How did Larry receive the appellation of The Bunker Mouse? Why is the episode told out of its chronological place? Are any other important incidents presented out of their time order?
From whose angle is the story told?
Intensifying worth of the sentence?—“So’s a trout; but it’s got a damn poor show against a shark” (page 289).
Reason for this statement of the author?—“I wanted to say that Dan purred like a tiger, but it was a jungle figure, and of course I had to give it up.”
Point out instances of the author’s keeping the reader aware of locality.
Show how the mood or feeling is harmonized with the plot, which is itself one of complication wherein the stages of the two main struggles are kept beautifully parallel.
WHOSE DOG—?
Classification. This seven or eight hundred word short-story illustrates the extreme type. The setting is the end of a pier; the time, only a few minutes; the action represents a crisis in the life of one character, the village drunkard; the struggle—which culminates in the suicide of the drunkard—is between him and society. The unities are, therefore, well conserved; the singleness of effect is pronounced. It is a tour de force in its manipulation of story elements.
Is the motivation for John’s suicide sufficient?
What social relation does the policeman bear to the drunkard? What contrast does the author employ?