The Dog Eaters

By Leoncio P. Deriada

Characters.

1. Mariana. She is the wife of Victor. She always get disappointed every time she remember her dream
of having the things she don’t have right now since she met Victor.
2. Victor. He is the husband of Mariana. He don’t have any stable job and one of the men who keeps
on drinking and eating filthy meat at Sergio’s Store.
3. Aling Elpidia. She was an old fish and vegetable vendor who gave the bottle with herbs and roots to
Mariana.
4. Sergio. He owns the Sergio’s store. He is the chief drinker of tuba and a dog meats eater also.
5. Ramir. He was victor’s dog who was chained at the bottom of the stairs who bark at every single
strangers and dirty the door step of Victor and Mariana’s house which made the latter mad.

Setting.

The story happened at ten o’clock, Tuesday morning in the Artiaga Street, Davao City.

Plot.

Exposition.

The story started when Marina, the wife of Victor became frustrated with the men at
Sergio’s store on the other side of Artiaga Street because they did not find it too early to drink
and never get enough of eating the filthy meat of dog. She became more frustrated when her
husband joined these men.

Rising action.

Mariana don’t want the baby in her womb, so she bought a potent worth 40 pesos from
Aling Elpidia.

Climax.

Victor discovered that Mariana wanted to kill their child.

Falling Action.

Victor threw the bottle of potent in the window.

Denouement.

The conflict doesn’t resolve. Mariana sat on the topmost step of the stairs. And for the
first time in all her life on Artiaga Street, she cried.

Theme.

The theme of this story established the fact that the right to live is to everybody. Everyone has
the right to live and that must not be taken away from a man, a woman, an animal and most especially
to an innocent life inside the womb of a mother who knows nothing but feels excited on his birth. The
story also emphasizes that one’s anger must not be blamed to the innocents for they can bring evil on
one’s self.

Diction.

Imagery
 The image or the description of the house of Mariana and Victor shows how simple their life is.

The image of mariana and victor quarreling reveals the major conflict in the story which is man
vs. man.

Symbolism.

Ramir, the dog may represent the relationship or life of Mariana and Victor that is very noisy
and troubled.

The bottle of liquid may represent the feelings of Mariana towards her life, it is bitter.

Conflict.

The quarrel of spouses because of dogs, unstable jobs and “enough” way of living.

Mariana wants to abort their second child.

Point of View.

The short story The Dog Eaters by Leoncio P. Deriada uses third person point of view because
the narrator is not one of the characters in the story, and he uses words such as he, she, it, and they.