STORY CUE CARD
Bibliographic Information (best
version for telling): "The Emissary," by Ray Bradbury, c 1946 and
reprinted from The October Country,
Ethnic Origin: American
Running Time: 15 minutes
Risks Taken with this Story: I'm
not a fan of scary stories, but to me this story touches on some topics that
I'm often told not to talk about:
· How
important it is for a lonely person to have an emissary.
· Forgiving a dog for its instinct to dig and to roll in disgustingly
smelly stuff.
· What can happen to and with a dead body? (scientific
morbidity and curiosity about whether they really go "Dancing in the
zombie zoo")
This story is a risk for me
because (1) I am mourning the recent death of Roscoe, the dog who was my
emissary since 1988. (2) My husband did not want to hear the story again after
my first reading of it. First he thought it was too sad and then added that it
was gross. Awareness that my selection won't please everyone is a new
experience for me. This makes the performance more important than the content!
(3) As a literary tale, it requires more focus on learning the story as written
and less opportunity to escape that by doing more analysis of version and
variants. (4) The descriptions are more important parts to telling the story
than the plot, making it more challenging to tell than the other two stories
I've told this semester. (5) I want my audience to feel the intensity of a
dog-human relationship, and to consider what could happen if we get what we
wish for! I believe hitting these power centers are key.
Power Center(s): (Martin's emotional peaks and valleys)
From loneliness to elation with
Dog's repeated delivery of Miss Haight.
Confidence/smugness that dead
people don't just lie still in the graveyard forever.
Deepening sadness over the loss
of Miss Haight, no more visitors, compounded by disappearance of Dog.
Brief hopefulness becomes confusion and
ultimately terror with Dog's return
Characters: Martin Smith, Dog, Mom, Miss
Haight, Miss Tarkin. Brief mention in name only: Father, Mr. Holloway,
Mr. Jacobs, Mr. Jackson, Mrs. Gillespie, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Holmes and any friend
or near-friend.
Scenes:
1. October -- this incredible
beast
2. Successful retrieval
3. Is that all the dead do? Just
lie there?
4. Leading up to Halloween (Dog
no longer in and out 10 dozen times a day.) On Oct. 30, he doesn't return at
all.
5. Friday night alone at home...
Dog's return
Synopsis: Martin, a sick
house-bound 10-year old, gets information from the outside world from Dog, who
is in trouble for digging where he shouldn't. The sick boy attaches a tin note
to Dog's collar requesting visitors. Dog brings Miss Haight, his teacher from
school, and she visits daily over the course of 9-10 days. When Martin learns
of Miss Haight's death, he relates Dog's inability to "play dead"
very long to the impossibility that death means lying motionless for eternity
in the cemetery. Dog's journeys become longer (not returning 10 dozen times a
day as before) and his behavior changes. When Dog doesn't return the night
before Halloween, Martin becomes very lonely and depressed. When Martin wishes
for Dog's return, he gets more than he bargained for.
Rhymes/Special
Phrases/"Flavor":
Analogy used to further describe
what Dog had fetched during the special season ("this incredible beast was
October"):
· goldenrod, acorn husk, feather (etc.) like charcoals shaken from a
blaze of maple trees
Special phrases about how Martin
learned about the outside world through Dog:
· Through the loomings of the universe Dog
shuttled; the design was hid in his pelt.
· Martin trembled his fingers, searched the thick fur, read
the long journey.
Tempo varies within story and
there are several important spots to pause.
Audience (why is this story
appropriate for the audience? developmental characteristics?):
The stories within Ray
Bradbury's October Country could be appreciated by a young adult
audience, but the life experience of adulthood makes them much more appropriate
for a more mature audience. While enjoying visitors is not really age-specific,
adults who remember when children were quarantined at home will empathize with
the main character more. Older adults (or any who have not been bombarded with
the unreal aspects of terror from television) can more fully experience the
terror of Martin's last visitor than younger audience members who are less
likely to have the option to send the sitter home and be alone at night.
Bibliographic information on
other versions/variants (at least two)?
Since this is a literary tale,
this search was not done.
Brief comparison of all versions/variants
in terms of language, rhythm, "tellability,"
"flavor," content, etc. Stress the differences in style rather
than those of content.
Although this section does not
apply since the previous question was unanswered, I must comment on my brief
research on Ray Bradbury's short stories. I unfairly judged this writer as a
science fiction type whose work I could never appreciate. While searching for
the elements I wanted in my final selection for storytelling, I found this
while looking in subjects: Dogs--Folklore. Once I picked this story, I chose to look at it within the
copy of The October Country that was in the Undergraduate Library and then in
an earlier published edition in Davis Library. Although I had reasonably good
success finding biographical information about the author, reviewing the other
titles in the