Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
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 fictional worlds in novels.
So here's the deal: each of the nine chapters is a portrait of one dog that Paulsen has known. Some of them (like Snowball's chapter) follow a dog from cradle to grave; others (like Rex's) follow him for a single day. The five sections here—exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution—don't fit perfectly with the book's overall structure, or even with each individual chapter. They do, however, map loosely onto Paulsen's life. Stay with us as we walk you through the deets.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
A Heartfelt Dedication
First things first: Paulsen dedicates his book to Cookie, the sled dog that saved his (adult) life. This story of one dog's bravery helps set the tone for what's to come, even though it appears out of order. We learn that Paulsen loveslovesloves dogs. The rest of the book is in chronological order. Got it? Good.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
An Unhappy Childhood
Paulsen's writing hints at a painful childhood, especially in the chapters about Snowball, Ike, and Dirk. In the background of those dogs' stories, we watch the behavior of the author's alcoholic parents go from bad to worse. At 7 years old, Paulsen's living in the Philippines with his parents and we can see they're not really around. By the time he's a teen in the Ike and Dirk chapters, they're not doing regular parent stuff like putting food on the table and buying him clothes. Paulsen's on his own. He grows up having to be really independent.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
A Life-Altering Rescue
Watch out y'all, Cookie's back. Even though her story's in the first chapter, we know that the big rescue occurred in 1980, during Paulsen's adult life. Paulsen falls through the ice on a beaver-trapping trip, and Cookie gets the other sled dogs to pull him out. He credits this dog with everything that happened in the 17 years after that (which happens to be the events that make up the rest of the book).
Falling Action
Grown-Up Stuff
The day-to-day grind of Paulsen's adult life is explored most in the chapters about Caesar, Fred, and Quincy. We see him both at work and at play, still learning from his canine companions every day. Sometimes they give him insights about life, and other times they just help him have lots of fun.
Resolution (Denouement)
The Golden Years
The final chapter is a reflection on the life of Josh, a border collie that's Paulsen's 20-year-old soul mate. The author considers Josh pretty much the ultimate in dogs—or even in creatures (including humans), period. Josh is still alive while Paulsen writes, but we know he's nearing the end of a dog's natural lifespan. So, to some degree, is Paulsen. The writer's still alive today, but he was 59 (not quite a spring chicken) when the book was written in 1998. The very act of writing a memoir is reflecting on how a life was lived, so there's a soft sense of closure in this conclusion.