Dog Star
September 9, 2008
Please Note: There is only one paragraph to write for this story only!
Paragraph 1: Read the poem on page 40, The World is Not a Pleasant Place to Be by Nikki Giovanni. Discuss in a well-rounded paragraph (no less than 5 sentences) why the narrator of Arthur C. Clark’s short story, Dog Star, would probably agree with the last stanza of this poem.
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1. caldred | September 19th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
The last stanza of the poem speaks of how unpleasant it is when you lose someone.
“the world is not
a pleasant place to be without
someone”
The same thing happened to the narrator in “Dog Star”. When he went to the moon he had to leave his best friend, his dog Laika, behind. This separation caused Laika to give up on living, and she died one month after he left. “I had deserted someone who loved and trusted me…” The narrator felt very guilty about abondoning her, and it was undoubtedly unpleasant for him.
2. Janelle G | September 19th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I think the author of the short story “Dog Star” would probably agree with the last stanza of Nikki Giovanni’s poem because the character of Laika’s owner misses her very much, and wises he could feel that persistent love again. In “Dog Star” Laika’s owner decided to give him/her up to pursue an astronomy career. The owner never wanted to give Laika up, but did, and is now dearly missing the undying, unqiue love that he hasn’t found anywhere else. The author, Nikki Giovanni, is saying that if you don’t have someone you can share a strong bond with, then the world is not a pleasant place to be. In conclusion, I think that they would both agree because Laika’s owner was happier with her, and thinks his world would be better with her in it.
3. Morgan Bates | September 19th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
The last stanza in the poem states “The world is not a pleasant place to be without someone”. The reason the narrator of Dog Star would agree to this stanza would be because in this story he clearly shows that he loves his dog. The narrator took the dog everywhere, he went except on the oversea trips. He also states ” I hated to leave her for more than a few days at a time” (35). Then he tells us that when Laika died he lost interest in living. Even though the narrator originally says he never liked dogs he grew very fond of Laika.
4. Rebekah Parsons | September 20th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I think the narrator of the story could very well identify with the last stanza of the poem because he discovered after giving up his dog, Laika, for his job in space, that he would never feel so alone and find the world so unpleasant without a true friend. He truly loved Laika for her companionship and comfort. He never got along with people all that well even before he owned Laika, so she was truly his one and only best friend. I think that the narrator was also Laika’s best friend, because after he left on his mission, she found no reason to live. After some thought, he also didn’t feel he had a reason to live either without a friend. This all goes to show how we should value our friendships and not take them for granted.
5. ArabiaL | September 20th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
The author of “Dog Star” would agree with the last stanza because, in the story he had to leave Laika behind. When he had to leave Laika he felt guilty for it. Like in the poem “The World is Not a Pleasant Place to Be”,the man in the story believed that Laika just gave up “She had just lost interest in living, it seemed” (38). The man also felt the same way. That living in a world with out someone is not pleasant.
6. Marissa King | September 20th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
To me after I read this poem I thought to myself that this poem is about despair and lonelyness. Despair because in the beginning it is talking about being lonely and not having anyone to be held by. Then it gave the example of the river only being stopped by the stream reciving it. At the end of the poem it states that the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone. I’m thinking that means that it would be best and it would feel much better if you always had someone there to share the good and bad times with. The person I could automactilly think of is God because hes always there and he said that he would never meave us nor forsake us!!!
7. Gabriella W | September 20th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I think the narrator would agree with the last stanza because that is how he felt after Laika died. Before he found her he really didnt have any close friends or interact with alot of people. Then when he found her abandoned by the side of the road, they beame inseperable. So when he made the choice to go into space he saw no point in interacting wih anyone else because she wasn’t there. He felt pain from abandoning her,”and was no better than those who had abandoned Laika when she was a puppy…” (38). That love he felt as she looked at him with “an unselfish love, undemanding love” (38), he would never be able to find it again on the moon, earth, or any other world.
8. Lisa E | September 20th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
The narrator of the story would agree with the poem because he began feeling like life wasn’t worth living after his dog died. He rescued Laika, his dog, from the side of the road even though he didn’t like dogs. She even rescued him from an earthquake be waking him. He was very attached to the dog and hated to leave her behind when he left for the moon. After finding out that she died from depression, he felt like the world wasn’t a pleasant place without Laika, even on the moon. When he thought he heard barking he woke up on the moon just before a giant earthquake, and was saved by what he thought was Laika.
