STARTING POINT. The beginning of this story lay in a bit about an
insane man in Missouri, a story which came to Mr. Dreiser quite ten
years before he developed it. The story quality testifies to the value
of the long dormant period.
SETTING. Study the narrative, observing with respect to place that
although you may feel you have your mind on the exact locality, it
presently flits to another probable setting. This is because Mr.
Dreiser attaches no importance to the locality of his short stories, so
long as the incidents are American--and either urban or rural. The gain
is, of course, in favor of the essential nationality; the loss is to
the individual community. Does the first grasp of setting bring with it
the atmosphere of the narrative?
CLASSIFICATION. A story of a search, at last successful. It may be
classed, also, as a story of the supernatural, wherein the vision
is one of a crazed brain. So beautifully has the author handled the
fancy and the vision, however, that the reaction on the reader causes
wonder as to whether sanity and insanity are not relative, or even
interchangeable.
PRESENTATION. By the omniscient author, who exercises omniscience
particularly over the mind of the main character.
CHARACTERS. Henry Reifsneider, Phoebe Ann (his wife), and background
characters of the community folk. These last exist to give
verisimilitude, for contrast, and as plot pivots. Cite an instance for
each use.