Fifteen Dogs

In ancient Greek mythology, Apollo is the god of poetry and music, healing and plague, archery, light, and prophecy. He is Zeus’s son by Leto, a mortal woman, and he is Hermes’s brother. In epic, Apollo administers punishment. His reference to human intelligence as “an occasionally useful plague” (13) is a self-conscious reference to his function in ancient epic; in the Iliad, for example, he inflicts plague on Greek troops who have disrespected one of his priests.

Apollo’s bet with Hermes emerges from idle debate over the value of humans and whether their unique form of intelligence makes them superior. This characterization of the gods experimenting on mortals to pass eternity is consistent with representations in myth. The gods are deathless and unchanging, which provokes existential boredom, which prompts interference with mortal lives. 

Unlike Hermes, Apollo does not express any particular fascination with humans. His primary concern is winning the bet and not incurring the wrath of his father, Zeus, in the process. Apollo never betrays any particular concern for any of the dogs, not even for Prince, the poet dog who Apollo calls “one of his own” (168). He repeatedly interferes to make Prince unhappy, robbing him of the senses he needs to maintain his independence (vision) and poetry (hearing). Apollo is annoyed that trying to win the bet compelled him to make a fellow poet unhappy, but the two years of servitude that he will lose to Hermes take priority. Consistent with his immortal status, Apollo does not change or grow. 

Majnoun is a black poodle capable of defending himself, but who dislikes hurting other dogs unless absolutely necessary. Majnoun’s response to self-consciousness reflects Stoic philosophy: He sets his longing for the past aside and accepts his new state as unavoidable. Majnoun is the first dog to break out of his cage at the veterinary clinic, symbolic of freedom being his highest value. It is because he values freedom that he does not seek to harm dogs who hold different views, but it is also the reason that Atticus wants to kill him. Atticus and Majnoun’s views are incompatible.

Majnoun’s reticence for violence explains why he feels “more comfortable around humans” (20) than dogs. His relationships with dogs are uncomplicated: Whoever could establish physical dominance assumed the top position. In contrast, his relationships with humans are layered. For his former master, he felt “resentment and dislike” (50) but also loyalty. Having experienced happy moments with his master, however, Majnoun believes that servitude can be pleasurable when it includes respect. That Majnoun’s god figure is a “master of all masters” (96) reflects the relationship he has with humans: They have power over dogs but are not necessarily superior to them. 

Majnoun did not love his master, but he respected him. With Nira, Majnoun develops a transcendent love that makes life on earth without her unbearable. He would die for Nira, and ultimately dies in the hope of seeing her again. Majnoun doesn’t, however, feel this way about his previous human master or Miguel, Nira’s husband. For his human master and Miguel, Majnoun feels respect because it is the appropriate response to the most powerful pack member. This is also why Majnoun obeys Atticus’s order not to kill Max in Chapter One, even though he knows it is a mistake. Majnoun’s relationships suggest that love and respect are mutually exclusive feelings.

Atticus, a grey Neapolitan mastiff, derived satisfaction from pleasing his master, which symbolizes love over respect. Because he assumes leadership with brutal clarity, Atticus can seem cruel and unfeeling, which isn’t entirely the case. Human decisions and actions spring from complex emotional cocktails. Atticus’s problem is not a dearth of feeling but an excess of it. Self-consciousness amplified his preexisting sensitivity and thoughtfulness, causing internal conflict between his instincts to catch prey and please his master, with his realization that his actions cause his prey to suffer. The resulting emotional turmoil prompts Atticus to reject self-consciousness, though events will show that it is impossible to be other than what we are.

Atticus’s ritualization of dog behavior shapes his concept of god not as Majnoun believes, but as a “pure or ideal dog” (95) who can guide Atticus to be a proper pack leader. From the moment Atticus consciously decides to reject human intelligence, he demonstrates that he is under its sway because he is making conscious not instinctive decisions. Atticus prays to the “dog of dogs” (96) to recover his instincts, but they are beyond his reach. 

Atticus’s pack rules include no “strange talk,” strong leadership, a “good den,” and “the weak in their proper place” (93). Conspicuously, absence is how the powerful should treat the weak. Atticus’s ultimately fatal flaw is that he cannot accept his own reality. In seeking to escape empathy, he overemphasizes the rights of the powerful, which leads to his destruction.

Prince’s story is the final chapter in the novel. Structurally, this is necessary to maintain the suspense of who will win the bet, since Prince is the only dog who dies happy. A “mutt of some sort” (27), he is the only dog with a complete biography, and this biography presents another variation on dog-human relationships.

Prince recalls his departure from his first home in Alberta with Kim through sense. He perceived that Kim’s family was upset; his mother was weeping and the family was stiff. Prince himself was excited, thinking they were going on another hunt, but he discovers his error as nature’s scents give way to “tar, dust, rock” (151). The city bewilders him not only because of the “maze of streets” (152) but also because cannot understand why he lost Kim. Another family traps him in their house, and when he emerges, Prince cannot pick up Kim’s scent. Prince comes to see humans as confusing, and this shapes his desire to avoid them as much as possible after losing Kim.

Prince’s exile from the other dogs hits him even harder than his separation from Kim because he sees the dogs as his kind and cannot understand why they reject him. Accommodating and humble, Prince never concerned himself with the hierarchy, accepting a low dog role despite being large enough to be a “physical threat” (27), and he does not realize that the dogs see his unusual gift as an unarticulated danger. In exile from the pack, Prince’s one solace is the pack’s unique language. His desire to keep the language alive bestows him a sense of purpose that not only sustains him in life but brings him joy in death. He realizes that language does not belong to him and the pack exclusively but exists as a potentiality, thus it exists eternally.

Prince is prudent, wise, brave, and maintains a sense of proportion about himself and his skills. His character most closely resembles the Aristotelian ideal of virtue leading to happiness. Prince also embodies two additional qualities that ensure his happiness: humility and love.