9. Marissa King | September 20th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
The last stanza of the poem is very significant because it relates very well with the moral of the story. I thought the moral of the story was the astronomer loved Laika so much that it was hard for him to let her go while he went up into space. The last stanza also relates with this story because the astronomer gained a strong relationship with his dog and when he had to leave her, he felt a sense of loneleness. He stated, “I had to desert someone who loved and trusted me, and was no better than those who had abandoned Laika when she was a puppy, beside the dusty road to Palomar” (page 38). The last stanza said that the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone, relates to the story that when the astronomer discovered Laika had died he said, “She had just lost interest in living, it seemed. For a while, I think I did the same” (page 38). In the end when Laika died he felt a desolating feeling because he really missed her and they had become best friends over a period of time.
10. Priya Maithel | September 20th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I think Arthur C. Clark would agree with the last stanza of this poem because he was very upset when he was no longer with Laika. He says ” I could not shake off that feeling of guilt; I had deserted someone who loved and trusted me ” (38). Clark felt that he had caused Laika to give up the will to live. Clark loved Laika, and was regretting the fact that he had left her on earth. This just goes to show that Arthur Clark would probably agree with the statement ” the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone ” (40).
11. Josh Macks (P.S> Accidentally posted the one above, sorry) | September 20th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
The narrator of the short story, Dog Star, would agree with the author of The World is Not a Pleasant Place to Be. When Nikki Giovanni writes, “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone”, she means that life is not worth living without someone to love and be loved by. The narrator would know how that feels, because after he deserted Laika he had nobody. There was a void in his life that he tried to fill with work after Laika was gone. He realizes that that void was even greater in Laika, whom he had abandoned. It cost her her life.
12. katie | September 21st, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I think Arthur Clarke would relate to “The World is Not a Pleasant Place to Be” because in Dog Star the main character is not complete without Laika. When Laika dies, the main character feels haunted by the memory of it. When you become attached to something you can’t picture life without that one thing. “Though I never forgot Laika, in a little while the memory ceased to hurt.” (38) The world is not a fun place without someone you love and I think Arthur Clarke would agree.
13. christyana | September 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
In the story dog star the author Arthur C. Clarke talks about how an astronomer is reminsing on the special times with his dog.The dogs name was Laika.She was named after the first animal sent into space. The austronomer found laika on the road side one summer day.He and Laika became very attatched to one another.Then the astronomer got the opportunity to go to the moon. He ended up going to and leaving Laika behind. One month later he found out that Liaka passed away while he was on the moon, she only left her with her memories
14. Randasia bevelle | September 21st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I think that he would agree because of what Laika went through as a little puppy went through. If the world was a pleasant place to be then the dog wouldn’t of been abandoned like that. The astronomer fellt bad for the dog it says in the sotry that he was going to give the dog sway but when it open its eyes he felt sorry for the Laika so he keot her. Also in the end of the story, Laika died and i can imagine how he felt at the moment. If i was him I would think that the world wasn’t a pleasant place to be because something bad is always happening, but we do have good days.
15. Kyla | September 21st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
The author C. Clark would probably agree with the last stanza of the poem because it resembles the short story Dog Star. I would say the poem described how the astronomer was feeling. The poem says ”the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone”. I think that shows how the astronomer felt when he found out his dog had passed away. He felt alone because he wasn’t good with talking to people and the dog; Laika was his only real friend.
16. Autumn J | September 21st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
The narrator of Arthur C. Clarks short story, Dog Star, would probably agree with this poem. He would agree with this poem because in the story the man loved his dog and when the dog died he felt lonely. In the poem it talks about how there would be no point of living unless there is someone else to share life with.This means that without someone to love or to love you the world is incredibly lonley. This is why the narrarator of Dog Star would agree with this poem.
17. Raymond | September 21st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Dog Star would agree with the last stanza of the poem. Because when the dog died he felt loney and he was very sad. He was sad because he didnt have a friend to talk to or play with anymore. And in the poem it says a ” the world is not a pleasant place to be withot someone”. And thats why I think Dog Star would agree with the last stanza of the poem.
18. Christina | September 21st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I think the author would agree because he knew the importance of being with someone you care about. In the story the author becomes very attached to this dog, Laika. He takes her everywhere and cares about her very much. Laika even saves the authors life. When the author has to leave Laika he becomes very sad, and when he hears of her death he wishes he could have been with her longer. The author’s life was enhanced because Laika was apart of it.
