The Art Of Racing In The Rain Literary Analysis

Geisha Hernandez

11 AS

Summer Reading Assignment

The novel “The Art Of Racing In The Rain,” by Garth Stein is a story, told by a dog, about his master, Denny Swift, and their families difficult situations. Although there was numerous of problems that the family dealt with, there was always a solution. In this novel, many of characters had to make self sacrifices to solve their complications. One of the characters is Enzo. The sacrifices made by Enzo is what proves that his family will always come first.

In chapter six, Stein introduces Eve, Denny’s wife. In the beginning of the book, it was just Denny and Enzo and that was how Enzo liked it. Having an addition to the family was hard on Enzo because Denny’s love wasn’t always towards him. “I resented the attention Denny paid to her small hands, her plump, round buttocks, her modest hips. The way he gazed into her soft green eyes, which peered out from under stylish strands of straight blond hair. Did I envy her engaging smile that eclipsed anything about her that might have been considered less than special? Perhaps I did. For she was a person, unlike me.” (Stein, 17). To add to that, Denny and Eve had a baby together. Now there wasn’t only one person Denny paid more attention to, there was another one. A small, more important one. Spite the fact that Enzo had no choice to live

Denny and their daughter, Zoe, become distant towards Enzo. Almost no attention was on him but he understood. He told us, “My walks were infrequent, my trips to the dog park nonexistent. Little attention was paid to me by Denny or Zoe. But I was ready to make that sacrifice in the interest of Eve’s well-being and to preserve the family dynamic. I vowed not to be a squeaky wheel in any way.” (Stein, 55). Enzo accepted the fact that he wasn’t the one in the “spotlight” at the moment and yet, he did not mind. He knew Eve needed them more than he did. He sacrificed his