“The
Dog That Bit People” by James Thurber
About the Author (James Thurber)
Life:
James Grover Thurber was born on 8 December 1894 in Columbus, Ohio, and died on
2 November 1961. He was a cartoonist, author, humorist, journalist, and
playwright.
Education and Job:
He received his early education in his birthplace, Columbus, Ohio. He attended
Ohio State University from 1913 to 1918 but did not complete his degree, as he
left before graduating. After that, he worked in various newspaper jobs. In 1926,
he moved to New York City, where he became a reporter for the Evening Post.
His contributions as a writer and artist greatly shaped American humor. He left
his staff position at the magazine in 1935.
Literary Works:
Thurber was a prolific writer and continued writing until his death. He wrote
essays, short stories, fables, and plays. He was also a cartoonist. Many of his
works were adapted for television, films, and musical presentations. His
important works include: Is Sex Necessary?, My Life and Hard Times,
The Last Flower, Fables for Our Time, My World—and
Welcome to It, Many Moons, The White Deer, The 13
Clocks, The Thurber Album, The Wonderful O, and The
Years with Ross.
Summary and Analysis of “The Dog That Bit People”
“The Dog That Bit People” is a humorous story taken from James Thurber’s
autobiographical work My Life and Hard Times. In this book, Thurber
narrates amusing episodes from his childhood and family life in Columbus, Ohio.
The story revolves around a family pet dog named Muggs, who
had a very bad temperament. Muggs was aggressive and had a habit of biting
people without reason. He bit almost everyone who came near him, including
neighbors, visitors, the iceman, and even a congressman.
Muggs became a serious problem for the family and the neighborhood. No one
was safe from him. Interestingly, the only person he never bit was the
narrator’s mother, who took care of him and loved him deeply.
Whenever Muggs bit someone, the mother would send candies to the victim as a
gesture of apology. This unusual behavior adds to the humor of the story. The
story is full of irony and comic situations, which are typical features of
Thurber’s writing style.
Overall, the story is a light-hearted and humorous portrayal of family life,
highlighting the unpredictable behavior of both humans and animals.
The Dog that Bit People (Text)
Probably no one
man should have as many dogs in his life as I have had, but there was more
pleasure than distress in them for me except in the case of an Airedale named
Muggs. He gave me more trouble than all the other fifty-four or -five put together,
although my moment of keenest embarrassment was the time a Scotch terrier named
Jeannie, who had just had six puppies in the clothes closet of a fourth floor
apartment in New York, had the unexpected seventh and last at the corner of
Eleventh Street and Fifth Avenue during a walk she had insisted on taking.
Then, too, there was the prize winning French poodle, a great big black poodle
— none of your little, untroublesome white miniatures — who got sick riding in
the rumble seat’ of a car with me on her way to the Greenwich Dog Show. She had
a red rubber bib tucked around her throat and, since a rain storm came up when
we were halfway through the Bronx, I had to hold over her a small green
umbrella, really more of a parasol. The rain beat down fearfully and suddenly
the driver of the car drove into a big garage, filled with mechanics. It
happened so quickly that I forgot to put the umbrella down and I will always
remember, with sickening distress, the look of incredulity mixed with hatred
that came over the face of the particular hardened garage man that came over to
see what we wanted, when he took a look at me and the poodle. All garage men,
and people of that intolerant stripe, hate poodles with their curious hair cut,
especially the pom-poms that you got to leave on their hips if you expect the
dogs to win a prize.
But
the Airedale, as I have said, was the worst of all my dogs. He really wasn’t my
dog, as a matter of fact: I came home from a vacation one summer to find that
my brother Roy had bought him while I was away. A big, burly, choleric’ dog, he
always acted as if he thought I wasn’t one of the family. There was a slight
advantage in being one of the family, for he didn’t bite the family as often as
he bit strangers. Still, in the years that we had him he bit everybody but
mother, and he made a pass at her once but missed. That was during the month
when we suddenly had mice, and Muggs refused to do anything about them. Nobody
ever had mice exactly like the mice we had that month. They acted like pet
mice, almost like mice somebody had trained. They were so friendly that one
night when mother entertained at dinner the Friraliras, a club she and my
father had belonged to for twenty years, she put down a lot of little dishes
with food in them on the pantry floor so that the mice would be satisfied with
that and wouldn’t come into the dining room. Muggs stayed out in the pantry
with the mice, lying on the floor, growling to himself — not at the mice, but
about all the people in the next room that he would have liked to get at.
Mother slipped out into the pantry once to see how everything was going.
