It's A Dog's Life

There are times when I look at dogs and I'm overcome with jealousy. They are fed, sheltered, don't really have any responsibilities, aren't bound by social norms, and are totally unaware of the problems that plague the world. They have the ability be horrifically ugly and pitifully unintelligent, and yet blissfully unaware of it at the same time, better yet even the ugliest of them seem to be loved (by someone other than their mom too). Perhaps best of all, they are unconditionally accepting. So many of these qualities could also be observed in Topaz as well. She was fed, sheltered, and seemed not only unaware of problems, but pretty much everything. But strangely, when I read about Topaz, it doesn't arouse even a hint of jealousy in me, on the contrary, towards the end of the book it was almost painful to read about her.

I think my distaste for Topaz comes from the characteristics that she doesn't possess, as much as the ones she does. She seems to lack even the most basic human elements, elements that distinguish humans from dogs. She doesn't possess much intelligence, doesn't seem to experience emotions of any depth, and doesn't grow in any way. Is it really possible to spend ninety years on this earth and not change one bit? The fact that she describes everything as "lovely" may be cute at first, because it is so uncritical, but she abuses this statement, and makes me dubious that she is capable of experiencing any genuine appreciation. I think appreciation of beauty, and anything good for that matter is a relative concept; that you you need to recognize the bad in order to identify the good. She also never had to look out for herself, but I think this robbed her of an opportunity to experience the gratitification that accompanies that responsibilty. Most significantly, she although she was surrounded by people her entire life, she didn't seem to experience relationships of any depth or significance, nor did she have any impact on them. This especially clear when Grandmother called out for Rachel, not Topaz before she died. All of these things prevented me from accepting Topaz as a main character, but more annoyingly they left me feeling perplexed. What was the author trying to tell the reader? Am I supposed to aspire to be like Topaz? I don't think so, I think dogs are supposed to be dogs and humans are supposed to be humans.