“Tubbed box trees,” “the big green door,” “lilac panes,” “silhouetted against the open door,” “a steam-blurred silhouette,” “shadows of the uneasy flock moved across the windows,”—these illustrate what ability of the author? Point out other examples.
Page 447—“If—if one had faith!” To what dénouement is this a clue?
Page 448—“He’s gone out in the back-country to pray alone.” Clue to what? Do you think it credible that Mate Snow never suspected where Malden went on these occasions? If he knew, what motive kept him silent? Where did Mate Snow suppose the Minister got the hush-money?
Page 449—“The door was still open, a blank, bright rectangle giving into the deserted vestry, and it was against this mat of light that I spied Minister Malden’s head,” etc. What processes work to make this a memorable bit of description. Point out similar examples in this story and in the other stories of Mr. Steele. Point out examples in stories by other authors.
Study Mr. Steele’s use of shadows, here and in “The Yellow Cat.” Compare them with Mr. Dobie’s shadows in “Laughter.” The value of shadows lies in their suggestion. They call up the real thing in fiction more easily and economically than the thing itself, as described, can do. The reason is obvious. If there is a shadow, the reader knows, unconsciously, there must be something to cast it. Hence, curiosity may be aroused; in any event, “belief” is secured in the reality of the object.
“Approaching ... I put one large, round eye to the aperture.” (Page 455.) Did the boy think of himself as having a “large round eye”? Or does the narrator think of himself (now a man of years) as he looked? Is it sound technique, either way regarded, or would it be better to leave out the “large, round”?
Is it more fascinating to read of something viewed in part and surreptitiously than it is to read of the same scene viewed as a whole and freely under usual conditions? What primitive impulses are appealed to?
Page 457, in the paragraph beginning, “I shall never forget the picture,” occurs preparation for the “China way” departure. What is it? In the same paragraph what excellent bit of description occurs?
What do you think of the idea “—the emotion of humor, which is another name for perception”? (Page 458.)
Page 459, in the paragraph beginning, “Yes,” he murmured, is an excellent example of irony. How does it aid the action?