by C.H. Chavez

Created on: April 14, 2009

More than a Family

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." This quote from Jane Howard
is true; everyone needs a family and the sense of belonging without a family life would be lonely and miserable. In Ann Pancake's short story "Dog Song" the main character Matley goes through the loss of the only family he has ever known and loses himself in the process.

She aids the reader to gain this understanding through the uses of these literary elements: imagery and motif.

To commence with, Ann Pancake allows the reader to understand the changes in the protagonist through the use of imagery. For instance, "They could tell you in town that Matley was born old, born with the past squeezing on him, and he was supposed to grow up in that? How?
There was no place to go but backwards and one ole boy would say, Well, there he goes. That ruint runt of Revie's four boys'" (96). This image allows the reader to see how the townspeople view Matley. In the quote a boy called Matley a "ruint runt," a runt is defined as an undersized animal, usually the smallest in the litter. Matley is described as the many dogs he owns, they become his family and he becomes theirs.
Matley uses the dogs to replace family roles that he has been without for so long, he cares for them and somehow they care for him in return, he talks to them, and loves them. "He packed the emptiness with pup. Took comfort in their scents, nose buried in their coats, he inhaled their different smells, corn chips, chicken stock, meekish skunk. He'd listen to their breathing, march his breath in step with theirs, he'd hear them live, alive, their sleeping songs, them lapping themselves and recurling themselves, snoring and dreaming, settle and sigh." (100) The dogs seem to become more human with the way they are described, it is almost as if they transform along with Matley. Knowing how close the dogs have become with Matley shows how they mirror each other, almost becoming one.

Furthermore, this strong bond illustrates how Matley's loss of the dogs, his family leads him to lose himself. He is traumatized, he lost his parents at a young age and now he is losing the only family he has. Matley's heart is breaking and with Pancake's help with her imagery the reader is allowed to grasp what is going on with the main character.

This being so, Pancake also uses motifs to help the reader relate to Matley, in order to understand his loss better. For

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