fully characterized? Why is she introduced?
THE WAY OF LIFE
LUCY HUFFAKER is a short-story writer of distinction, who has recently
been devoting her principal interest to the drama. She is connected with
the Washington Square players in New York City.
In the short space of a May evening, Emmeline Black, mother of eight
children, a good wife for a farmer, careful and industrious, lives
through her girlhood aspirations and the complete shattering of her
dreams. Finally, there comes to her the greater tragedy of the
realization that, in spite of what she can do, her daughter faces the
same career of fantasy and disillusionment. For the first time in
twenty-one years, Jake Black finds his wife different, almost a bit
untractable. Yet he can find no solution for the problem. 'Em' has been
a good wife, their marriage has been successful, his daughter’s possible
engagement augurs well for the future; but 'Em' is worried about
something. It is the daughter herself who sets their small world aright.
Her gratitude for the dreams her mother has given her brings to Emmeline
the realization of the value of inspiration where accomplishment proves
impossible. The years of hard work before her, and the prospect of a
similar life for her daughter, grow insignificant before the new
consciousness that dreams do last.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. Comment on the general atmosphere produced by the opening paragraphs.
2. What descriptive details contribute particularly to the realism of
the scene?
3. How is this realism more fully brought out in the conversation
between the wife and husband?
4. What feelings prompted the lie which Mrs. Black told? What can be
said in extenuation of this lapse?
5. What contrasts were prominent in her mind?
6. What in Victoria’s character, makes the strongest appeal?
7. Do we feel that Victoria is more likely than her mother to keep the
youthful dreams and visions?
8. What is Mrs. Black’s greatest consolation?
9. Comment on the author’s way of ending her story.
A YEAR IN A COAL MINE
JOSEPH HUSBAND has, since his graduation from Harvard in 1907, been
engaged in industrial pursuits. He has, however, found time to
contribute frequently to The _Atlantic Monthly_. At present Mr. Husband
is an ensign in the United States Navy. The first account of his naval
experience is published in the May (1918) _Atlantic_.
For vividness of sense-suggestion--color, sound, smell, feeling--Joseph
Husband’s smooth-flowing narration of a year’s experience in a soft-coal
mine is worthy of study. The blackness which is 'absence of light rather
than darkness,' the submerging silence, the seeping gas-vapors, the
nervous consciousness of lurking danger--all these give indisputable
atmosphere. What grim tragedy, awful in its heavy brutality, might not
here be grimly enacted! Instead, there is work--the grimy, sweating work
of the underground; hard muscles, and senses not too alive to material
forces. An occasional superstition gives life to the blackness--a
strange white phantom that dazzles the sight and blinds the
understanding with unreasoning fear. But most vivid of all is the
blackness and the work.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. How does the author’s preface add to the interest in his narrative?
Are your expectations of his added power borne out?
2. Do you find Mr. Husband more able in his descriptions of large
scenes, masses of buildings, groups of people,--or in the
individualizing of the single person or thing?
3. Is the setting for the work, or the work itself, the chief purpose of
the narrative? Which do you find the more interesting?
4. Can you explain the author’s feelings of mortification as he first
enters upon his duties?
5. What are some of the elements that make for the vividness of the
scenes?
6. Why is the occasional mention of color so effective?
7. Contrast the mental occupations during a period of temporary leisure
in a coal mine with a similar rest hour in the upper world?
8. From reading this narrative, can you offer any reasons why the
ancient peoples believed mines to be inhabited by a race of gnomes?
WOMAN’S SPHERE
S. H. KEMPER’S short stories reveal a genuinely sympathetic
understanding of child-life. Mr. Kemper’s present home is in Scranton,
Pennsylvania.
The plot itself is slight: the presentation of a ball--a _worsted
ball_--as a birthday present to a boy of nine! The comic element
immediately suggests itself; Wilbur discovers that it may come very near
tragedy--not for him, but for Aunt Susan. To be so inconceivably old
that one cannot understand what a ball of gay worsted would mean to a
boy who had already practised imaginary curves with a magnificent white
sphere bearing the proud blue label of the American League! All Wilbur’s
chivalric nature is called out to keep his great aunt from knowing how
great is her misunderstanding, and how keen his aching pity that age
could be so terrible.
