Discussion 1.2

For this discussion board, you will discuss whether the "Dog Heaven" is political or not, and why you believe yes or no by pointing to evidence from the story. You need to include quotes from the story to support your claims. You can also paraphrase sections of the story to support your claims. 

To complete this assignment, you might break the story down into main events or themes that relate to the narrator's life and story. Keep in mind, there is no specific right or wrong to this answer. However, there are certainly moments in the story you can point to in order to back up your claims (events, things people say, motifs, etc). When we analyze literature, we often do not have a concrete answer, so we have to connect the dots to come up with importance, themes, and takeaways in a story. Authors think this way when they write fiction, so even small moments are meant to illustrate something, or provide each reader with a different takeaway, even if they are varied reader by reader.

Don't forget that you must respond to at least two of your peers (you may respond to more). When responding, list any evidence that you found that your peer(s) may have left out. Be sure you make it clear why you believe what you state.

And make sure you meet the minimum word count.

Initial post 250 words

each reply to a peer post 100 each 

peer 1:

sandra Gumma Politics in children

In this story the writer paints a clear picture of the life of a boy growing up within a military base. I think that the representation of the difference in political upbringing between the two townships, or the two different groups of boys; one set coming from the military base, and one set coming from the normal civilian town. The nagging back and forth between the kids on the bus shows how politics can change the way we think about people that may not be like us or have the same upbringing. " one of the civilian kids, a football player in high school, yelled, “Sparky is a dog’s name. Here, Sparky, Sparky, Sparky.” The boys teased back and forth but never gave into the bantering. The teacher Ms. Bintz even goes on to tell the children that indeed it was their fault for a bombing that had happened even before their time. As she shows them the effects of nuclear warfare coming from the United States. She begins to ask the children if they know who's fault the pain and suffering of the woman is. . They were right here, she said, not more than ten miles away. Didn’t we all know that? “You know that, don’t you?” I really enjoyed this story. I think that it showed a great way of how we impliment politics into our children intentionaly or unintentially. I think that unknowingly we do this on a daily basis. I am curious to see what other students got out of this story.

peer 2:

To fire missiles or not? That is a pretty hard question to answer but is that political? I think it is and I believe Dog Heaven is somewhat political but I have always wondered if it was more talking about history's politics because this goes back in the 80's. However, I think even using this short story today can make an impact on politics. So where is the evidence? First, I noticed that the narrator is from a military family because of how he talked about the green bus he would ride in the morning before going to the yellow bus and even sing an old military song while in the bus. Also, his dad was mentioned as being in the military and how his family traveled from New York to Oklahoma because military families never stay in one spot. Now, how is this political? Well, in the school scene with the narrator's class watching the after effects of Hiroshima. The teacher, Miss Bintz, would ask the students what this video was but no one did not want to speak. But I also noticed that the teacher was paying special attention to Sparky and the narrator because they come from military backgrounds. To me, the teacher is showing some prejudice against the military especially when the narrator's dad watches over the missiles in New York and even says, "You military children." and "You know where the bomb comes from. Why don't you tell us?" (page 6) Even the narrator described her words as guns pointing at them. To me, these military kids grow up, not knowing much about the military and people should not expect them to know everything about the military including nuclear weapons, missiles, and such. So they should not be the ones to be blamed for because they should know everything. Finally, she even discusses about the Soviet Union might attack the United States and this can still be a political stance today because even though we may not have many issues with Russia but we also deal with weapons warfare all around the world. The narrator discusses about the possibility of the missiles being attacked by Soviet Union and that can still happen today but with all of this technology, it may seem hard to imagine for it to happen. So in the end, I think Dog Heaven is somewhat political in the military realm.

Katherine Rodgers