Comments on: Dog Star

By: Ashley A.

Ashley A. — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:19:17 +0000

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.

By: Kristen B.

Kristen B. — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:57:02 +0000

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.

By: Eric Hamilton

Eric Hamilton — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:45:10 +0000

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.

By: Cal thorne

Cal thorne — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:18:00 +0000

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.

By: E. Carter

E. Carter — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:16:24 +0000

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).

By: Chris Bankston

Chris Bankston — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:54:01 +0000

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”.

By: Christian Winter

Christian Winter — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:53:48 +0000

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.

By: Eion

Eion — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:49:04 +0000

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.

By: Chandler Wisler

Chandler Wisler — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:41:45 +0000

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.

By: Shannon J.

Shannon J. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:40:29 +0000

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.