Is there, perhaps, a suggestion here of refined propaganda?--Education
for women--higher, broader, what you will?
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. Contrast Aunt Susan with Wilbur’s grandmother.
2. Mention certain significant items that contribute to the realism of
the various situations.
3. Comment on the way in which Wilbur’s fancy works, as he views the
ball in anticipation.
4. What was there in Aunt Susan’s conversation that reveals her lack of
understanding of boy nature?
5. Is there any element of surprise in the way Wilbur takes his
disappointment? Comment fully upon his varied emotions.
6. What is the marked contrast between Aunt Susan and Wilbur’s father?
7. Which paragraph is most interesting from the point of view of
setting? Why?
8. Comment on the aptness of the title.
BABANCHIK
CHRISTINA KRYSTO lived the first nine years of her life, from 1887 to
1896, in Russia. She then came with her father’s family to America,
settling on a ranch. Her vocation is ranch-work; her avocation is
writing. Miss Krysto’s _The Mother of Stasya_ is published in the June
(1918) _Atlantic_.
An Armenian, a Revolutionist, a voluntary exile, desiring in his old age
nothing so much as the privilege of serving Russia, whose government,
institutions, and rulers he had fought all his seventy years--such is
Babanchik. Russia had driven his twenty-year-old daughter into an exile
of hard labor, had imprisoned his son for the best ten years of his
life; and Babanchik died because his strength was too weak to carry him
back to serve her. Shall you call it patriotism in a man who cursed his
native land with a hymn of everlasting hate? racial instinct in one
whose Armenian birth made him an object of official suspicion? Here
there could be no overpowering conviction that his country’s
civilization must be protected against the dreaded Kultur. Yet the
desire comes--not only his own, but the command of his imprisoned son,
that he serve Russia.
There are other beautiful things in Christina Krysto’s story, not the
least of which are the suggestive bits of description of the life in the
Georgian village. Yet Babanchik, of the caressing name, product of that
strange country whose people grow more incomprehensible as the Great War
progresses, interesting as he is, directing the summer play in the
Caucasian Mountains, is a thousand times more wonderful when swayed by
the unnamed power that returns him dead to Russia.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. What are the characteristics in Babanchik that make him a favorite
with the children?
2. Contrast the Babanchik who played with the children with the
Babanchik who talked with the father.
3. What were Babanchik’s most serious interests?
4. What circumstances of his birth hampered his influence with the
Russian government?
5. How was his ambition to become a member of the city Duma crushed?
6. In spite of government intervention, what were some of the beneficial
influences which Babanchik found that he could exert?
7. What was there in the government of Russia that was particularly
distasteful to a man of Babanchik’s nature?
8. What strong traits of Babanchik are brought out in that long furious
fight for his children in the Russian prison?
9. What effect did the war have upon Babanchik’s view of Russia?
10. What hastened the old man’s desire to return?
11. Comment upon the author’s artistic close.
ROSITA
ELLEN MACKUBIN was, several years ago, a frequent contributor to the
_Atlantic_. Nearly all her stories are tinged with the military spirit
with which she was thoroughly familiar.
The cause of the deed is never revealed to the garrison; its
consequences can only be surmised. Indeed the true standing of the
affair as tragedy is only guessed. The instigator of the quarrel between
Major Prior and Jerry Breton, the perpetrator, and the victim of the
tragedy unite in the person of one christianized just enough to suffer
for the savage instincts she had never learned to control. We see her
just once, Rosita, the beautiful, the impulsive, the passionate; the
next time she is dead. It is the feeling of repressed power that makes
Ellen Mackubin’s story grip the attention. In a few short pages,
three--possibly four--characters are made to live, and a tragedy wrecks
two lives.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. Discuss which of the common elements of story--setting, plot,
character, theme, or style--is here most prominent.
2. Discuss the way in which the separate characters are introduced and
the complication arranged.
3. How can Jerry’s treatment of the commanding officer on the day of the
dress parade be condoned?
