A Dog's Journey by W. Bruce Cameron

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The main character is developed over the text. In the book the main character is a dog named Buddy, who is reborn as Molly, who is reborn as Max, who is reborn as Toby, who is the ending incarnation of the dog. When the book starts Buddy is an older dog who is a big labrador sort of dog. “The fur on my legs was as black as the rest of me, but down at my paws it had, over time, become tinged with white.”(pg 1) Shows that he was an older dog, because when dogs grow older their hair turns gray, like a humans. He is a brave, kind dog. “I could see he was going to step on the baby. I was afraid of the horse….. My instincts were telling me to back up, to get out of there, but Clarity was in danger and I had to do something, something now. I swallowed my fear and barked at that horse with all the fury I possessed. I tightened my lips, showing my teeth, and lunged forward, putting myself between Clarity and Troy….. I backed up, still barking, pushing Clarity into the corner with my hips.”(pg 22 & 23) This shows that Buddy knew that the horse could hurt him, but he wasn’t going to back away because that would leave the baby in harms way, he was brave enough to protect her even though he was afraid. The next form of “him” is Molly (a female), a poodle mix. She is a little confuse at first as to why she is reborn, but soon realizes she has to take care of CJ (clarity in her teens, no longer a baby). She is very compassionate about CJ, and knows that she is extremely important to her. “Later the back gate clanged and Rocky and I tore over to see who it might be, and there she was. We both jumped up on her and I finally growled at Rocky for acting as if he was as important to her as I was.” This shows that Molly knows she is i...

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...ows he doesn’t like her and she knows not to trust him.

The point of view is from a dog inn first person, so its different than what a human would think in some situations, The dog also can easily misinterpret what she/he is supposed to do in situations because he/she can not understand what humans are telling him/her what to do. You can see that it is first person because you are reading the thoughts. It also uses like phrases like “I was confused” or “I hoped”.

The author does the events in sequence of when they happen, just as if you were experiencing them yourself. Not with too much insight as to what will happen in the kind of distant future but, there are little clues like you can just sometimes tell what will happen, but still a little surprising. The order in which the book is set up makes it feel more life like, and that it was actually happening.

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