Good boy
Good boy, Beau. Stay, Anna Quindlen is very descriptive in her essay. As I read the story I could visualize her dog and also sympathize with her feelings. Having had lost a dog of old age, this story really hit home. The way she describes beau’s milky white eyes, the loss of his hearing, and the way his walk looks like his back legs are prosthetics. With these descriptions, the knowledge that Beau’s a black lab, and the fact that he stinks, all present enough information for me to get a clear picture the dog. The descriptions Anna uses are all the same symptoms my dog, a Chihuahua, had had at 17.
Anna also painted a picture in clear detail of the senses the dog lost or was losing, but also pointed out Beau’s uncanny sense of smell. “The eyes are gone, but the nose is eternal. ” . There were many more details in the story, but I feel as though the ones I already pointed out were enough for me to get a clear picture. The way Anna organized her story seemed to me like it was in chronological order. Anna starts her story in the present time, sheds light on the past, and then comes back to the present again. As a new writer, I’m not sure if that exactly qualifies as chronological, but I hink it is.
The point I believe Anna is trying to make is to live for the day, don’t dwell on the past. Anna clearly says “to measure myself not in terms of the past or future but of the present. “. This statement is one of the statements that lead me to my conclusion. The sensory details that stood out to me was the sense of smell and the loss of sight. There were two things Anna said about Beau’s sense of smell that stood out to me. The first was when she talked about the dogs eyes and ears going but he can still get excited over the smell of a pork roast. The second was when
Anna talked about the smell of the Oriental rug and beau. Anna was not very descriptive about the odor, but I have firsthand knowledge of that smell, I could definitely smell the odor. The other sensory detail that stood out for me was the way Anna described Beau’s bad eyes. Anna really described the effects of going blind well. She talked of Beau’s eyes being a milky white. “His eyes seem to gaze mysteriously inward”. Anna also said “his eyes and ears are gone.
