Robert And The Dog By Ken Saro Wiwa

The short story “Robert and the dog” by Ken Saro-Wiwa tells the story of a steward and his master and mistress. The main character is the steward named Robert. Robert’s master is a medical doctor and originally a bachelor. Robert is very content with his situation in the household up until the doctor’s wife moves in from Europe. The wife treats Robert very well, and he feels appreciated in the household. But soon Robert starts to develop a strong hatred towards the family dog, named Bingo. Robert hates the fact that a dog is being treated better than his own children, who are poor and malnourished. When the doctor and his wife announces that they are going away on holiday, Robert gets put to the task of looking after Bingo for six weeks. Robert’s …show more content…
Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, which is an ethnic minority in Nigeria. He spoke out forcefully against the Nigerian military regime and the petroleum company Shell for causing damage to the land of the Ogoni people in his native state Rivers. Two of his best known literary works were inspired by his observations of the Biafran war.

The stories geographical setting takes place in Nigeria, Africa. We learn about two very different social environments. The young doctor and his wife clearly come from the upper class, while Robert who is poor and hardly manage to feed his children come from the underclass. The fact that the short story takes place in Ken Saro-Wiwa’s native country gives the story a personal …show more content…
There is the steward Robert, the young doctor and his wife, and their dog Bingo. The main character Robert is a middle aged man coming from the lower class of Nigerian society. He is accustomed to moving from household to household, as none of his previous masters were particularly nice towards him. Therefore Robert never liked to occupy the servant’s quarters, as it made it harder for him to leave the situation if he wanted. Because the young doctor initially is a bachelor, Robert has a lot of power in the house. According to himself he “holds the bachelor’s life in his hands” Robert lives together with his family in Ajegunle (nicknamed The Jungle because of its filth and overall poor appearance) He has a one-bedroom apartment shared with his wife and their six children. We learn that he sees himself as the king of The Jungle and that he “nightly likes to exercise his authority over his wife and children.” Part of the reason why Robert is happy that the young doctor is a bachelor, is that “there was no wife breathing down his neck and limiting his abundant