-heroic quality, all of which work to the conviction of the
reader. Because of the family relations, the fundamental notions of
honor, and elemental ideals exhibited, this story is destined to last.
Founded on bed-rock principles of life itself, it towers into the realm
of spirit.
* * * * *
“The short-story is, of course, the recountal of some struggle or
complication so artistically told as to leave upon the reader one
dominant impression. Perhaps the ‘artistic’ is redundant, for can a
story leave such an impression unless it be artistically told? Even
geniuses must master their vehicle of expression or remain dumb.
To win the sought for reaction to a short-story, painting, play or
oratorio, one learns either in the hard, blind school of ‘rejection
slips’ or by the intelligent method of skilled critic and master, but
learn one must.
“The high water mark in story writing is reached most often for me by
the dramatic story, objectively told. It is the genius who selects just
the right, again the artistic, material which limns the personality of
the character and reveals it to us through that unconscious tell-tale,
the character himself; whose story-people talk in just the tone that
makes even the impossible carry conviction; and who last, or perhaps
first, has a story to tell and an unhackneyed way of telling it.
“Suggestion and restraint in a story appeal to me most strongly.... And
when in ‘the joy of working’ one masters the writer’s art, genius as
well as mere talent, the reaction will come; the audience will laugh or
cry--or both, if the gods are kind.”--_Frances Gilchrist Wood._
Transcriber’s Notes
Hyphenated words WITHIN CHAPTERS were standardized, but not across
chapter lines.
The author’s italics were left as printed even when inconsistent.
Pages 29 and 30: The last 6 paragraphs were moved to align with the
left margin to conform with the author’s format of other chapters.
Spelling and punctuation have been preserved as printed in the original
publication except as follows:
1. Page 19: Changed printing error of “h s” from “Take account
of h s acts,” to “Take account of his acts,”
2. Page 61: Added accent to DERNIÈRE in chapter title to match it with
Contents page.
3. Page 127: Changed “in a multiude of stories.” to “in a multitude of
stories.”
4. Page 157: Changed “as she breaks down pyhsically,” to “as she breaks
down physically,”
5. Page 166: Changed “Matt’s” to “Nat’s” in this sentence: “The story
impulse lies, dormant, in the business of Nat’s funeral.”
6. Page 196: Changed “he hears her says” to “he hears her say”
7. Page 200: Changed “this wild empre” to “this wild empire”
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