Theme and Narrative Elements in the Short Story
Instructor Julie Alfaro
October 8, 2011
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.
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...
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