Live Like A Dog, Alone

ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT : "LIVE LIKE A DOG, ALONE"

1. Give a summary of "Live Like a Dog, Alone"

The short story is about two persons, who both live alone. Miriam is a middle-aged single woman. She has a great career and no children. But her heart is dysfunctional, and therefore she sometimes has to go to the hospital.

The story is set inside a taxi, which is driving Miriam home after a visit at the hospital.

The taxi driver and Miriam talks. Not in the usual polite way of conversations between drivers and costumers, but instead of the drivers personal life.

He seems quite depressed and unhappy with his life. He tells Miriam how he feels about living alone and his thoughts about it collides with the way Miriam feels.

During the ride, the two persons get aware of their different perspectives on their, in some point, similar life. That does somehow broaden their horizons, and gives them a new awareness about the way they and other people live.

2. Characterize Miriam and the way she lives

Miriam is a woman who lives alone, with no husband and children. She has been married once, but they didn't get any children. She has a great career, as I see it she's some kind of doctor or specialist in stress. Ironically, she's very stressed herself. That affects that she has to go to the hospital where her heart is stopped and then started over again.

I think that she basically is happy about her life, even though she lives alone. She thinks it shows independence and strength, which both seems to be admirable qualities in our culture.

But at the same time I think that she sometimes is very unhappy. I think that she regrets that she never had children, but she won't admit it, not even to herself. She very much wants other people to like her and she thinks that she has a big responsibility for other people's wellbeing. An example of that is in the beginning of the story. She has just been to the hospital and must be quite exhausted. I think that other people under the same circumstances, the fact that it's in the middle of the night and that she got straight to the hospital after a conference, would be very easily irritated. She has just got into the taxi, and starts talking to the driver. She is not only listening to his problems, she is also trying to solve them or at least make him feel better. She tries to make him see the situation from another, more positive perspective but he is hard to convince. Instead of making him feel better, the conversation affects Miriam in someway too. I think that she becomes aware of some of the negative perspectives and some of the things that she has been trying to repress.

3. Comment on the title

I think it's a quite interesting title. It draws some kind of attention towards the