Feeding the Dog is a short story designed to highlight the hypocritical nature of today's society. On social media, many people complain about the world and undertake performative activism while refusing to take proper action under the excuse of it being futile. The list of chores in the story highlights the cycle those people are trapped in, and how nothing will ever change if they do not choose to break it themselves.
When creating this story, I focused on choosing a random scene that popped up in my mind and writing a description on it. Through my experience, I’ve discovered that themes and abstract ideas are my strengths, while descriptions and grounding the story into concrete ideas are my weaknesses. This approach meant I could focus on creating a world for the story to live in first while incorporating abstract ideas after. This approach worked well for me as I kept sight of the story but was still able to include significance into it.
The main character is quite vague in their descriptions. While there are hints at them being a woman when they think “...Hollywood red lipsticks that seemed to mind control men.” it is never specified. This was done to appeal to a larger audience, and to put the focus more on the characters actions rather than who the character is. How interesting the character is as a person doesn’t matter too much. What matters is how the character reflects the reader.
The main character is also a flawed character, whose thinking should not be trusted. The cycle their thoughts are stuck in is highlighted to the audience through the characters' complaints of people who sit down and read books on the tram. They instantly label these people as pretentious, rich, and bad people overall, no matter how illogical this assumption is. This provides a warning to the audience to not stay stuck in your head.
