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#5 Puppy (George Saunders, 2007)

 Rating: 8.4/10

    Still, in 2022, it is not hard to witness people of severe capitalistic America looking down upon the lower classes, refusing to accept their lives of hunger. Marie, a mother who drives a sumptuous car, encounters the poverty-stricken mother who keeps her ADHD son leashed in the backyard. Marie instantly feels sympathy for those in the lower economic echelon; however, instead of helping those in need, she chooses to turn away from their horrible lives, ultimately creating a vicious cycle of capitalism.

    In the short story 'puppy,' Sanders depicts the dark side of U.S. society by juxtaposing the perspectives of two families in different financial circumstances. Each parent does their best to support their child with defective motor functions, but their methods are relative to their various background, knowledge, or experience. Intermittent changes of point of view throughout the story completely flipped how I grasped each scene the characters were facing. Morality also seemed to be relative to the perception of human beings that may depend on individuals' experiences. It felt like whether Marie and Callie were good parents or not isn't for me to judge unless I knew the entire story

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