Everything was going fine. It made her so mad to see Muggs lying there,
oblivious of the mice — they came running up to her — that she slapped him and
he slashed at her, but didn’t make it. He was sorry immediately, mother said.
He was always sorry, she said, after he bit someone, but we could not
understand how she figured this out. He didn’t act sorry.
Mother
used to send a box of candy every Christmas to the people the Airedale bit. The
list finally contained forty or more names. Nobody could understand why we
didn’t get rid of the dog. I didn’t understand it very well myself, but we
didn’t get rid of him. I think that one or two people tried to poison Muggs —
he acted poisoned once in a while — and old Major Moberly fired at him once
with his service revolver near the Seneca Hotel in East Broad Street — but
Muggs lived to be almost eleven years old and even when he could hardly get
around he bit a Congressman who had called to see my father on business. My
mother had never liked the Congressman — she said the signs of his horoscope
showed he couldn’t be trusted (he was Saturn with the moon in Virgo) — but she
sent him a box of candy that Christmas. He sent it right back, probably because
he suspected it was trick candy. Mother persuaded herself it was all for the
best that the dog had bitten him, even though father lost an important business
association because of it. “I wouldn’t be associated with such a man,” mother
said, “Muggs could read him like a book.”
We
used to take turns feeding Muggs to be on his good side, but that didn’t always
work. He was never in a very good humor, even after a meal. Nobody knew exactly
what was the matter with him, but whatever it was it made him irascible,
especially in the mornings. Roy never felt very well in the morning, either,
especially before breakfast, and once when he came downstairs and found that
Muggs had moodily chewed up the morning paper he hit him in the face with a
grapefruit and then jumped up on the dining room table, scattering dishes and
silverware and spilling the coffee. Muggs’ first free leap carried him all the
way across the table and into a brass fire screen in front of the gas grate but
he was back on his feet in a moment and in the end he got Roy and gave him a
pretty vicious bite in the leg. Then he was all over it; he never bit anyone
more than once at a time. Mother always mentioned that as an argument in his
favor; she said he had a quick temper but that he didn’t hold a grudge. She was
forever defending him. I think she liked him because he wasn’t well. “He’s not
strong,” she would say, pityingly, but that was inaccurate; he may not have
been well but he was terribly strong.
One
time my mother went to the Chittenden Hotel to call on a woman mental healer
who was lecturing in Columbus on the subject of “Harmonious Vibrations.” She
wanted to find out if it was possible to get harmonious vibrations into a dog.
“He’s a large tan-colored Airedale,” mother explained. The woman said that she
had never treated a dog but she advised my mother to hold the thought that he
did not bite and would not bite. Mother was holding the thought the very next
morning when Muggs got the iceman but she blamed that slip-up on the iceman.
“If you didn’t think he would bite you, he wouldn’t,” mother told him. He
stomped out of the house in a terrible jangle of vibrations.
One
morning when Muggs bit me slightly, more or less in passing, I reached down and
grabbed his short stumpy tail and hoisted him into the air. It was a foolhardy
thing to do and the last time I saw my mother, about six months ago, she said
she didn’t know what possessed me. I don’t either, except that I was pretty
mad. As long as I held the dog off the floor by his tail he couldn’t get at me,
but he twisted and jerked so, snarling all the time, that I realized I couldn’t
hold him that way very long. I carried him to the kitchen and flung him onto
the floor and shut the door on him just as he crashed against it. But I forgot
about the backstairs. Muggs went up the backstairs and down the frontstairs and
had me cornered in the living room. I managed to get up onto the mantelpiece
above the fireplace, but it gave way and came down with a tremendous crash
throwing a large marble clock, several vases, and myself heavily to the floor.
Muggs was so alarmed by the racket that when I picked myself up he had
disappeared. We couldn’t find him anywhere, although we whistled and shouted,
until old Mrs. Detweiler called after dinner that night. Muggs had bitten her
once, in the leg, and she came into the living room only after we assured her
that Muggs had run away. She had just seated herself when, with a great
growling and scratching of claws, Muggs emerged from under a davenport’ where
he had been quietly hiding all the time, and bit her again. Mother examined the
bite and put arnica5 on it and told Mrs. Detweiler that it was only a bruise. “He
just bumped you,” she said. But Mrs. Detweiler left the house in a nasty state
of mind.
Lots
of people reported our Airedale to the police but my father held a municipal
office at the time and was on friendly terms with the police. Even so, the cops
had been out a couple of times — once when Muggs bit Mrs. Rufus Sturtevant and
again when he bit Lieutenant-Governor Malloy — but mother told them that it
hadn’t been Muggs’ fault but the fault of the people who were bitten. “When he
starts for them, they scream,” she explained, “and that excites him.” The cops
suggested that it might be a good idea to tie the dog up, but mother said that
it mortified him to be tied up and that he wouldn’t eat when he was tied up.
