A Dark Brown Dog

Summary

In Stephen Crane's "A Dark Brown Dog," a young boy takes in a highly submissive stray dog. Despite living in a violently abusive household where both the family and occasionally the boy himself mistreat the animal, the dog remains fiercely loyal and loving toward the child. The boy acts as the dog's primary protector in the chaotic home. Tragically, during a drunken rampage, the boy's father attacks the dog and throws it out a fifth-story window. The story ends with the devastated child making a long, slow descent to the alley to sit beside the broken body of his only true friend.