19. Ashley A. | September 21st, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Arthur C. Clarke’s story, Dog Star, agree’s with the poem, The World is Not a Pleasant Place to Be, because in both entry’s it talks about being alone in the world and how it is miserable. In Dog Star, a friend makes a decision to abandon the other friend, Laika and regrets it because the loneliness they both feel. In the poem, The World is Not a Pleasant Place to Be, it also talks about how it is not fun to be lonely and we need animals or friends to fill that lonely spot.
20. Frank Holecek | September 21st, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Arthur Clarke had a monumental decision to make, one that would leave him sad and guilt ridden regardless of his choice. He had to choose to either stay on Earth and abandon his aspiring career, or go to the Moon and abandon his beloved dog, Laika. Arthur chose to go to the Moon, and leave Laika with the Andersons. He thought that Laika had just lost interest in living when he heard that she had died a month later. Arthur thought that his work could relieve the pain he felt from losing Laika. He found that after losing Laika the world was not such a pleasant place. The void left Arthur thinking, if, “… I could have looked just once more into those luminous brown eyes, brimming with an unselfish, undemanding love I have found nowhere else on this or on any other world” (38).
21. Leanne Krick | September 21st, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I think the author would agree that “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone” because he had learned if you have no one to share life with than you will be very lonely. In the story, the author said that he did not have many friends until he saved the dog from the side of the road. This dog, Laika, made him realize the value in having someone to share your life with. While he was in space he got word that Laika had died and this also greatly affected his life. Five years later, while he was alone on another planet he was still missing and dreaming about Laika and how this dog changed his life.
22. Olivia Alfredson | September 21st, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I think that the poem and the story are related in several ways. One is the prospect of having somebody. Just as the poem says, everyone needs someone to watch and look after them just like Laika and the narrator did mutually. In the poem it says, “an ocean would never laugh if clouds weren’t there to kiss her tears’ (40). Once the narrator left Laika he didn’t live for much longer because the narrator wasn’t there to comfort and take care of him. Their companionship was broken.
23. Mhockenbrocht | September 21st, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I think that the author would agree with the last stanza of the poem because he has showed in the story that without somone, you are not happy. The poem says that “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone.” In the “Dog Star” the author gives off the exact same feeling. That if you don’t have anyone to be by your side or take “long walks together over the mountains” you are truly not satisfied. The authors both agree that everyone needs someone to be their friend and companion.
24. Maggie V | September 21st, 2009 at 4:06 pm
The arthur of Dog Star loved his dog. You could tell he loved his dog because he was having second thoughts about going into space which meant he had to leave his dog behind. I believe he would agree with the last stanza of this poem because he had a dream about Laika after she died. This shows that he missed Laika very much and he believed Laika saved his life. His life was not a very pleasant place to be without a dog to go walking with, a dog to be there for him when he got home, or a dog to put his front paws on his shoulders to show how excited he was to see him.
25. Kim B. | September 21st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Dog Star would agree with it because when she left to go to space she felt lonely because she had to leave her dog behind. It started when she found him as a puppy on the side of the road. She didn’t really like dogs but fell attached to it. She took it to work and was the only dog aloud there. Then one night when she was sleeping her dog started barking at the door she got up to let her out and she bolted out of the door. She stood in the door way waiting for her to come back than the ground started shaking and I got out of the house before it collapsed on my friends. She knew she owed her life to her dog. She had to choose between the dog or her dream and career. She had to leave the dog behind. After a month up in space she learned that the dog had died. Then five years later in the middle of the night she had a dream that her dog was barking in the night and woke up only to find her not there but than an earthquake started and that memory dream saved her life again.
26. Mariana S. | September 21st, 2009 at 4:15 pm
The narrator of Arthur C. Clarke’s short story, Dog Star, would probably agree with the last stanza of this poem, because it relates to how he felt after Laika died. In the last stanza of the poem is says “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone”, and the story the narrator says “I was alone with my memories overwhelmed by the transcendental sadness that often comes when some bright dream fades into reality”. The narrator often describes how he feels at times when he is alone specifically without Laika when he uses words like sad and desolating. Also since the narrator didn’t have much human friends he often looks to his work for an anodyne for his loneliness. These are the reasons I believe the narrator of the short story Dog Star would agree with the last stanza of the poem The World Is Not a Pleasant Place to Be by Nikki Giovanni.
