Heart Of A Dog Analysis

In Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Heart of a Dog satire and humor are used to criticize the cruelty, incompetence and false image of the Bolshevik revolution led by Lenin. Bulgakov criticizes the actions the party had taken and the current state of Russia. Bulgakov satirically represents the transformation of the Russian, regular people into party members, and the resilience of old bourgeois society.

Bulgakov ridicules the claimed rebirth of humanity with the creation of the half dog half man Sharik whose personality traits are that of the Bolshevik regime. Similarly, the opening of the story is narrated by a near-death dog which itself parallels the state of Russia during the start of the revolution. There was a storm during the narration

This is used to describe the experiment of slowly creating the innocent dog into the despicable human. Sharik though a dog at first, once introduced with human organs brings out the worst humanity can offer. The donor was “a non-party sympathizer” with a background of many arrests. Preobrazhensky humorously describes the donor having a stereotypical, “enlarged liver; alcohol” (64). Sharik develops into a drunkard liar, who even fabricates about his past to a woman to be friends with him. Even though Sharik is more dog than a human, the surgery is enough to expose that the donor’s traits take over. Bulgakov mocks the revolution simply as a creation of the new Frankenstein society that was by accident. Disapproving in the revolution, he argues the current state of Russia was not expected. It was not what the Lenin originally wanted, but by accident it created a monster of the Soviet people. By inserting the worst traits and organs from a drunkard criminal the result was terrifying much like the revolution. Sharik is essentially living mockery on the rebirth of the Russian people and rebirth Russia. The world did not need to be transformed into what the Revolution turned into. The Russian people were swindled into the revolution which created horror and manipulation of power in the hands of a few powerful leaders. Bulgakov argued that Lenin wanted to create a new man, but in reality,

Sharik immediately took and refuge as a secret police member and being a party member had heightened his authority and ego. Sharik “entered with enormous dignity, wore a leather jacket” (109) showing the authority members had. Moreover, these cats represented the everyday people of the Soviet Union like innocent cats, then were heartlessly purged under the secret polices’ “great terror.” Strangled in order to create Lenin’s ideal society. The secret polices’ purpose was to terrorize, purge and combat counter-revolutionary opponents who challenged Bolshevik ideals. In addition, even the unwanted cat’s fur was used to create coats for the secret police and “sold to workers on credit” (112), further developing the regimes disregard for life. Sharik’s laughable position in the regime parallels the insensible and unqualified in charge of Russia. Even when Preobrazhensky confronts Sharik about the murder of cats he denies it, “I ain't no savage” (84). Lenin wished to “purge the land of harmful insects: and began this process with the “necessary” terror of killing. Illustrating how the regime denied and covered up the killings. Bulgakov criticizes the methods used by Lenin “they are wrong thinking that terror will help them, terror completely paralyzes the nervous system” (16).Terror was the wrong form of control in the policy, it further develops enemies and