Elizabeth BishopSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay Pink Dog (Rio de Janeiro) The sun is shining and the sky is blue. The umbrellas dress the beach in every color. Naked, you trot from 'other side of the avenue. Oh, I've never seen a dog so naked! Naked and pink, without a single hair... Surprised, passers-by stand back and look. Naturally they are deathly afraid of rabies. You're not crazy; you have a case of scabies, but it seems smart. Where are your children? (A nursing mother, near those hanging teats.) In what slum have you hidden them, poor whore, while you go begging, living by your wits? Didn't you know? It's written in all the newspapers, To solve this problem, how do they treat beggars? They take them and throw them into tidal rivers. Yes, idiots, paralytics, parasites They float in the sewage that flows back, at night In the suburbs, where there are none lights. If they do this to beggars, drug addicts, drunk or sober, with or without legs, what would they do to sick four-legged dogs? In cafes and on sidewalk corners, the joke goes around that all the beggars who can afford them now wear life jackets. In your condition you wouldn't even be able to float, much less dog paddle. Now look, the practical solution, the sensible solution is to wear a pattern. Tonight you simply can't afford to be an eyesore... But no one will ever see a dog with mascara this time of year. Ash Wednesday will arrive but Carnival has arrived. What samba can you dance? What will you wear? They say that Carnival is degenerating. The radio, the Americans, or something, completely ruined it. They're just talking. Carnival is always wonderful! A shaved dog wouldn't look good. Get dressed! Dress up and dance at Carnival! Costumes Revealed: The Female Body in Elizabeth Bishop's "Pink Dog" In "Pink Dog," Elizabeth Bishop recounts a one-sided dialogue between the poetic speaker and a naked dog, shaved to a fleshy pink and rearing for food. Although the dog's bold behavior catches the eye of the speaker and a crowd of onlookers, it is the speaker's account of the event, and all of its complex intricacies, that transform the poem from a mildly comical tableau to serious symbolism . From curiosity, to threats, and finally to advice, the speaker's narrative clarifies cultural issues with the naked female figure. Serving as a dehumanized representation of the human body, the brazenly pregnant dog shocks the speaker's cultural sensibilities, suggesting the jealously guarded social vision of the female form and challenging its intelligence and legitimacy. The bishop's dog may seem to onlookers to be a common dog, a mangy street animal; however, to the speaker and within the poem it is a devolved representation of the female body. Throughout the poem, the speaker conflates the mutt's identity as both a dog and a woman. The title, "Pink Dog", is a main feature of this combination. By describing the dog as pink, the speaker attributes to the animal not only the literal color but also the important connotation of pink as an essential shade of femininity. The speaker's continued concern with the feminine aspects of the dog form compounds this ordeal. For example, there is the vulgar description of her "hanging teats" and the reference to the dog as a "poor bitch". Both of these diction choices are even brought to the forefront of the poem by syntactical and rhythmic details. The first is highlighted by the poem's unique parentheses. The latter is found on a verse that detaches itself from the iambs typical of thepoem in favor of the anapestic ternary; To further aggravate this metric and rhythmic anomaly, "poor bitch" receives a double accent that disrupts the already distinct meter. “Bitch” is also a rhyme between “teats” and “wits” and comes after a completed stress group, forcing him to stand in his own group, erect in all its grotesque glory. The speaker also shows no hesitation in placing the dog in uniquely human contexts, creating further evidence of the personification of the mutt as the embodiment of the female form. For example, the speaker equates the dog with a human beggar, suggesting that he will receive the same punishment - or perhaps even worse - for his actions as all ordinary "idiots, paralytics and vermin" or "anyone who beggars". This commonality of punishment reflects a perceived similarity of character between dog and human. Referring to the dog as "naked" in the first and second stanzas is also an act of personification, because it gives the animal human diction; dogs are not defined as "naked", but only humans: dogs are always "naked". "The speaker also suggests that the dog would be better suited if he dressed up for carnival: "the practical, sensible solution is to wear a pattern" and "no one will ever see a dog with mascara at this time of year". ." But wearing a costume would only help a person fit in. Putting on makeup would only help a real woman. For a dog these actions would only increase the grotesqueness, they would further abject him. But then why does the speaker extend such advice? The answer is that the act of cross-dressing is not meant for the dog, rather it is intended for what the dog represents: a female body: its nakedness and femininity is what is most alarming, most disturbing, and it is what the speaker desires wrap. Consider the dog's initial introduction: "Naked, you cross the avenue." At this point its bodily form is ambiguous; it is not possible to ascertain whether it is an animal or a woman or something specific reaction what first catches the speaker's eyes is not the shape of this creature but the fact that it is "naked" and "trotting "boldly. These two words acquire increased stature also from the initial inversion of the line that detaches from the iambic pentameter of the first two lines; "naked" has a first accent and a clear rhythm; two unusual ones reach the climax at the "trot", making the stress and rhythm more powerful. This pattern is even duplicated in the fifth line with “Naked and pink,” a repetition of diction and form that also intensifies the dog's naked femininity. From this emphasis it is clear that the speaker's advice to "get dressed" is an appeal to cover the ostentation of the naked female body and not simply of a hairless dog. The data is disturbing. The speaker wishes to cover and contain it. To this end, the speaker's entire dialogue can be seen as a clue to the extent to which society is caught up in and uncomfortable with exposed femininity. In the second stanza this is beautifully illustrated as: “Surprised, passers-by stand back and stare at [the dog].” The bystanders are simultaneously attracted and repelled by the sight, just like the speaker, who pays a lot of attention to the dog, although this consideration is driven by anxiety. Indeed, the long, abstruse threats of beggars "floating in backwater sewers" and advice on Carnival costumes can be interpreted as misguided attempts to alleviate the speaker's anxiety about the exposed female form; addressing the dog's poverty and fashion sense, the speaker deftly avoids what is truly an "eyesore": the dog's strikingly naked, unabashedly pink, overtly feminine body. In the final stanzas, the degradation of the speaker's advice into forced and artificial pedagogical exclamations indicates,.