In the short story A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane, the writer mainly uses the boy and the small dog to act as a symbol. Crane’s literary work is about the experience of a small dog who is taken in by a boy. Although Crane’s novel holds a great amount of symbolism, only the important symbols will be discussed. For example, the setting of this story takes place during the Jim Crow period in the United States after the Civil War. During this period, slaves were freed and supposedly equal with everyone in the United States. Therefore, the focal point of this story is the dark brown dog who symbolically represents a recently freed slave. In the beginning of Crane’s story the small stray dog is seen walking the streets and stumbling over a long
