A Dark Brown Dog

Foreshadowing is a literary device that authors use to hint at future actions or events. In “A Dark Brown Dog,” Crane uses foreshadowing to indicate the violence at the end of the text, i.e., the dog’s death. When readers meet the child, he is “kicking carelessly at the gravel” (Paragraph 1), suggesting the dog’s future abuse as well as the carelessness with which he is treated by the rest of the family. In approaching the boy for the first time, the dog “trod upon the end [of the rope around his neck] and stumble[s]” (Paragraph 1), also hinting at the dog’s murder. Perhaps most notably, as the child drags the dog up the stairs and toward his home for the first time, the dog has a brief moment of panic: “In his mind he was being dragged toward a grim unknown. His eyes grew wild with the terror of it” (Paragraph 13). Though the dog quickly overcomes this terror on reaching the child’s home, it proves to be an important moment of insight for the animal.