Analysis Of The Story 'Dog' By Richard Russo

Michael Ruffolo

Mrs. Goldberg

Freshman Rhetoric

Period 5

9 January 2015

Treatment Makes All the Difference

Can you imagine parents who put their needs and interests before their childs? In the story “Dog” by Richard Russo, only one thing is wanted by little Henry, not a phone nor any other unreasonable gifts that some children want--he just wants a dog, that he can run and play with. The only problem is nothing will convince his academic hearted literacy loving parents. Henry’s parents both put their interests and needs before his son. As a result he seems to act differently in ways that many people may find rude.

Throughout the story Henry is treated bad by both of his parents multiple times. His parents are always too busy to listen to

Henry feels like there is only one more option he has to try to get his parents to just listen and that is to push the limits: “I immediately put into practice a plan of my own to wear my mother down” (3). Henry acts this way because he has no other choice at all, everytime he asks he is pushed away and has to try harder and harder to just get them to even consider to listen. You may disagree on the terms that Henry has no choice to act this way but I don’t know any human being that would not react in this way in such a situation. His parents are the reason he acts like he acts and most of the they don't even know why he behaves that way: “I want to go out and play now” (6) said Henry when he saw the old scrawny dog his dad got him for the first time in his kitchen. He says this not because he is a bad kid or anything like that; however, because his dad got him a dog which was the complete opposite of his liking, “Collie puppies...a young dog...full of spirit and possibility” (5) that’s what Henry wanted--making that obvious to his parents. He was given a slow moving skinny old dog, only giving him better reason to act how he was acting. It all comes down to this: “My father seldom listened to anything I said” (3). With everything that causes Henry to act the way he acts the stem of the problem comes down to

Similar problems occur in the real world today between not only family, but between friends, too. My fourteen years on this earth has sparked some events similar to this, for example when I was in the fifth grade all I wanted was to get a DJ set, asking and asking every day, with no response but shaking heads from my parents. I was told a couple of weeks later that I had to earn a DJ set, which involved doing quadruple the work I already did around the house, like mowing and blowing the whole lawn. Following that, still no answer about getting my DJ set. The attention that I was never given toward that DJ caused me to act in such a way, just like Henry did in his situation, every day I would open up the exact products I wanted on my Mom’s computer screen. Every time she went on it, she would see it, and not to mention the words DJ set came out of my mouth just about a thousand times a day. In the long run, I may have gotten what I wanted, when Henry did not, but that’s to show that treatment the may be viewed a little selfish change the way people act and think. Even though I did not experience the same fallout that Henry experienced, my experience taught me that I did go through a little of what he went through--helping me understand and at the same time helping me distinguish in a better way what made Henry act the way he did and how he