Language is a method of communication that all humans are all too familiar with – it is the way we speak to one another, express our emotions, our wants, and our needs. André Alexis, in his novel Fifteen Dogs, explores the importance of language, human intelligence, and the flaws that language may entail. Fifteen Dogs begins at a bar in Toronto, where Greek gods Apollo and Hermes decide to grant “human intelligence” to fifteen dogs for a wager they construct. Apollo feels that none of the dogs could die happy if granted human intelligence. Hermes only needs one dog to win the bet, and so the gods proceed to grant the dogs intelligence; the bet is on, and we begin to see the struggles of the individual dogs. One dog, in particular, Atticus,