4. How does the reader feel regarding Rosita’s vague declaration that
she will rid Jerry of Prior’s unfairness?
5. On the night of the shooting, what motive prompted Jerry to fling the
pistol far over the edge of the bluff?
6. Describe the effects which the tragedy produced upon the garrison.
7. What were Jerry’s feelings during the days immediately succeeding the
tragedy?
8. How does the reader decide the question as to who is the really
guilty person?
PERJURED
EDITH RONALD MIRRIELEES is a member of the English Department of Leland
Stanford Junior University.
It was a useless lie. Robbins knew that, as soon as he had spoken it.
But it stopped the boys' teasing. Once spoken, events followed in too
rapid succession for him to do more than qualify his statement; the bald
accusation remained. Repetition had done more than confirm the story in
Sutro; it had benumbed Robbins’s own sense of exactness. His reputation
for truth constantly confronted him; sometimes it made it easier for
him, but increasingly often he saw the difficulty of reconciling the lie
with himself. On the other hand, time and self-torture strengthened the
conviction that truth must prevail and that no innocent man could suffer
by the law. And so it proved. Robbins, the boy who had tried to save
himself from momentary discomfiture, who had deliberately placed a man
in direct accusation for murder, found himself, not a self-righteous
person who by a last act of grace redeems the innocent and places
himself on a martyr’s pedestal; instead, he found himself a perjured
youth, no better than the truck-gardener Emerson in whom truth itself
lost credence.
That a malignant fate had placed the name of the guilty man in the boy’s
mouth, comes with no shock; the author has so carefully prepared our
minds for that very verdict, that we are merely surprised that we could
have forgotten the bits of telling evidence. The interest begins and
ends with a boy of sixteen who in weakness was forsworn.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. Comment on the appropriateness of the direct opening. Is such a
method more appropriate to one type of story than another?
2. Describe the steps by which the author prepares for, without
explaining, his climax.
3. How does the author focus attention, not on the murderer and
criminal, but on the individual problem of Robbins? Would you have
preferred a more detailed explanation of the cause of the crime?
4. Why is Emerson introduced?
5. Is the enormity of the injury he is doing ever clear to Robbins?
6. What other stories are included, but left untold, in this one?
7. What, to you, is the most significant thing in the author’s handling
of the narrative? Why would such a story not lend itself to scenic
production?
WHAT MR. GREY SAID
MARGARET PRESCOTT MONTAGUE, living among the West Virginia mountains,
has written many successful stories of the Hill people whom she knows so
well.
To make of the little blind child of the coal-miner a compellingly human
little soul, yet to touch him with a warmth and beauty of imagination so
exquisite that it pains the heart; to do all this so deftly, so tenderly
that one draws a quick breath of wonder--these are only bare suggestions
of the power that created Margaret Prescott Montague’s _What Mr. Grey
Said_.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. Contrast the richness of sense-perceptions of Stanislaus with his
poverty of all things else.
2. Analyze the elements that make up the charm of Stanislaus. Aside from
the pathetic, what is the strongest interest?
3. How does Miss Julia help to prolong the suspense?
4. Would the story have been as powerful if it were entirely tragic?
5. Would the story have gained if Stanislaus were presented in direct
contrast to the other blind children? Why would a longer story have been
weaker?
6. Does the dialect contribute to the charm of the story? What is the
real function of dialect?
7. Does the ending seem a makeshift to avoid a difficulty? How has the
author succeeded in making the ending not only possible but probable?
A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION
E. MORLAE was an American who, in the early days of the Great War,
enlisted in the French Army and became a Soldier of the Legion. Many of
his war experiences are graphically told in his various articles in _The
Atlantic Monthly_.
'We spent our time eating and sleeping, mildly distracted by an
intermittent bombardment': these were the breathing spells; active work
found analogy only in the regions below. Yet either adventure was told
with equal calm. That is what impresses one in Sergeant Morlae’s
narrative. It is so grimly calm, almost impersonal. There is no careless
enthusiasm, excited hilarity, or mad vengeance--simply a job to be done.
