Catharine Sedgwick's Short Story 'Dogs'

Dogs Summary Response Catharine Sedgwick’s short story “Dogs,” was first published in The Juvenile Miscellany in 1828, under the pseudonym Stockbridge. S. The Juvenile Miscellany, was a children’s magazine that was published in Boston, Massachusetts. The intended audience for Sedgwick’s story, was children. Sedgwick’s story is about a mother teaching her children that even though dogs may be inferior beings, they are still capable of good, and much unconditional love. Dogs may not be able to be educated, but they can be trained to put on a show or help people to get through any type of struggle. By setting up her story, with short anecdotes about different dogs that flow into one another, Sedgwick makes it clear that her argument is that animal cruelty is wrong, and that goodness trumps genius. Ultimately, Sedgwick wants children to understand that hurting animals is wrong, and that goodness, as well as fidelity, are much more important

Sedgwick sounds like she is trying to teach a lesson throughout the whole story, and that lesson is that animal cruelty is wrong, and the goodness trumps genius. The informative tone really helps to show that Sedgwick is trying to make a lasting impression on her audience, “But, my children, we ought to be very glad to see the art of man employed on any other powers in dogs than the power of destruction. How much pains have been taken to train this interesting and useful animal to pursue and destroy other animals” (Sedgwick, P.34). Sedgwick is being informative to her audience of children and trying to teach a lesson. She wants the children to understand that man has been terrible to dogs and used them to destroy other animals. Sedgwick wants the readers to understand that tormenting animals, and using dogs for harm, is not the right things, and that harm towards anything, is not in the interest of the greater