Essay Questions

How does the narrator in “I am a Dog” appeal to Ethos? What is the implication of the appeal?

The dog elucidates, “Allow me to remind you of “The Cave,” the most beautiful of the Koran’s chapters…This chapter recounts the story of seven youths who grow tired of living among pagans and take refuge in a cave where they enter a deep sleep. Allah then seals their ears and cause them to doze off exactly three hundred and nine years. When they awake, they learn just how many years have passed only after one of them enters the society of men and tries to spend an outdated silver coin…allow me to remind you of the eighteenth verse, which makes mention of a dog resting at the mouth of this cave where the seven youths have fallen asleep.” The mention of the dogs in the Koran is a complete appeal to ethos which implies that the dog is part of Allah’s miracle. Dogs are not trivial creatures, since if they were, the dog would not have been present at the cave. The Ethos is significant in underscoring the narrator’s ideology about the materiality of dogs.

What type of allusion is evident in the relationship between the murderer (in chapter four) and the corpse (in chapter one)?

The murderer explicates, “Now and again, I even feel as if I haven’t committed any crime at ll. Four days have passed since I was forced to do away with hapless Elegant, who was brother to me, and only have I, to some extent, accepted my situation.” The confession is a covert Biblical allusion to Cain and Abel. The murder exterminates Elegant in the same manner as Cain did to Abel. In both cases, the relationship between brothers turn from a brotherly bond to a murderer- murdered relationship. The allusion indicates that the cases of brothers turning against each other are common among humans.