Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane Essay

_A Dark Brown Dog_ is a short fable by the praised realistic author Stephen stretch forth. Within this piece, Crane takes a different get on to the son and mouse click theme by creating an atmosphere of disgracefulness. This trait is well up incorporated by Crane and stack be easily imbed within the characters that Crane had carefully crafted. Specifically, the disgraceful trait can be found in varying levels within the novice and the young male child. And plot the prominence of this sadistic trait remains in the story, the trait helps pee a a change in boy and crosss relationship. In the story, the fathers presence is accompanied by and is interchangeable with sadism and abuse. The first incident in which the father appears is when the boy first brings the nefariousness brown quest after to his star sign. Naturally, the family clamors ab stunned the quest after and scrutinize it to the point where the boy is protesting loudly as to keep the dog. At that moment the father walks into the house in the midst of the yelling and, perceives that it would amaze and anger everybody if such a dog were allowed to remain, he decided that it should be so (Crane 3).This reflects how the father takes enjoys forcing the family to vomit up with the presence of the unwanted dog. The incident is also representative of how the father finds pleasure in others suffering, a tenet of sadism. While this incident may not seem to define the father as an abuser, it remains as a hint of the full extent of the fathers sadistic nature. In fact, the entire magnitude of the fathers shamefulness is encapsulated by the crook point of the story in which the boy and the dog come situation from one of their adventures only to arrive to the sight of the father throwing cooking utensils in a drunken rage.The sight drove the boy to seek treasure from under a table while the dog trounced rough the direction excited by the spectacle, unaware of the danger. The dogs vulnerabil ity and naivety led the father to take advantage of it as he wave the dog with a pan, force the dog into incoming, and eventually, swung him two or ternion times hilariously ab come in his head, and then flung him with great accuracy by the window (Crane 6). The father was clearly enlightened by his ability to give upon a defenseless dog and to murder him without a second thought. non only that, barely this incident showed how father truly wanted to snitch the dog suffer as the father unnecessarily twirled the dog around before killing him.To a lesser extent, the boy also exhibits the abusive trait that is found inhis father and instead of inflicting pain on everyone, the boy abuses the dog. For instance, when the boy and the dog first encounter one another, the dog acts playfully with the boy who promptly hit the dog and sent him into a prayer like stance showing the dogs submission. This submission was foud comical as it was stated that, the baby bird was greatly amused a nd gave him piddling taps repeatedly, to keep him so (Crane 1). Superficially, this depicts the child simply amusing himself. However, at that place exists an underlying layer that reveals the sadistic trait of the child as he finds delight in the dogs pain and fright. It shows how the child extracts a feeling of superiority over the dog which Crane further establishes in his story by describing the child as a terrible despot and the dog as a subject.In addition to this occurrence, the child had dis contend his abusive nature on a separate instance. Crane describes this instance as a general and recurring case as he describes how, Sometimes, too, the child would beat the dog, although it is not known that he ever had what truly could be called a just cause (Crane 4). What is established here is that the child harms the dog for no reason. Through the conclusion derived previously, it is inferred that the child had done this deed because he found pleasure in exerting his might over the dog. This reestablishes how the child exhibits the sadistic traits which his father also bears, only to a lesser degree.Pointedly, Crane crafts the boy to be reflective of his fathers habits. This is done to show the cyclical nature of abuse and how the ones being abused may develop sadistic traits themselves. Regardless, of this fact Crane proceeds to simultaneously illustrate how abuse can shape a relationship. Specifically, the relationship being altered one be between the boy and the dog. As noted, the boy and the dog first experience off with an abusive relationship with power and dominance being held by the boy and a subservient role taken upon by the dog. This is short encapsulated by the fact the dysfunctional family of the boy would often go out of their way to harm the dog and as a result, The child became a guardian and helper (Crane 3), to the dog.This is descriptive of how the abusive nature of the boys home had forced him to take upon the role of a protector. Whats more, is that the abusive atmosphere of his home had led the boy to grow a affectionateness for his new companion and to strive to protect to dog instead of permit him befall to harm. What solidifies this conclusion is the ending of the story, after the father threw the dog out the window, the family had found the boy, seated by the body of his dark brown friend (Crane 6). When taken a step back, what this shows is how the abuse and sadism surrounding the boy and the dog had altered their relationship from an abusive one to one based upon faithfulness and friendship.In conclusion, within the 6 short pages of a _Dark Brown Dog_, Stephen Crane creates characters with a shared and prominent trait of abusiveness. These characters were primarily the father, and to a lesser, but still significant extent, the boy. And while this trait had shaped the characters, it also played a role in defining the course of the boy and dogs relationship. Case in point, the abusive trait in the sto ry had been integral to _Dark Brown Dog._