Compare And Contrast The Dogs Could Teach Me By Gary Paulsen

After reading “The Dogs Could Teach Me,” “The Flowers,” and “The Sniper,” It is aware to me that “The Dogs Could Teach Me,” by Gary Paulsen has superior description compared to the other two stories. The character is in agony but doesn’t fail to see the beauty in his surroundings. “The trail crossed the stream directly at the top of a small frozen waterfall with about a twenty-foot drop. Later I saw the beauty of it, the falling lobes of blue ice that had grown as the water froze and refroze, layering itself.” The reader can thoroughly picture what he is feeling and what he is seeing.

On the contrary, “The Flowers,” by Alice Walker, has the point of view of a little girl’s innocent mind. The main character, Myop is distracted and does not

pay too close attention to her surroundings until she finds a dead body with a noose nearby. “Very near where she’d stepped into the head was a wild pink rose. As she picked it to add to her bundle she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the rose’s root. It was the rotted remains of a noose, a bit of shredding plowline, now blending benignly into the soil. Around an overhanging limb of a great spreading oak clung another piece. Frayed, rotted, bleached and frazzled-barely there-but spinning restlessly in the breeze.” In this piece, the scene is very vague and bland, there are many parts that you imagine for yourself instead of the author spoon feeding the description to you. In addition to that, you cannot tell what Myop is thinking as she finds the body in the woods.
“The Sniper,” lacks eloquent description. The story is tired and fails to add detail. “He was eating a sandwich hungrily. He had eaten nothing since morning. He had been too excited to eat. He finished the sandwich, and, taking a flask of whiskey from his pocket he took a short drought. Then he returned the flask to his pocket. He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk. Placing a cigarette between his lips, he struck a match, inhaled the smoke hurriedly and put out the light. Almost immediately a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof. The sniper took another whiff and put out the cigarette. Then he swore softly and crawled away to the left.” This excerpt from “The sniper” is very plain and repetitive. Even in the descriptive sections use very basic words such as, “short”, “excited,” and “dangerous.”
In each piece you can almost picture the scene, though in Gary Paulsen’s story, there is more overall description, especially in what the character(s) are feeling.

In the other two stories, you can only assume what the characters are feeling.

“He pulled them up to me, concern in his eyes and making a soft whine, and I reached into his ruff and pulled his head down and hugged him and was never so happy to see anybody probably in my life. The I felt something and looked down to see one of the other dogs-named Duberry-licking the wound in my leg.” Here you can see the dogs looking at the character and feel what he is feeling. This passage does not just describe the surface description, but goes more in depth to the things unseen by the audience.

“Before twelve o’clock, her arms laden with sprigs of her findings, she was a mile or more from home. She had often been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy in the little cove in which she found herself. The air was damp. The silence close and deep.” Here you can tell that Myop is not happy, but you cannot tell what ‘unpleasant’ emotion she is feeling. She could be sad, scared, on edge, lonely or any other negative description of emotion. Though in Gary Paulsen’s story, you can really tell that the character is relieved to see the dogs. He does say that he is “happy,” but by the way he talks about the dogs and how he feels to be injured you can be positive that he is

relieved.
“He rolled over the roof to a chimney stack in the rear, and slowly drew himself up behind it, until his eyes were level with the top of the parapet. There was nothing to be seen just the dim outline of the opposite housetop against the blue sky. His enemy was undercover.” In this paragraph, you can hardly tell what the sniper is looking at. You know that he cannot see the enemy, and that the sky is one of many shades of blue. The author describes but does not go into detail. Earlier in the passage it states that it is “twilight” so you can only assume what color the sky is.
Hence, “The Dogs Could Teach Me,” has the best description out of the three stories.