Chapter VII (1)

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?