Literary Devices in My Life in Dog Years
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
The book spans the years between 1946 to 1998, following Paulsen from age 7 to 59. After Cookie's dedication in the first chapter, we begin in the Philippines with Snowball, the author's first dog....
Narrator Point of View
My Life in Dog Years is a nonfiction book about nine special dogs that author Gary Paulsen has known. In nine chapters, he tells their stories; but in the process, he also tells his own. Often, whe...
Genre
On the surface, My Life in Dog Years is a collection of stories about dogs. Author Gary Paulsen has kept zillions of dogs (okay, hundreds), and each chapter tells the life story of a canine compani...
Tone
From the first paragraph (or even from the title alone), we know that Gary Paulsen is a man who loves dogs. "I make no excuses for unabashedly loving them," he writes, "all of them, even some that...
Writing Style
There's an emotional honesty, even a bluntness, to Paulsen's writing. Though he's not expansive about his own life, he doesn't gloss over gritty details, either—especially from his difficult chil...
What's Up With the Title?
The title, My Life in Dog Years is, on one level, a pun that plays on the concept of human years versus dog years. (Fun fact: one dog year can be anywhere from 4 to 15 human years, depending on you...
What's Up With the Ending?
The final chapter of the book is about Josh, the only living dog among the nine that Paulsen profiles in the book. Josh is old—around 20—and though the author never comes out and says it, we kn...
Tough-o-Meter
Nothing to fear here, Shmoopers. Gary Paulsen's writing about something that's easy to access and understand: his love for dogs. Even if you're not a dog-lover yourself, you'll get exactly where he...
Plot Analysis
A quick note on plot structure: My Life in Dog Years is a nonfiction book about one man's life with dogs. Sometimes the plot of real life just doesn't break down as neatly as the plots of the ficti...
Trivia
When Paulsen was 14, he ran away and joined a carnival. At 17, he joined the army by forging his father's signature on the paperwork. We'd call that the start of a pretty interesting life. (Source)...
Steaminess Rating
My Life in Dog Years isn't a book about people. It's about dogs—man's best friend—so it's not surprising that all the relationships it describes are strictly platonic. Technically there's a cam...
Allusions
World War II (2.18)The Korean War (3.57)Iditarod Dogsled Race (8.5)