Alicia Rush
Don Godfrey
ENGL 1510

“A Dark Brown Dog” Analysis

In Stephen Crane’s short story of “A Dark Brown Dog”, he writes about a young boy who finds, neglects, and befriends a ragged puppy, with a rope dragging the ground, when they meet. The boy takes fun in abusing the puppy, but when he tires of this he makes his way home. The puppy, even though the boy was not nice, starts to follows the boy home. When arriving home the boy defends the puppy to claiming him as his own. The boy’s father agrees to allow the boy to keep the puppy. The boy and the puppy grow very fond of each other. The puppy was abused but always showing his love even after his abuse. Then the story takes a very sad, gruesome turn for the young dog.
The story
His biography told he was the youngest of 14 children. Although his father was a reverend and his mother was a busy woman with her children and was said to be a writer herself. Being in a household with this many children could have led to a lonely existence that left him on his own to see the world as cruel and uncaring.
This story was a tale told of abuse and neglect from a broken drunk that took pride in showing his dominance of his family and an innocent animal. Braden’s analysis was based on the time and situation but read into more than looking at what was on the surface of the story. The research of the biography tells that with the history that Crane had and the life that he experienced himself.

Works Cited
Grade Saver. “Biography of Stephen Crane” List of Works, Study Guides & Essays”.
Grade Saver 22 October, 2014 WEB. 22 October 2014

“Stephen Townley Crane” Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. WED. 22 Oct 2014

“Literary Analysis of a Dark Brown Dog”. Tales of a Nerdy College Student, http://btd0902.blogspot.com/2010/11/literay-analysis-of-dark-brown-dog.html . WEB 22 October