THE GAY OLD DOG
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?