Muggs
at his meals was an unusual sight. Because of the fact that if you reached
toward the floor he would bite you, we usually put his food plate on top of an
old kitchen table with a bench alongside the table. Muggs would stand on the
bench and eat. I remember that my mother’s Uncle Horatio, who boasted that he
was the third man up Missionary Ridge, was splutteringly indignant when he
found out that we fed the dog on a table because we were afraid to put his
plate on the floor. He said he wasn’t afraid of any dog that ever lived and
that he would put the dog’s plate on the floor if we would give it to him. Roy
said that if Uncle Horatio had fed Muggs on the ground just before the battle
he would have been the first man up Missionary Ridge. Uncle Horatio was
furious. “Bring him in! Bring him in now!” he shouted. “I’ll feed the — on the
floor!” Roy was all for giving him a chance, but my father wouldn’t hear of it.
He said that Muggs had already been fed. “I’ll feed him again!” bawled Uncle
Horatio. We had quite a time quieting him.
In
his last year Muggs used to spend practically all of his time outdoors. He
didn’t like to stay in the house for some reason or other — perhaps it held too
many unpleasant memories for him. Anyway, it was hard to get him to come in and
as a result the garbage man, the iceman, and the laundryman wouldn’t come near
the house. We had to haul the garbage down to the corner, take the laundry out
and bring it back, and meet the iceman a block from home. After this had gone
on for some time we hit on an ingenious arrangement for getting the dog in the
house so that we could lock him up while the gas meter was read, and so on.
Muggs was afraid of only one thing, an electrical storm. Thunder and lightning
frightened him out of his senses (I think he thought a storm had broken the day
the mantelpiece fell). He would rush into the house and hide under a bed or in
a clothes closet. So we fixed up a thunder machine out of a long narrow piece
of sheet iron with a wooden handle on one end. Mother would shake this
vigorously when she wanted to get Muggs into the house. It made an excellent
imitation of thunder, but I suppose it was the most roundabout system for
running a household that was ever devised. It took a lot out of mother.
A
few months before Muggs died, he got to “seeing things.” He would rise slowly
from the floor, growling low, and stalk stiff-legged and menacing toward
nothing at all. Sometimes the Thing would be just a little to the right or left
of a visitor. Once a Fuller Brush salesman got hysterics. Muggs came wandering
into the room like Hamlet’ following his father’s ghost. His eyes were fixed on
a spot just to the left of the Fuller Brush man, who stood it until Muggs was
about three slow, creeping paces from him. Then he shouted. Muggs wavered on
past him into the hallway grumbling to himself but the Fuller man went on
shouting. I think mother had to throw a pan of cold water on him before he
stopped. That was the way she used to stop us boys when we got into fights.
Muggs
died quite suddenly one night. Mother wanted to bury him in the family lot
under a marble stone with some such inscription as “Flights of angels sing thee
to thy rest” but we persuaded her it was against the law. In the end we just
put up a smooth board above his grave along a lonely road. On the board I wrote
with an indelible pencil “Cave Canem.” Mother was quite pleased with the simple
classic dignity of the old Latin epitaph.
Textual Questions
Q1. Describe how Thurber uses the figure of Muggs to create an
eventful story that provides not only humor but also insight into human
behaviour.
Ans.
There is no doubt that the story “The Dog That Bit People” is full of
humorous elements. The main character through whom Thurber creates humor is the
dog, Muggs. Muggs has a peculiar temperament, as he bites almost everyone who
comes in his way, except the narrator’s mother.
The way Thurber presents Muggs in the story is highly humorous and engaging.
The dog becomes the centre of all family troubles and comic situations, as he
bites neighbors, visitors, the iceman, and even a congressman.
At the same time, the story provides an insight into human behaviour. While
most family members are afraid of or annoyed by Muggs, the mother treats him
with love and care. She is affectionate towards him and defends his actions.
She even sends candies to people whom Muggs has bitten as a gesture of apology.
This contrast in behaviour highlights how love, attachment, and perception
influence human responses. Thus, through Muggs, Thurber not only creates humor
but also reflects human psychology and relationships.
Q2. What does this story reveal about the interpersonal dynamics of
the Thurber household? How does the treatment of Muggs differ between the
mother and her children?
Ans.
The story “The Dog That Bit People” reveals the interpersonal dynamics
within the Thurber household. It is an autobiographical account of the author’s
childhood in Columbus, Ohio.
