Chapter VII (4)

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.