The enemy alive present a target; dead, a source of added comfort for
one’s self, a souvenir for one’s brother, or, if need be, material for a
parapet. One’s life before and after has nothing to do with the present.
And this is even more terrible for what it leaves unsaid.
There is, however, no lack of vividness in _A Soldier of the Legion_.
The matter-of-factness of the telling deceives us only for a time, until
the intrusion of a crisp, 'Hell kissed us welcome'; or, more significant
still, 'And we were counted: eight hundred and fifty-two in the entire
regiment, out of three thousand two hundred who entered the attack on
the 25th of September.'
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. Does the conversational tone of the narrative make it any the less
vivid?
2. When is the author’s power of vivid portrayal most apparent?
3. What ideas do you get of the Legion’s views of the enemy? Contrast it
with other war stories you have read. Could it be accounted for by the
type of men who entered the Foreign Legion?
4. What in the author’s account suggests the general morale of the
troops?
5. What does the grimness of the occasional bits of humor convey as to
the mental state of the men? What do these occasional jokes gain by
their very scarcity?
6. What new ideas of war come to you from Sergeant Morlae’s account?
THE BOULEVARD OF ROGUES
MEREDITH NICHOLSON has won most of his popularity as a novelist. He is,
however, an accomplished essayist, a poet of distinction, and a keen
critic of current literary and political matters. More recently, he has
become interested in the writing of short stories. His home is in
Indianapolis, where he was privileged to enjoy for many years an
intimate friendship with James Whitcomb Riley, whose character Mr.
Nicholson has sympathetically portrayed in his novel, _The Poet_, and in
an illuminating essay in _The Atlantic Monthly_ for October, 1916.
Propaganda in such disguise needs no apology. Not only can we appreciate
the cleverness of the trick as well as the earnestness of its author,
but we relish what a very good thing a similar lesson would be for our
own or for our neighboring cities.
At the same time, there is a worth-while character-study to be made of
the Chairman of the Committee on Art, who presents a type almost as rare
in fiction as it is in life.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. The student will find it interesting to make a thorough study of
Barton’s character--his cynicism, his practical good sense, and all his
other prominent traits. A composition discussing all these could be made
very interesting and enlightening.
2. Discuss the general political attitude of the average city
councilman.
3. In an examination of the plot, what incident seems to you to mark the
point of highest interest? Discuss fully.
4. How is Barton’s character relieved from any final censure for the
spending of money for a statue of a rogue?
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALANNA
KATHLEEN NORRIS, a Californian by birth, has been a voluminous writer of
magazine fiction since 1910, when she contributed two stories to the
_Atlantic_--_What Happened to Alanna_ and _The Tide Marsh_.
To those who know Kathleen Norris’s _Mother_, nothing more need be said
of this author’s ability to depict the wholesome sentiment of family
life, without the sentimentality that clings to many of the ordinary
short stories and novels. The less fortunate may make valuable
acquaintance in the halls of Costello. F. X., Senior, 'undertaker by
profession and mayor by an immense majority,' shares his position of
importance by reason of the charms of his numerous offspring. Mrs.
Costello is, of course, the centre of interest, as she is of the
Costello circle, which means all who come within range of her generous
hand and kindly word. Yet no one remains unindividualized. A few vivid
strokes, and the picture is complete. If an artistic hand adds another
touch now and then, we are never made conscious of technique. Especially
is this true in the case of young Mrs. Church. And what more delightful
could there be than the family conversations, which are quite as
revealing in points of character as they are delightful in their flashes
of humor?
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. What purpose does the detailed description of family life serve?
Comment on the choice of detail.
2. Besides the plot, what are the most interesting elements in the
story?
3. Could you suggest another climax?
4. What is gained by having Alanna solve her problem alone? How does the
author arrange that the solution shall be thus accomplished?
5. Is Mrs. Church introduced for any reason other than her slight
connection with the plot?
6. Is Mr. Costello as well portrayed as his wife? Can you suggest any
reasons why he typifies the Irish-American rather than the native
Irishman of the same rank?
