“A Dark Brown Dog” is an allegorical story about post-Civil War, Jim Crow-era America and the deeply rooted power imbalances that plagued society. Crane uses the poor treatment and tragic fate of the dog to illustrate the persistent presence of violence for newly emancipated Black Americans in the South. However, despite his evident criticism of the callous treatment of vulnerable people, Crane issues his criticism through his own racist lens.

In an allegorical sense, each main character in the short story plays a basic metaphorical role. Read more straightforwardly, the “dark-brown” (Paragraph 2) dog represents recently emancipated Black Americans. The child and his family represent the white ruling class. The child, as the dog’s sometimes-protector and sometimes-abuser, reflects in part those among the white ruling class with egalitarian intentions. At times, they rise to the defense of Black Americans—but their quality of care is spotty at best. Worse, their efforts to defend Black Americans are marred by their own abusive behavior toward them. The father, with his tyrannical behavior, reflects the white Americans most entrenched in Southern society and politics, their resources and networks giving them the capacity to inflict their will and harm on others.