Theme and Narrative
Theme and Narrative Elements in the Short Story Doni Wacasey ENG 125 Instructor Julie Alfaro October 8, 2011 STORY ELEMENTS I have chosen to analyze the story by John Updike, “Dog’s Death. ” This story centers around a dying pet. Love and grief are the themes. By the end of this paper, you will know the plot, theme, point of view, setting, and characters. The family in this story loved their pet and grieved for their loss. This poem is a narrative. Narrative poems do not have to rhyme. (Florgund, 2011) The story starts in the family home. It describes a puppy learning to house break on the paper spread out on the kitchen floor.
God dog is mentioned throughout the story. The puppy has received its shots and the family thinks she is being shy from this. The family teases and plays with their beloved pet not knowing that she is sick. The children return to school and the puppy goes and hides. When she is found under the bed curled and twisted, the parents carry her to the vet. As they are driving, the puppy bite the fathers hand and slips away. Tests showed that here liver ruptured. Driving with tearful vision, the mother was already grieving the families’ major loss.
When they arrived back home, they discovered where she had tried to make it to the newspaper but missed. Plot – Storyline, the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story. The plot of this story is the love a family has for their dying pet. It also centers around the grieving at the loss. STORY ELEMENTS Point of view – point of view is the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator’s outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters. Dog’s Death is written in the first-person.
Line 13 says “To bite my hand and died. I stroked her warm fur and my wife called in a voice imperious with tears. The father is the character telling the story. Theme – theme tells you what the story is about. The dog is a puppy. You see this in lines 2 & 3. “Too young to know much, she was beginning to use the newspapers spread out on the kitchen floor. ” It shows the love the family feels for their pet. Line 14 says, “And my wife called in a voice imperious with tears. ” This shows her grief. Line 15 says, “Though surrounded by love that would have upheld her. ”
The family in this story loved their puppy. They were paper training it. The children played and teased her. The mother drove to the vet with tears in her eyes, already morning their loss. You get the feeling the puppy is part of the family. She was like one of the children. When she died, they grieved the loss of a member of the family. REFERENCE http://dictionary. com March 10, 2011 by Florgund http://hsiularroque. info/an-analysis-of-john-updikes-dogs-death I could not find anything in Ashford library to use as a reference so I just wrote this paper on my own.
