CLASSIFICATION. Miss Ferber recognizes the difficulties of boxing
into the shorter form the material which would accommodate a larger
space. “The tale of how Jo Hertz came to be a loop-hound should not be
compressed within the limits of a short story. It should be told as are
the photoplays, with frequent throw-backs and many cut-ins. To condense
twenty-three years of a man’s life into some five or six thousand words
requires a verbal economy amounting to parsimony” (page 209).
She has, however, achieved the short-story effect in creating one
dominant character,--in unifying the action, and in conserving one
purpose.
PROPORTION. One of the greatest problems in developing the action of a
story which covers twenty-three years is that of proportion. To hover
over the “purple patches,” to skip the unimportant stretches, and to
link them all up in a coherent organization--this requires a sense
of relative values. Why has the author developed the little scene at
the death of Jo’s mother? Why, that is, did she not merely leave a
statement of the promise? Why is the rather full space (pages 210 ff.)
given to the sisters? How, even in characterizing them, does the author
keep Jo before the reader as the prominent character? “Which brings us
to one Sunday in May” (page 213) indicates an episode of importance.
How much time has, supposedly, been passed over? Why is this particular
Sunday worked out in scene form? Why are the stages of Jo’s and Emily’s
love passed over by leaps and bounds? Why is one brief paragraph,
only, given to the final disposition of Emily? Why is greater length
comparatively taken up in the disposal of Eva and Babe and Carrie? How
many years are covered in pages 219 and 220? Why is a fair amount of
development placed on the gradual withdrawal of Eva and Babe?
Roughly, fifteen pages are given to the narrative so far (208-222),
covering, say, twenty years. The remainder of the story (pages 222-233)
covers about three years, or the period from the beginning of the
war in 1914 to the time when America’s first troops for France were
leaving. What is the logic of this proportion with reference to the
climax? to interest? to current events?
What does the scheme of the proportion, in short, emphasize?
PLOT. The struggle is between the individual, Jo Hertz, and the
conditions of his life. The latter triumph, even though they leave the
conquered one outwardly successful.
_Initial Incident_: Jo Hertz’s promise to his dying mother.
_Main Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Jo “takes care of the girls”
for a number of years. At length, he falls in love with Emily. They
wait three years. The “girls” are still unmarried. Emily and Jo part.
Emily marries. (So passes the first minor climax.) Eva marries.
Babe (Estelle) marries. Carrie takes a settlement job. Jo, free,
finds that he does not even think of matrimony. The sisters fail to
“marry him off.” He is gradually left lonelier and lonelier. (The
greatest depression of Jo’s fortunes, financially, combines with his
loneliness to intensify his deserted bachelor state.)
_Dramatic Climax_: The turning point in Jo’s financial or external
condition comes about through the War and the fact that leather goes
up. Jo’s fortune is made.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The “gay dog” business begins:
Jo buys a car, he takes expensive apartments, he tries to solace
himself with the friendship of a _demi-mondaine_. Eva sees him buying
a hat for the woman; Estelle crosses them in a restaurant; Ethel,
Eva’s daughter, meets him in her company at the theatre. Eva and
Estelle determine to visit Jo and call a halt. They drive to his
apartment. Meantime Jo has been watching the boys marching, has come
across Emily, has helped her to see her boy (Jo) march, and has told
her good-by.
_Climax of Action, and Dénouement_: The climax is dramatically worked
out in the scene between the sisters and Jo. They flee terrified
at Jo’s counter-charges. “The game was over--the game he had been
playing against loneliness and disappointment.”
Draw a diagram to indicate the minor climaxes and other points of
interest.
CHARACTERIZATION. What is the first picture the reader receives of Jo?
Why is it given first? As related to the order of plot events, is it
the dénouement picture?
How does Miss Ferber enlist the reader’s sympathy for Jo at
twenty-seven? How is his unselfishness displayed? Why is it more
credible presented in the little scene-suggestions (pages 211, 212)
than if affirmed by the author? How does his falling in love with Emily
reveal his character? What trait is emphasized in his letting Emily go?
What traits are responsible for his development as a loop-hound? Is he
consistently developed? Does the story, through Jo, present a universal
situation?
What traits of the girls, as a group, are contrasted with the
dominant one of Jo? What ironic moral is visible, between the lines,
in the dénouement on the respective advantages of selfishness and
unselfishness?
How is each sister respectively individualized without requiring too
much of the reader’s interest?
What are Emily’s most dominant characteristics? Is her portrait on
pages 229 and 230 the fit successor to the earlier one?
Is there any objection to the names--Eva, Estelle, Emily, Ethel--used
in the same story? Why?
DETAILS. To use Miss Ferber’s own adoption of the photoplay term,
“throw-backs,” how many times has she reverted to preceding action?
How many times, to note the counterpart of the throw-back, has she
introduced an act or picture which has its chronological place later
on? What is the dramatic value of having the sisters wait for Jo, to
see him enter with red eyes, after which the author pauses to narrate
the cause of his emotion (page 228)?
What double purpose has the author in describing Jo’s bedroom (page
227)?
Point out striking examples of economy. An excellent one, for
naturalness, suggestive power, and mere word-saving is to be found in
the telephone message (page 225). Economy, in general, is also bound up
with the operation of the excellent proportion.
What quality of style is most marked in Miss Ferber’s stories? How is
it achieved?