Companion

Character Role Analysis

Ike

A quick note about character roles: My Life in Dog Years is a nonfiction book with an unusual structure. Each of its nine chapters is a portrait of a dog that has been important in author Gary Paulsen's life. Since the stars of his story are all canine companions…we could have just listed nine companions. (But where's the fun in that? After all, this isn't Doctor Who.) Paulsen would probably say he's got nine protagonists. Instead, we chose examples to show you how this book both follows, and departs from, the usual cast of characters you find in great literature.

Every dog in the book is Paulsen's companion. But if we had to pick just one example, we'd choose Ike, his hunting partner. Ike was great at retrieving ducks, but he was also a friend who knew how to listen. "I would talk, tell him all my troubles, and he would sit, his enormous head sometimes resting on my knee," Paulsen writes (3.49). Ike was a classic sidekick even though he technically belonged to someone else.