Little Black Dog To The Opera example essay topic
350 words
"Fortun'e"The short story, "Fortun'e" by Rikki Ducornet, written as a horatian satire, utilizes first person narrative by allowing the narrator to refer to himself in the first sentence, "My passion for Egypt was sparked at the opera". By referencing to himself in this way, I learn two things: first he has a love for Egypt; and second he has been to the opera. Two sentences later, interestingly enough, I discover that the author has adopted a persona to create irony, and that persona is a dog, .".. had me bouncing up and down yapping: "Wow! Wow!" The repeating of the "Wow! Wow!" through out the story is an effective use of an epi zeuxis, and insures that the reader does not forget that the storyteller is a dog. This discovery of a canine annalist is reinforced in the second sentence of the next paragraph, .".. now every woman of taste was carrying a little black dog to the opera". Not only is the narrator a black canine, he reveals that he experiences emotion, a personification of human emotion, "I was distressed... ". and. ".. I had until then thought of myself as exceptional". These two examples emotion are far from the only ones in this story, there are multitudes. By painting the human quality of emotion on a dog, Ducornet has brushed the reader along the believable and unbelievable line, as personification in this usage, colors a vision that can be related to by the reader.
Throughout the story, the narrator, a pug named Fortun'e, entangles me into his web of dreams and wishes, fantasies of traveling to Egypt; his description of longing for his love, Mina, another canine in the prestigious world of Napoleon and Josephine, and ultimately his sacrifice for Mina, his life. I discovered that the unfulfilled wishes of Fortun'e, seeing Egypt first hand, and losing his true love, uncover emotions in myself that I have personally experienced, and this in turn made me feel closer to the narrator, a little black pug named Fortun'e..