27. alexis w | September 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
The author of the book would agree with the poem by Nikki Giovanni because the poem and the book both have to do with being lonely. In both poems they express how they need someone in there life/world. They also express feelings of sadness when without someone. When the narrator remembers Laika he becomes sad and he is in dismay because he doesn’t have her anymore. You can tell the narrator would agree because of how sad he is and because of how he says he wanted his dream to last longer so he could see and be with Laika one last time in this world.
28. GHoover | September 21st, 2009 at 4:26 pm
The narrator of Dog Star had to leave his dog behind to go into space. He felt just as Nikki Giovanni’s poem explained “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone.” He felt like he abandoned Laika. He also felt bad when he heard the news that Laika died because the people who were taking care of her said that she did not feel like living anymore. To feel that the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone must be awful.
29. Justin P. | September 21st, 2009 at 4:26 pm
It would probably agree with the last stanza of the poem for several reasons. The narrator said himself that he couldn’t leave Laika on the side of the road to die. It shows that he felt compassion for the dog even though he said he was not to fond of having a pet, let alone a dog. Another thing was how the narrator and Laika grew so close in a short amount of time. All the dog needed was someone to love and to love it back. The story proves what the last stanza in the poem says. The world is not a pleasant place to be without someone
30. Imani Thomas | September 21st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Yes, I do believe the narrator of Arthur C. Clark’s short story Dog Star would agree with Nikki Giovanni the author of The World Is Not a Pleasent Place to Be because the narrator of Dog Star feels different and alone without Laika. The narrator’s feelings (to me) when he discoved that Laika died were almost exaclty like the last stanza in the poem. He felt that there was really no point of living anymore after Laika passed. I believe that this stanza was really like a way of describing how a person feels when they lose a loved one or a pet. The very last sentence of Dog Star is almost the same as The World Is Not a Pleasent Place to Be due to the fact that he was talking about how he had an unselfish, undemanding love for something that he did not want to live without.
31. Meagan Collins | September 21st, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I believe that the narrator of the short story, “Dog Star”, would agree with the last line of the poem “The World Is Not a Pleasant Place to Be”. The last line of the poem says, “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone”. The narrator would most likely agree with this because he understands that it is unpleasant to be lonely, and he especially knows the true meaning of lonely, considering that something that loved him and depended on him, and that he loved and depended on, was taken away from him. Since his experience with Laika, his dog that he had to give up because he left to research in space, he now knows that its lonely to not have someone to be with. I think that the narrator probably knows that the world is unpleasant without someone.
32. Paige Peterson | September 21st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I think the narrator would agree with the last stanza of the poem because Laika was the only one who really understood him. The narrator felt like when he left Laika to preserve his job, a piece of him was missing. He might also agree because he felt like he had deserted the one who had really trusted and loved him like no human did. The narrator felt at one time that he didnt want to live anymore, beacuse the one person who gave him a reason to live(besides his career) wasnt with him, so he felt lonely. He relates to the ending stanza of them poem simply because he didnt want tolive in his world without Laika, the one being that he cared about the most.
33. Garrett Nimmo | September 21st, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I think that the author would agree with the last stanza of the poem. I think this because if the narrator had’nt had Laika she would have been so lonely. I think that the narrator realized how much she needed Laika after she left her on earth, and after she got the news that Laika had died.
34. Shannon J. | September 21st, 2009 at 4:40 pm
The author of Dog star, Arthur C. Clark, could relate to the last stanza of the poem The World Is Not a Pleasent Place To Be because he experienced that when his dog, Laika died. He never knew how bad it was to be wothout her until she was gone. This is when he realized that “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone”(40). The world suddenly became less pleasant to him. Still, he had a “fear of lonliness, and fear of madness” (33) even many years after her death. Without someone with him the world was not the same to him.
35. Chandler Wisler | September 21st, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I think it would agree because Dog Star is about how you need someone else like a dog in your life. In the poem it says “the world is not a pleasent place to be without someone”. They both talk about how you need someone else in your life, a dog, or a person. Just something that you can spend time with. Even God says that life is better with others and that you should never be alone.
36. Eion | September 21st, 2009 at 4:49 pm
The story is about how this guy finds a dog on the road. The dog always loves it when he comes back form a trip. He would always be happy and wouldn’t stop jumping around and playing with him. He also thought that the dog was intelligent and that it could understand his conversations with his colleagues. He would say that the last stanza is true the world isn’t pleasant without a friend around.
