How to study "The best short stories"

by Blanche Colton Williams

A SIMPLE ACT OF PIETY

Germinal Idea: Captain Abdullah, an Asiatic, but educated partly, and living altogether, in the Occident, finds himself at times, he declares, in the position, less emotional than intellectual and cultural, where he has to make a choice between the ideals of East, or West of Suez. In addition, his friends often ask him to explain certain Oriental characteristics, motivations and viewpoints.

“Due either to a vital difference in the acceptance and usage of basic standards, or to my personal inability of expressing with the spoken word what I feel tersely to be true, I have always been unable in these discussions to express the one truth which I know; namely, that all this talk about the Orient being romantic and mysterious and rather high strung is asinine drivel, that indeed the shoe hurts on the other foot, and that it is the West which is romantic, both as to life and motivation of life, while the East is as drab and grey and square as a question in abstract dynamics.

“I make this claim chiefly in regard to the Chinese, who are the Orientals par excellence. I consider them the most logical, the most straight thinking, and by the same token, the most civilized race on earth, not excepting the Latins, the Hindus, the Arabs, or the Anglo-Saxons. I believe them to be the only people who live up to the sound dogma that two and two make four, and never four and a quarter, or three and two thirds. I hold that they are the easiest people in the world to understand, that they carry their hearts on their sleeves, and that they always mean exactly what they say, and say exactly what they mean, in direct contrast to the Occidentals....

“The starting point of my tale, a whole series of Chinatown tales, directly due to a conversation I had in Chicago with Mr. Ray Long of the Red Book, who said that since I seemed unable to interpret the Sons of the Middle Kingdom with the spoken word I should try the written word, was therefore the fundamental prosiness and simplicity of the Oriental, the Chinaman, in contrast to the complicated, suicidal emotionalism and maniacal psychologizing of the Occidental—the latter characteristic including a painful trick of dissecting emotions to such a degree that they cease to be emotions. I know China and the Chinese intimately, and am fairly familiar with some of their dialects.

“From a primitive, Occidental viewpoint, murder and a wife’s faithlessness seem to be the most important things. From an as primitive Eastern viewpoint, the same two things are the most negligible things. The thing which matters most to the Oriental is honor and piety, including their correct, codified outer observances.

“Thence my story.”

Plot. Structurally perfect, the plot grows naturally out of character.

The order of presentation begins with the

Dénouement: Nag Hong Fah kills Señora Garcia.

Circumstances antecedent to the story action are next presented.—1. Fanny’s marriage to Nag Hong Fah indicated in “She was his wife,” etc. 2. Account of Fanny. 3. Nag Hong Fah’s operations preceding the proposal. (Note the introduction of a second line of interest in the relations between Nag Hong Fah and Yung Long, and Yung Quai.) 4. The incident of the proposal. (Notice the clues: Fanny claims a right to the streets, a pointer which is augmented by the addition made, under her breath, to her promise, “I’ll play square?”)

Initial Incident: Through Nag Hong Fah’s invitation to Yung Long, “Come! Have a drink!” Fanny and Yung Long have opportunity to appraise each other.

Steps toward Dramatic Climax: 1. Nag Hong Fah pays cash to Yung Long, whom heretofore he has paid on ninety days’ leeway. (What does this signify as to the relations of the two Chinamen?)

2. Birth of Brian, Fanny’s son; the bestowal of gifts upon Fanny by her Chinese husband.

3. The incident between Fanny and her friend Mamie Ryan (to indicate that the Chink is playing square, and therefore Fanny). Indications of Fanny’s happiness.

4. Fanny is impressed by Yung Long but holds to her “squareness.”

5. Nag Hong Fah acquires an option on an uptown restaurant for his second son.

6. Little Fanny is born, bringing a “change into the marital relations”; this time, no gifts are bestowed.

7. Nag tells Fanny he has given up the option. This information on his part leads directly to the

Dramatic Climax: First peak: the excellent scene between Fanny and Nag Hong Fah, where the racial struggle is best dramatized. Fanny’s imploring fails against the stony wall of Nag Hong Fah’s determination. All must be as he says; Little Fanny will be disposed of as he sees fit. With Fanny the greater wrong disappears in the lesser; she forgets her daughter’s education in recalling that she had received no presents at the child’s birth. “A bracelet.... That’s what I’m gonna get!” marks the beginning of the resolution of the complication, which has been so skilfully effected. The first peak of the climax is succeeded by the second peak: Yung Long in passing receives Fanny’s message, “Swell looker!”

Steps toward the Climax of Action: Summary repetitions of the dramatic climax scene emphasize the winning out of Nag Hong Fah. 2. Nag Hong Fah receives permission from the official head of Fanny’s family to beat her. 3. She becomes the submissive wife; the family seems a model of happiness.

