Langston Hughes, Little Dog

Madison Helbig (University of Akron)
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Langston Hughes’s short story “Little Dog”, part of the 1934 short story collection The Ways of White Folks, discusses meaningful intersections of race, class, and gender by tracing the development of Miss Briggs, a solitary white spinster who works as a bookkeeper for the industrial firm Wilkins and Bryant, a supplier of wood and coal. After the death of her mother six years earlier, Miss Briggs had had no real friends. The prospect of marriage also had not seemed promising: “Miss Briggs, tall and rail-like, found herself left husband-less at an age when youth had gone” (24). Alone at forty-five, she finds herself staring out of the window of her flat at those who, unlike her, seem to have found a …

2009 words

Citation: Helbig, Madison. "Little Dog". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 January 2023 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40970, accessed 10 December 2024.]

40970 Little Dog 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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