How Is Animal Imagery Effective Throughout the Novel Disgrace?

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Furthermore, David believes he needs a new start “like a dog”, with no intelligence or dignity. David compares being nothing in this world, with a dog because he has no affection for animals even though he mentions them with animal imagery many times throughout the novel. This is effective because it displays how he feels dogs and other animals are unimportant when he has referenced many animals whilst giving descriptions of himself. Continuing, most dogs that are pets have very good lives and enjoy seeing their owners and other very simple things, which effectively suggests that lots of people like David just see them as being nothing and stupid, rather than happy about small things.

Finally, David has been changed through animal imagery because he has gone from disliking dogs and seeing them as nothing to becoming best friends with a dog and “bearing him in his arms like a lamb” when the novel comes to a close. This is yet another comparison, in the form of a simile, of the dog being a lamb. Lambs have connotations of being innocent which is effective because it indicates how the dog doesn’t quite understand that David is leading him to his death so he is quite calm and is letting him take him away. Moreover, the verb “bearing” is quite ironic because whilst it is being used in the context that David is carrying the dog to the surgery it is also an effective example of animal imagery because David is going to kill the dog which is compared with the lamb so David is linked with being a predator once more as he is taking to dog who doesn’t have a choice to it’s death reminding us of what David was like at the university.