37. Christian Winter | September 21st, 2009 at 4:53 pm
The narrator of this story would probably agree with the last stanza of the poem because he says even though he isn’t that social, he still needs someone to give him a sense of love and trust. In the story, he implies that he has needs when he says, “Between them, the stars and Laika filled all my needs,” (36). The narrator also describes in the beginning of the story the strong and desolating feelings he had for the loss of Laika. In the end of the story, the narrator tells of how he wishes his dream to last longer so he can remember his beloved dog and stare into it’s eyes. The narrator throughout the story shows that he genuinely loved Laika and that he, not being a very social person, needed something in his life to love and be with.
38. Chris Bankston | September 21st, 2009 at 4:54 pm
The reason Dog Star would probably agree with the last stanza of the poem is because the narrator had to be without Laika when he left for the observatory. He wasn’t really alone but he had to leave Laika behind on the earth, and he didn’t make very many human friends he was pretty much by himself. Laika was really the only real friend he had, and leaving her behind was a pretty tough decision but that was the choice he made and he could not do very much about it. Later on when the narrator starts living on the observatory on the moon Laika dies, and the he feels so miserable he starts to lose interest in living but he said that working helped get rid of a lot of the pain. The narrator’s emotional pain and suffering when Laika died showed that, as Nikki Giovanni said, “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone”.
39. E. Carter | September 21st, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Some reasons why Arthur C. Clarke’s “Dog Star” agrees with the last stanza of Nikki Giovanni’s “The World Is Not a Pleasant Place to Be” are: the scientist’s relationships with others, the relationship between the scientist and Liaka, and the scientist’s sorrow over leaving the dog back home (on earth). The scientist is very concentrated on his work and doesn’t have many friends. One day when he is going home, he sees a puppy lying on the side of the road and even though he doesn’t like animals, takes the dog home. He keeps the dog and names it Liaka; the dog and the scientist form a strong relationship of which the scientist does not have with humans. The book says “…for I have made very few friends among human beings. Yet when I returned to the Observatory after an absence, she would go almost frantic with delight…” (34). When the scientist has to go to the moon to continue his work, he ends up having to leave Liaka behind. Soon after he lands on the moon he feels a deep sadness at leaving the dog. These reasons are why “Dog Star” is a very good example of the quote “the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone” (40).
40. Cal thorne | September 21st, 2009 at 5:18 pm
He would agree with Nikki because he wrote about how he lost his best friend in “Dog Star”. He writes about how he dreams of his dog in the begining of the story and has a flashback of his life with Laika and how he loved it. Clarke wrote about how he never went away from his dog for a long time and about their relationship togeter. He wrote how his dog saved his life when it woke him up in time to get away from an earthquake that destroyed his hotel. Then he talkes about how he left his dog to go into space to a observatory and how it died a month later. Last he talks about how his dream about Laika saved his life from an earthquake on the moon.
I am really sorry that I was late but the anti-spam thing would not let me through and I had to redo the paragaph.
41. Eric Hamilton | September 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm
It agrees because the stanza somewhat describes the relationship between the narrator and Laika. The narrator of the story is attached to Laika because the dog is her best friend and with the dog the narrator feels like the world is a pleasent place to be. When she first wanted to give Laika away to the janitor she said, “I had intended to hand the puppy over to the janitor; but then it whimpered and opened its eyes. There was such an experession of helpless trust in them that-well i changed my mind”(34). At that moment the narrator discovered that Laika was the thing that made life pleasing to her. Then when Laika died, when she left to pursuit her new job, she was heartbroken and just lost intrest in living because she relized that without Laika life wasn’t just as fun and enjoyable.
42. Kristen B. | September 22nd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
The narrator of Arthur C. Clark’s short story, Dog Star, would probably agree with the last stanza of this poem because in the story Laika was found ownerless and homeless. Then at the end Laika ran away. She was lonely. So was Laika’s owner when Laika had ran away, when the earthquake happened. So the author’s point was that it isn’t fun when you are missing someone you care a lot about. Thats pretty much the theme of the store.
43. Ashley A. | September 23rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
In the story, “Dog Star” and the poem, The World is Not a Pleasasnt Place to Be, the same messages are given. The narrator of “Dog Star” had to abandon his best friend, Laika, to go into space and live there for awhile. Both the narrator and Laika were terribly lonely. As you can see, the world is not a pleasant place to be when you are lonely, which is the message in The World is Not a Pleasant Place to Be. This is how both entrys link together.