In Homer’s classic “Odyssey”, Ulysses’ dog Argos has an important role. Argos is the only character who recognizes Ulysses after his perilous voyage. Dogs in children’s literature generally act as protectors and are often the main character. This is the case in “Belle et Sébastien” (Belle and Sebastian), a story by French author Cécile Aubry about the alpine adventures of a Pyrenean Mountain Dog and his young owner. The same is true of Eric Knight’s “Lassie”, the story of a faithful Collie and her young owner, Joe. Both books have the same general theme: a child in trouble is saved by a big, loyal dog. The dog breeds featured in these stories have become so popular that in France, for example, many people call Collies “Lassies”.
In other books, dogs appear in supporting roles, rather than as main characters. In the writings of Jules Verne (1828-1905), including “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “A Two Years’ Vacation” and “Mysterious Island”, a little dog accompanies the characters in their travels and helps them out of difficult situations using his sense of smell.
Still other stories feature dogs in a purely symbolic or even exaggerated role, sometimes helping reveal a situation or emotion. Although these depictions of dogs are brief, they are far from insignificant. In “Of Mice and Men”, John Steinbeck illustrates human selfishness, injustice and loneliness through his description of the slow death of an old dog, the hapless companion of a poor day laborer who cannot bear the loss of his friend.
“The Dog, the Rooster and the Fox”
A dog and a rooster who were friends were walking along together. At nightfall, the rooster climbed into a tree to sleep and the dog lay down at the base of the tree, which was hollow. At daybreak, the rooster crowed, as was his habit. Upon hearing him, a fox ran to the base of the tree and asked the rooster to climb down, so that he might kiss the animal who had such a lovely voice. The rooster told the fox to wake the gatekeeper sleeping at the base of the tree and he would climb down after the gatekeeper had answered. But when the fox went to find the gatekeeper, the dog leapt forth and tore him to shreds. The moral of the story is that when enemies attack, wise people put them off by leading them to someone stronger.
Aesop,“Fables”.
Wolves, wild cousins to dogs, also appear frequently in literature. While dogs represent loyalty and respectfully serve their master, wolves represent freedom, the wilderness and the refusal of all constraint, even at the risk of death. As in Jean de la Fontaine’s fable “The Wolf and the Dog”, wolves would rather live free than be confined.
The opposition between dogs and wolves illustrates the innate human conflict between being a “good” slave and resisting slavery at the risk of death. This is a favorite theme of Jack London, a fervent humanist who lived during the 1891 Gold Rush in Alaska. While London defends animals against man’s brutality, he does not give a definite answer to the question of which path to choose: that of “White Fang”, a wolf-dog who chooses to live among humans, or that of Buck in “Call of the Wild”, a pet dog who goes to live among wolves. Perhaps this means that we each are a bit dog and a bit wolf, depending on the circumstances.
Anubis was an Egyptian god, but Cerberus guarded the underworld in Roman mythology. This dark side of the dog has inspired many writers. Poets and novelists describe the prowling beast, a frantic, demonic creature who devours dead bodies or small children. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle even uses a dog in the title of one of Sherlock Holmes’ best known adventures, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, in which a huge dog devours the inhabitants of a dreary Scottish moor.
In the poem “Carrion” from the collection “Flowers of Evil”, Baudelaire also evokes the dog’s dark side:
Around the rocks a restless bitch was eyeingUs with a look of one forsaken,As if from the living skeleton she were spyingThe flesh that from it had been taken.
(Baudelaire, Prose and Poetry. Translated by Arthur Symons. Albert & Charles Boni: New York, 1926.)
Within these lines is a hidden metaphor: the “restless bitch” is actually man, the dog’s thinking alter ego.
The fate of man and dog seems forever closely linked and science fiction writers often evoke this connection. For example, in his novel “Pet Cemetery”, Stephen King uses the description of a dog who returns from the dead to foreshadow the fate of the dog’s owner.
Science fiction author Frank Herbert devotes an entire short story to dogs. In it, an epidemic decimates the canine population, causing mass hysteria and disaster for humans and dogs. In this dark depiction of the future, man and dog share the same terrible fate.
Whether as friend or foe, our canine companion continues to appear in literature as an innocent reflection of human shame, misery and loneliness so deep that even in books we need the company of our four-legged friend.
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