Reading Guide for A Dog s Tale MARK TWAIN For use by CCLS Regional Read "Beyond Human: Animals in Literature" Participants Written by Shelby Saylor, English Senior Seminar Student at SUNY Fredonia
Summary A Dog s Tale is Twain s short story emotional appeal against vivisection. Published in 1903 in the Christmas issue of Harper s Magazine, Twain uses the voice of a sweet mother dog to show the horrors of vivisection. After she saves her masters child from a fire, her puppy is taken and subjected to an experiment by her master. Twain uses highly sentimentalized language and pathetic appeals to expose the reality of vivisection and how it effects animals emotionally. When it was first published, it was highly criticized as being a false representation of vivisection; however, when it was later published as a novella, it was met with positive feedback. Mark Twain Mark Twain was born Samuel L. Clemens on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. During his youth, Missouri was a slave state, and Clemens grew up listening to the spirituals and tall tales from the slaves on his uncle s farm. Clemens entered into the workforce as an eleven-year-old printer s apprentice at a local newspaper after his father died. After traveling around the United States working odd jobs and writing, Clemens became a well-known author under the pseudonym Mark Twain when Jim Smiley and the Jumping Frog became a popular publication in newspapers across the country. Clemens quickly became a well-established travel author, and his letters from abroad were compiled into his first novel, The Innocents Abroad, published in 1869. In 1870, Clemens married Olivia Langdon and settled in Buffalo, New York. During his time in Buffalo, Clemens worked as an editor and writer for the Buffalo Express, and his wife gave birth to their first child, Langdon Clemens. Clemens then moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he wrote most of his popular novels. During this time, Clemens wife gave birth to their second child, a daughter named Susy, within the same year that their son, Langdon, died of diphtheria in 1872. Olivia Clemens would later give birth to Clara in 1874 and Jean in 1880. Despite Clemens literary success, he lived much of his adult life in debt as a result of bad investments and had to file for bankruptcy. He moved his family to Europe in 1891 so that he might complete a lecture tour in order to earn back the money he lost from the investments. These later years of Clemens writing are considerably darker than the rest. In fact, much of his writing during this period was never published as potential publishers felt it might tarnish their reputations. PAGE 1
Clemens died on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut survived only by his daughter Clara. All of his other family members had died previously due to illness. Clemens writing continues to be published posthumously, and he is considered one of America s Great American Novelists. His books, such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, are still considered controversial yet timely despite being written over one hundred years ago. Historical and Literary Context Mark Twain lived in America during a time of transition. The Civil War and end of slavery served as an awakening to the people of the United States, which then harnessed their energy into other prominent social justice issues, such as animal welfare. In proper Twain-like fashion, he used his writing as a forum to explore topics such as humane education and animal rights. Brief Timeline of the Humane Education Movement: 1866: Henry Bergh founds the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) 1867: Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) is founded 1868: George T. Angell founds the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) 1868: Our Dumb Animals, the publication of the MSPCA (and later the AHES) is founded 1877: Michigan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals formed 1882: George T. Angell and Rev. Thomas Timmins start Bands of Mercy in the USA 1883: Caroline Earle White founds the American Anti-Vivisection Society 1889: American Humane Education Society formed 1893: Margaret Marshall Saunders publishes Beautiful Joe after winning a competition sponsored by the American Humane Education Society 1897: Our Dumb Friends League was founded 1906: The Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society was established by Louise Lind af Hageby and Nina Duchess of Hamilton 1912: Our Dumb Friends League establishes the Blue Cross fund to assist animals injured in war 1915: The first Be Kind to Animals Week takes place 1916: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) forms a Humane Education Department 1936: The Anti-Cruelty Society began a radio program called Animals in the News PAGE 2