7. How does Miss Norris achieve the atmosphere that she does?
8. Could the story be criticized as being sentimental?
SPENDTHRIFTS
LAURA SPENCER PORTOR (Mrs. Francis Pope) has long been engaged in
literary work. Her essays and stories 'give proof of a versatility of
experience as Protean as her talents.' Mrs. Pope is now connected with
the editorial staff of one of the prominent New York magazines.
Perhaps that which impresses the reader most in _Spendthrifts_ is the
production of an atmosphere that makes the strange seem real, and the
commonplace take on a suggestion of the fanciful. Not half so wonderful
is it that the woman of the orange-colored eyes should meet the lover of
her youth, now a lay Franciscan, and live again with him the story of
their love before a smilingly complacent husband, as that this story
should have been unfolded before the eyes of a romantic little girl who
went out to see the world in a rambling old coach. The author, like the
successful playwright, completely transfers us to another world. The
careful preparation of atmosphere is followed by a swift march of events
to a climax the more powerful by the necessity of its restraint. The
gradual trailing off into the dim romantic atmosphere out of which the
story grew, calls for a curtain that may be raised again only on the
author’s epilogue.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. What can you say by way of comment on the somewhat leisurely
beginning of this story?
2. What do you like best in the description of the old-fashioned 'bus?
3. Justify the author’s early paragraphs on the herds of dumb cattle.
4. Can you analyze the method by which the author makes even her most
trivial details of the trip seem vital and interesting?
5. Is it true that most of these details--both narrative and
descriptive--assume greater importance because they are seen through a
child’s vision?
6. What items bring out the disturbed feelings of the Franciscan soon
after he enters the 'bus?
7. Trace the details that very gradually portray the character of
Louise’s husband.
8. What part does the description of the various costumes play in the
portrayal of character?
9. As Louise analyzes to the Franciscan the past relations existing
between them, do we find ourselves sympathizing with one or the other,
or with neither?
10. What is the intended symbolism of the title, _Spendthrifts_?
11. What is symbolized by the herd of cattle?
CHILDREN WANTED
LUCY PRATT, a frequent contributor to magazines, lives in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
So slight is the plot in _Children Wanted_ that one might on reflection
question whether there is a plot. In the actual reading, one becomes too
absorbed in the very real situation that Miss Pratt presents to become
coldly analytical. The vividness of Master Crosby Tarbell’s particular
adventure with life is reflected, not only in the letter Mr. Henry
Tarbell dispatches to a certain Pony Man, but in the reader’s own warm
indignation at the carelessness, the cowardice, of compromising
grown-ups in general. At the same time, Miss Pratt’s masterly use of
commonplace detail, fully as much as the poignant bits of character
delineation, such as that which ends the story, makes of _Children
Wanted_ as effective a bit of narrative technique as it is a striking
example of the propagandist’s art.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. Is the chief interest of the story in the principal character or in
the underlying theme?
2. Would the experience have meant as much to any child?
3. Why is the 'lady on the hill road' added to the list of customers?
4. What does Crosby’s father add to the story that Crosby’s mother could
not? Would you have preferred to be told more about Mrs. Tarbell?
5. Do you find any explanations for the climax in the previous
characterization of Crosby? How has the detailed description of the barn
helped to reveal the lad’s sensitiveness?
THE SQUIRE
ELSIE SINGMASTER (Mrs. H. Lewars), a Pennsylvanian by birth and
residence, has been writing at more or less irregular intervals ever
since her first story was published in _Scribner’s Magazine_ twelve or
thirteen years ago. Her reputation has been largely won by her
sympathetic portrayal of the Pennsylvania Dutch character.
How adequately, how finally, a person can be characterized by his own
conversations, all the principals in this little Millerstown drama
demonstrate. Weakness, crudeness, selfishness, speak out their own
existence. And, to shine by contrast in the midst of all this pettiness,
is the figure of a man who makes the title 'Squire' mean what it has
meant to certain English townships, and whatever more comes from
responsibility assumed without force of precedent or hope of recompense.
_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_
1. What are the elements which produce the atmosphere of crudity that
stands for Millerstown? Could any description of the town produce a like
effect?