HEART OF YOUTH
Comment and Query. “For me,” says Mr. Muilenburg, “the best story is the one that gives the reader the greatest after-mood, and this can be done with very little action. To give the feeling of an environment, to show character absolutely in a life-like manner, and to give nature and man an equal place: these I consider necessary to almost every story.”
Using his own criterion, how well has Mr. Muilenburg succeeded in every respect mentioned above? What mood does the story give you? Where is the environment? Does the feeling that arises from it emphasize the general atmosphere?
Pages 172 and 173 introduce the boy, Frank, in his setting. Which is more important—character or place? Again measure your answer by the author’s ideals.
“Both stories have kept close to realism,” says Mr. Muilenburg, “as the greater part of both have been taken from my own experience, and circumstances are reproduced rather than fancied.” Is there anything in the characterization of the boy that tells you he is, in some measure, a reflection of the author himself?
“Isn’t it possible,” asks the author, “that only the stories that have some situation where the characters must be shown in primitive fashion are enduring?” How would you answer this question in general? What is the situation in this story? May it be termed “primitive”?
Details of Composition. Pages 173, 174 recount an incident which shows the elements of conflict in the boy’s soul. How does it prepare for the greater struggle? (See pages 179, 180, 181.) What purpose has the scene between Frank and Bill with respect to later developments and particularly the struggle?
What contribution to the boy’s character is made in his ceasing work only when the shadow of the cottonwood tree pointed north? in his taking the milk-pails from the hooks? (Page 182.)
In the “heart of youth” conflict (page 180) what emotions are arrayed against each other?
What value has the episode of the bird and the snake? What conditions make it an integral part of the action, not a forced parallel?
What details of setting and circumstance, and what traits in the boy combine to solicit your sympathy?
The little story is unified in character, place and time. It reveals by concrete symbol the significant phases of the struggle. It performs a tour de force in avoiding an extended analysis of the boy’s psychology. Even though the narrative is told from Frank’s “angle,” the reader knows what he thinks by what he does and says, rather than by the author’s analysis of his mental state. Further, the work makes a small contribution to literary history, since it is representative of a period of life in the Middle West, through which the author has passed; and it is reflected there now, to some extent. The fact that there is a strong vein of poetry throughout is because “poetry is found naturally in the life of a people who must struggle with a hard physical environment.”