1937: The Anti-Cruelty Society began a Humane Education program, and Virginia Sedgwick was hired as the Society s first full time Humane Educator The humane education movement was important because the height of its popularity was during a time of great sociological divide in our country. People who advocated for being kind to animals hoped that this movement would, in turn, translate into being kind to other people. Mark Twain and Animal Welfare Humane education is the process of teaching compassion and respect towards animals. In turn, the proprietors of the humane education movement believed that these skills would easily adapt the attitudes of people so that they may show compassion and respect towards other people as well. In a time of great social divisions in America, this belief is key in understanding the popularity and importance of this movement. Naturally, this movement fought strongly against vivisection in all shapes and forms. Vivisection is defined as the testing and experimentation on live animals for scientific research. In Twain s mind, vivisection was torture. In a letter to the London Anti-Vivisection Society, Twain wrote: "I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further." Twain s compassion towards animals should come as no surprise. The way he treats people who are othered from society in his other works shows how he believes in the advocacy for their rights. It makes sense that this ideal would extend to the animal welfare movement as well. Understanding the Anthropomorphizing Debate Any time an author uses the first-person narrative from an animal s perspective it is called anthropomorphizing. Just like it is problematic for an author to write first-person about a cultural experience that is not their own, the same argument could be made for works written from an animal s perspective. Many critics argue that when an author does this, he or she is not able to create a truly authentic voice. These stories or poems can only be a human voice and thought process PAGE 3
mapped onto the animal experience. The biggest critique is of course that it is inauthentic. However, reading from perspectives that are different from our own has proven to generate legitimate empathy on the behalf of the character whose lens the audience is reading through. For the humane education movement, generating empathy and compassion towards animals was the most important part of its literature. Because of this, first-person animal stories were extremely popular and well-liked at the time. Other Works/ Adaptations Twain was well known for peddling his own short stories and novels as a way to make a quick buck. Twain s writing is remarkable not just because of his natural talent, but because of his use of social commentary. His writing appeals across disciplines, from historians and archivists to literary academics, simply because he covers a wide variety of topics in his works. However, some of his most overlooked writing is the pieces he discusses animals and animal welfare. Mark Twain s Popular Works Popular works, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) were all written during his stay in Hartford, Connecticut and on summer trips to his sister-in-law s farm in Elmira, New York. These works take on topics such as race, class, oppression, and technology, and are filled with Twain s critical eye and witty response to a quickly changing America. Mark Twain s Animal Writing In Shelley Fishkin s Mark Twain s Book of Animals, she compiled sixty-seven short stories written by Twain in which he writes about animals and their care. The animals he writes about are not just the typical domesticated animals. He sheds light on life as a bug, or a camel, or an elephant, stretching his imagination to do so, but in a way that still provides some authenticity for his characters. Much of Twain s compassion for animals stems from his mother. According to Fishkin, Twain s mother abhorred any kind of pain inflicted on an animal and as a result Twain for more than fifty-five years [had] not wantonly injured a dumb creature (3). Instead, he chose to give them a voice in his works and to advocate for their rights. PAGE 4
Discussion Questions 1. How does Twain try to create a sense of authenticity for the main character in A Dog s Tale? 2. Where are the places you read Twain s voice coming through the main character? 3. Why doesn t the main character go with her masters when they are calling for her after the fire? 4. How do her owners treat her before the fire and do their attitudes towards her change after the fire? 5. How does Twain portray vivisection in A Dog s Tale? Is it effective? 6. Why do you think Twain never gives the main character or her puppy a name even though he names the human characters? What effect does this have on the story? 7. Twain s style is usually very blunt and satirical, why do you think he switches to sentimental language for this story? 8. Read Letters from Another Dog Explaining and Accounting for Man (page 99 in Mark Twain s Book of Animals). How does that story similar to A Dog s Tale? How is it different? Works Cited Cronin, Kerri. "Timeline." Be Kind: A Visual History of Humane Education. National Museum of Animals & Society, 02 July 2012. Web. 03 May 2017. "Samuel L. Clemens 1835-1910." Biography of Mark Twain. Mark Twain House & Museum, 2017. Web. 04 May 2017. Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Book of Animals. Comp. Shelley Fishkin. Berkely: U of California Press, 2009. Print. PAGE 5