4. Fanny exhibits an “imitation” bracelet.

5. Her apparent adherence to “the straight and narrow” is intensified by Brian’s report of the Finnish sailor episode.

6. Fanny comes down with pneumonia. (Does this seem logical or a too obvious device of the author?)

7. Nag writes to Yung Quai and sends money for her transportation to New York.

8. He indicates to the dying Fanny that he will educate her daughter, and from the sale of Fanny’s possessions—including the imitation bracelet.

Climax of Action in the first line of interest.—

Fanny, in a magnificent final flame of contempt and victory, declares the worth of the bracelet, and that Yung Long gave it to her. (Recall the allusion, page 4, to this point as the “dramatic climax” for Nag Hong Fah.)

Steps toward the Dénouement: The scene between Nag Hong Fah and Yung Long, wherein Nag conveys to Yung his knowledge of the gift, and “motivates” the real cause of the gift. Yung affirms Nag’s judgment, and further indicates that Señora Garcia might best be put out of the way. Nag Hong Fah agrees that it would be but a simple act of piety and goes to get his knife. (Do they here “mean what they say” or “say what they mean”?)

The struggle, then, in the first line of interest (the story of Fanny and Nag Hong Fah) is one between the Occident and the Orient. The Occident wins, in the person of Fanny. But because of the second line of interest (the story of Nag Hong Fah, Yung Long and Yung Quai), the victory gives way to the victory of the Orient. Study the story for the points of contact of these two lines, the complication effected, and the unification of the two interests.

Suspense: Suspense sets in at the beginning, when after the murder, the question arises, “Why did he kill her?” This question is accompanied by a desire to know more about the murderer. The story if it fulfils the implied promise will explain. Desire to know whether the murderer is apprehended is satisfied after the next hundred words or so, in the sentence, “For he is still at liberty.” Herein, also, lies an element of novelty; the more unoriginal story presents the crime, then arouses suspense as to whether the criminal will be caught, and justice meted out. (Study the story for further working of the principle of suspense. What question motivates your reading after Nag Hong Fah beats Fanny, for example?)

Suggestion: What is suggested to the reader in Fanny’s becoming a model wife? In Miss Ritter’s speech about “Real love”? In the “imitation” bracelet? How much of the business “off-stage,” after Fanny’s subsidence, is built up by the reader?

Characterization. The dominant character interest lies in the racial features, which are set off by contrast with each other. The author manifests skill in creating hybrid Fanny, a product of racial crossing. In order of importance, the main figures are: Nag Hong Fah, Fanny, Yung Long, Quai Long.

Nag Hong Fah is played up as the chief character through

A. His rôle; he is easily the most important by virtue of the part assigned to him.

B. Dramatic management on the author’s part.

1. He is the figure most constantly found on the stage.
2. He is the protagonist in the scenes presented.
3. He is frequently followed behind the scenes. (Purpose here being to create variety of effect, so far as is consistent with a larger unity.)

C. Stylistic management.

1. Giving to Nag Hong Fah the places of rhetorical emphasis—the beginning and the end of the story.

Study the story for concrete examples that illustrate the main points just made. Study, also, the proportion given to other characters. What is the greatest contributory value of Señora Garcia? Of Edith Ritter? Nag Sen Yet? The Chinese Soothsayer? Brian Neill? Little Brian? Mamie Ryan? Little Fanny? Compare the author’s ability to describe physical details with his skill in revealing mental characteristics. To what extent does the outer personality reveal the inner? Answer for each of the important characters.

Local Color.

A. Setting: The locality is conveyed in the first sentence. Where is it repeated, and how? What contrasts do you find in the larger setting? What details, for example, contribute to the Oriental characteristics? Which to the American? Value of the opium? of the schooner of beer? of the ivory sticks? Why is the flat (page 5) described in detail as to furnishings? (Give two reasons, from two points of view.) What is the value of the contrast between indications of wealth and of the neighborhood features?

B. Customs: What customs testify to Captain Abdullah’s intimate acquaintance with the Chinese?

C. Speech: Compare the Oriental matter, manner, and meaning with the American matter, manner, and meaning.

D. Dress: What bearing on character have the accessories of dress? Yung Long’s bowler hat, his loose sleeves and fan, Fanny’s furs, the earrings of jade, and the bracelet—all serve what purpose?

Atmosphere: Captain Abdullah says (page 4) “the tale is of the Orient.” Note that he has secured the Oriental feel, or atmosphere, modified slightly by the American intrusion, through the harmonizing of character, speech, dress, customs,—above all, by emphasizing the things “which matter most to the Oriental.” Contrast to similar Occidental characteristics is subordinated to the intensification, and is, therefore, contributory to the larger impression.

As to the short-story, Captain Abdullah thinks that length has nothing to do with it. “It can be seven hundred words long, or seventy thousand. As to the latter length, I consider Frank Swinnerton’s Nocturne a short-story.” And he offers as a tentative definition this: “The short-story is a story grouped logically about the same character and characters, every bit of plot and action working together to affect, influence, and make a background for the same character and characters, eliminating, in contrast to a novel, all side issues.”...