Representation of the dog in El hombre que amaba a los perros, by Leonardo Padura

Abstract

This work analyzes the representation of the dog in the novel El hombre que amaba a los perros from Cuban writer Leonardo Padura Fuentes, going further than its function as the unifying element of the plot. From my point of view, the presence of the dogs has the fundamental purpose of bringing to the forefront the reflection regarding the human condition itself. However, far from considering that, in this sense, the proposition of the novel is that the dogs emphasize the progressive animalization of the human being, I think that, justly, it centers on the opposite: the presence of these animals evidences the permanence of, at least, a gap from its besieged humanity.