The family owns a dog named Muggs, who has a habit of biting people. He
bites almost everyone except the narrator’s mother. Because of this, the
children in the family strongly dislike the dog and consider him dangerous.
They even want to get rid of him.
However, the mother has a completely different attitude. She loves Muggs,
takes care of him, and protects him from harm, despite his behaviour. She does
not allow her children to hurt or kill the dog. Even after Muggs dies, she
wishes to bury him in the family plot under a marble stone with the
inscription: “Flight of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
This contrast shows a clear difference in perception: the children see Muggs
as a threat, while the mother sees him as a beloved companion.
Q3. Identify the various literary devices used by Thurber in order
to generate humour and sarcasm in the story.
Ans.
As a humorist, Thurber uses several literary devices to create humor and
sarcasm in the story. These include exaggeration, hyperbole, understatement,
diction, tone, and irony.
One of the most important devices is personification, where
Muggs is almost treated like a human member of the family. His behaviour is
discussed as if he understands social relationships, which adds humor to the
narrative.
Irony is also strongly present, as the dog causes trouble
for everyone except the mother, who is the only person who loves him
unconditionally.
Thurber also uses a humorous tone and diction, especially
through the mother’s reactions. She consistently defends Muggs and even blames
the victims rather than the dog. This creates situational comedy and sarcasm,
as the mother refuses to accept that Muggs is at fault.
For example, when Muggs bites people, the mother justifies it and treats it
as a misunderstanding, which adds to the comic effect of the story.
Q4. Identify any one humorous episode from the text and describe
its impact on you as the reader.
Ans.
One of the most humorous episodes in the story is when the mother visits the
Chittenden Hotel to meet a mental healer who was lecturing on “vibrations.”
The mother asks the healer if it is possible to create harmonious vibrations
in a dog so that it stops biting. The healer advises her to “hold the thought”
that the dog will not bite. The next morning, while the mother is trying to
apply this advice, Muggs bites the iceman again. However, the mother does not
blame the dog; instead, she blames the iceman for disturbing the “vibrations.”
This episode is highly humorous because it shows the mother’s blind faith in
strange ideas and her refusal to accept reality. As a reader, this incident
creates laughter due to its absurdity and also highlights Thurber’s satirical
style, where human irrationality is exposed in a light-hearted way.
A few of your marked answers in Exercise 2 need correction.
Here is the corrected key:
Exercise 2 (Correct Answers)
1. b – establish his fondness for dogs and set a
humorous tone.
2. d – both a. and b.
3. a – Muggs never bit any family member.
4. a – how his family members tried to adjust to
the dog's behaviour.
5. b – mother is secretly happy that the
Congressman was bitten.
6. d – how to change the dog's behaviour.
7. b – The narrator grabbed the dog by his tail
and hoisted him into the air.
8. b – the mother used to frighten them by
vigorously shaking an iron sheet.
9. c – Muggs began imagining things that were not
there.
Exercise 8: Active → Passive
1. The girl hugged her pet.
✔ Correct: The pet was hugged by the girl.
2. The boy caught the falling kite.
✔ Correct: The falling kite was caught by the boy.
3. Someone has picked my pocket.
✔ Correct: My pocket has been picked.
4. The judge found him guilty of theft.
✔ Correct: He was found guilty of theft.
5. The farmer's wife carried a pot of milk on her head.
✔ Better: A pot of milk was carried on her head by
the farmer’s wife.
(Word order improved)
6. I know her.
✔ Correct: She is known to me.
7. He annoyed her.
✔ Correct: She was annoyed with him.
8. The news pleased her.
✔ Correct: She was pleased by the news.
9. He made everyone happy.
✔ Correct: Everyone was made happy by him.
10. Saba was inspired by her class teacher.
✔ Correct passive form already given.
✔ Active should be: Her class teacher inspired Saba.
Exercise 9: Passive → Active
1. He was praised by his mother.
✔ Correct: His mother praised him.
2. The child was frightened by the noise.
✔ Correct: The noise frightened the child.
3. The city was destroyed by an earthquake.
✔ Correct: An earthquake destroyed the city.
4. The leader was welcomed by the people.
✔ Correct: The people welcomed the leader.
5. A book was bought by me.
✔ Correct: I bought a book.
6. He was made king.
✔ Correct: They made him king.
7. The project has been completed by them.
✔ Correct: They have completed the project.
8. A car was being driven by her.
✔ Correct: She was driving a car.
9. Tea is being made by them.
✔ Correct: They are making tea.
10. A house has to be chosen.
✔ Correct: We have to choose a house. (or:
Someone has to choose a house.)
