Point of View

The novel is written in first person from the limited perspective of a dog named Johannes. Johannes has a very limited view of the world. He is naive and lacks understanding, especially with regard to the things of the human world. For example, he has no real concept of time, quantity, or distance. He greatly exaggerates most of the details about situations. He believes he has been alive for hundreds of years, that he lives in a park that is “ten thousand miles along its length and about three thousand miles along its width” (13). He similarly exaggerates the number of people present for the art opening and the number of goats that arrive to eat down the briar patch. Johannes also exaggerates how fast he can run. According to Johannes, “When I run I pull at the earth and make it turn” (12). He runs as...