STARTING POINT. Frederick Stuart Greene wrote this story out of his
experiences and observations as an engineer in certain Southern
districts. The pine woods, the wretched cabin, the cane-brake, the
rattlesnake, the brogan shoes--these are concrete instances of his
familiarity with the setting. The immediate germinal idea lies in an
incident he recalled of seeing a severed rattlesnake head fastened to
the leg of a man in camp.
PLOT. The compactly wrought plot is one of the best in recent fiction.
It is formed, in the main, from the interweaving of two lines of
interest. One has to do with the struggle between the yellow cat and
the woman, Sally; the other spins out the sordid love affair between
Sally and the young engineer. The climax of action shows a double
defeat for the woman. The husband is the connecting link, as he is the
third figure in the triangle story, and is the partisan of the cat in
the other line of interest.
_Initial Impulse_: Sally throws the stick of wood at the cat. Outward
indication of latent animosity.
_Steps in the Action_: Sally promises her lover to meet him at
midnight. She prepares the liquor-trap. She hears of the big snake.
She insists that the cat be killed. Jim refuses. He orders her to
lay the mattress in the “dog-trot.” She sets the liquor-trap. Jim,
caught, drinks a toast to the cat. Sally lies waiting for midnight.
_Dramatic Climax_: The cat finds the snake-head. It passes the
bed. Sally mutters and strikes out in her sleep. The cat drops the
snake-head.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Few, but significant. Sally
wakes, raises herself on her right palm; her wrist meets the fangs of
the rattler; in agony she tries to wake Jim for help, but he lies in
a drunken stupor. Meantime, the young engineer who has waited long,
now sets out to reconnoitre. He makes his way toward the cabin.
_Dénouement_: In it is bound up the climax of action which has, in
part, already occurred in Sally’s death. The engineer sees the dead
woman, the drunken man, and the purring cat. He flees.
Apart from the clever workmanship of the plot construction, what
examples of poetic justice do you find?
Was it fate, chance, or tactics of hate which caused the cat to drop
the snake-head?
CHARACTERIZATION. In a story of plot prominence, the characters
need less individualization. Are these, in your opinion, types or
individuals? Which is the best drawn? Which the least convincing? How
does Sally, early in the action, forfeit your sympathy?
DETAILS. How is Jim’s love for liquor (a hinge on which the plot is
made to turn) prepared for early in the action?
How does the manner of the cat’s disposition of the fish-head make
logical its subsequent interest in the snake-head?
What intensifying value has the “sad, gray moss”?
What effect has Sally’s second encounter with the cat?
Study the naturalness, the dramatic development, and the enriching
quality of the scene wherein the rattlesnake is discussed. How does it
make plausible, also, the fact that the cat found the snake-head?
What contribution is made to the final effect in Jim’s toast to the cat?
What do you think of the final sentence by way of conclusion?
What is the length of the action?
This story, the first Mr. Greene wrote, after taking up the study
of story technique, is particularly excellent for showing early
recognition of plot demands. If its structure is, on investigation, a
trifle obvious, it will be all the better for the student’s purpose.
On comparing it with later stories by the same author, he will find
that growth which means ability to conceal mechanism--or to forget it
altogether.
The student needing exercise in plot construction should read Captain
Greene’s “Molly McGuire, Fourteen” (_Century_, September, 1917; also
reprinted in “A Book of Short Stories,” edited by Blanche Colton
Williams), and should study his diagram of the lines of interest and
their complications (See “A Handbook on Story Writing,” by Blanche
Colton Williams, page 94).