Man's Best "Friend"

     For the past ten years, one of the most heated and dividing issues among political and social spheres has been the issue of animal rights. While some think that testing and harming animals for the greater good of human beings is torture and should be considered animal cruelty, others think that it is a necessary evil in order to save human lives. Despite the controversy surrounding this issue, Mark Twain’s short story, “A Dog’s Tale” provides an interesting perspective on whether or not it is really acceptable to take the life of an animal to save that of a human. Through Twain’s interesting use of structure and point of view that shape his story, young readers are drawn in and able to relate to his central claim, that animals are not test subjects or play toys, yet living, loving creatures. 

     Twain introduces the reader to the main character, Aileen Mavourneen, a dog, at the beginning of the story, also describing her parents, a St. Bernard and a Collie. The story is told from the point of view of Aileen, which lets the reader sympathize with what she says. By allowing the reader see the story through Aileen’s eyes, instead of an outside observer or omniscient narrator, it gives the reader a chance to see what a dog might think about some of the things that humans do. In this story, Twain is showing the reader, through the eyes of a dog, why it is harmful when humans put their own lives above those of dogs. When the baby’s crib catches on fire, Aileen remembers what her mother told her and she risks her own safety to save the child. She does this almost instinctively and considers it her duty. However, when the scientist wants to experiment in order to save human lives, he does not think twice about killing Aileen’s puppy in the name of science. Aileen does not mind risking her own safety but she is obviously deeply saddened by the death of her beloved puppy. Twain raises an important question at this point; he forces the reader to ask whether it is okay to sacrifice an animal’s life in order to save our own. This is a question relevant to many people today, in this time of heated debate over animal rights. Twain is making the claim that animals are capable of love, communication, and other human qualities and that it is wrong to simply kill them in the name of science. Obviously this is a hard claim to support, however by presenting the emotional and saddening story of Aileen and her puppy lost to science, Twain gets his point across that humans should not just look at animals as inferior beings, but rather as companions. His claim can certainly relate to readers of all age. The issue raised in this story is current to many young readers because the issue is not outdated or unconnected from the questions raised today about whether animal’s lives are less valuable than humans.

     Although it may seem, after reading this story, that Twain is making a clear point against the harm of animals for the betterment of humans, Twain’s main claim is actually less clear. In the beginning of the story, Aileen’s mother tells Aileen to be brave and to think of others before herself. This is what Aileen’s mother says when the two are being separated, “but she comforted me as well as she could, and said we were sent into this world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without repining, take our life as we might find it, live it for the best good of others, and never mind about the results; they were not our affair. She said men who did like this would have a noble and beautiful reward by-and-by in another world, and although we animals would not go there, to do well and right without reward would give to our brief lives a worthiness and dignity which in itself would be a reward.” This quote from Aileen’s mother brings an interesting perspective into the story. Aileen’s mother is essentially telling her that although there will be no reward waiting for her in heaven, that Aileen should still live her life for the good of others. Is Aileen’s mother telling Aileen that her life is less important than that of a human? The question about whose life is more important, the dog’s life, or the human’s life that the scientist is supposedly saving by killing Aileen’s puppy, is a question that is certainly still a relevant issue. Young readers can take an interest in this story because it closely relates to one of the most heated debates today. Even Twain did not take a clear side on the issue, but yet left it up to the reader to decide which would have been best, possibly letting humans die or killing Aileen’s precious puppy. 

     Although Twain never clearly states his main claim anywhere in the story, it is quite easy to interpret what Twain is alluding to throughout the story. The structure of this story is quite important in identifying the theme. Twain spends the first third of the story talking about Aileen and her mother. Aileen’s mother is described by Aileen to be very intelligent, as she is always listening to what humans are saying and repeating the words back to her fellow dogs to make them ponder how she got such a large vocabulary. By starting off the story describing the relationship between Aileen and her mother, Twain convinces the reader that these dogs really do have human qualities, that they are intelligent, and that they do love each other. Later on in the story when Aileen has her puppy, the reader understands the love that Aileen has for her puppy is real because Twain showed the love that Aileen and her mother had for each other. When the scientist kills the puppy for testing purposes later in the story, he becomes the antagonist since the reader has already become connected with Aileen earlier in the story. In this way, Twain makes his point clear without ever clearly stating his claim. He does this through the use of structure and point of view. 

    This story of Aileen and her puppy strikes a chord with readers of a generation who were brought up during a time when animal rights are on the forefront of hot topics. Many people today only see the human perspective of the issue, however Twain gives us an animal’s perspective by introducing us to Aileen, who has some human qualities and is not just “another animal.” Aileen’s story certainly applies to today’s young readers because it makes one question whether or not it is moral to place ourselves over animals.