Patricia Limon

11/13/2016
ENGL 101
Prof. Goffman
The Importance of Love and Affection
In Dog, Russo shows a little boy who yearned for a dog because he did not receive
attention from his parents, specifically his father. The whole story emphasizes the love and
affection we all need from our parents and friends. In the little boys eyes, the dog can be a
symbol of his happiness, love, loyalty and generally his best friend. Additionally, he also
emphasizes that parents play a big role in a childs life in that they can bring happiness but they
can also bring pain and loneliness. The dog replaces the void in his life that his parents could not
fill.
Going back to Henrys childhood, his parents were both academic nomads (158) and
they moved houses frequently because of his fathers job. Starting off, we can see that at the age
of nine, he was constantly moving and that age is when we learn to communicate and play with
others to make friends. Nevertheless, in this boys world, he is not able to make any long term
friendships because he always ends up moving. It is also mentioned that he was an only child so
he did not have any siblings to play with, which results in feeling lonely. In the story, that is
where the companionship is accentuated: in all situations I was an only child, and I must have
been a lonely one, because what I wanted more than anything in the world was a dog (158). We
are able to interpret from his words that the boy wanted a dog to stop being lonely. In this case,
the dog here symbolizes more than friendship, it also represents protection because they can
shield humans from fear of being alone since they are always there to love you unconditionally.

Moreover, Russos parents were not as caring as other parents, they did not seem to
care about their childs happiness and only cared about their own careers. Henry described
himself as an exasperating and impossible child because he kept pursuing his parents for a dog.
As a result, his mother imposed numerous conditions for him to fulfill. We can see that his
parents seem selfish, they dont see his own perspective of how his childhood is basically ruined.
They dont see that he does not have friends because they move a lot and from the beginning he
also doesnt know how to make friends. Your childs happiness should come before anything
else but his parents were so emotionally distant that they did not notice their actions were
painfully affecting him.
In addition, when the boy finally receives his long awaited companion, his father got him
a slow and old dog which shows how much his father could care less about his childs happiness.
However, after a big slam from the screen door, the dog dies from a heart attack because of old
age. Whats more, is that once the boy finally received his source of happiness for a long time, it
is taken away from him in a matter of seconds. His father purposely brought the boy back an old
dog and he knew that the dogs life would not last long, my father closing the screen door
behind them with a great care (161). In further analysis, the father is so self centered that he
didnt care that the outcome would affect his child emotionally for the rest of his life. He only
cared about his own happiness and that he got his way of not caring for a dog. At the end the boy
says, its not an easy time for any parent, this moment when the realization dawns that youve
given birth to something that will never see the things the way you do(162). Since the boy
didnt experience love he needed and wanted, as he grew up he would be unemotionally attached
to his peers because he did not know what it felt like to be loved from the people he needed it
from the most.

Lastly, the story shows much parents love and affection affects us internally and it can
lead us to failure and pain. Parents usually want what is best for their children but sometimes it
does not end up that way. What they think is best might be the worst. In this story, realization
dawns upon us that all humans need love and companionship in our life in order for us to find
true happiness.