Beware of the Dog - Character Analysis

Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl is a war story of a man who is shot down and taken hostage. Throughout most of the story, this man, whose name is later revealed to be Peter Williamson, doesn't even know that he is a hostage. Luckily he figures it out just in time to save any information from being leaked to the enemy.

The story starts in the air. Peter is flying his plane, named Spitfire. The first few sentences make things seem fine; telling about how he flies his plane and his thoughts about going home, but reading further reveals that he is missing his right leg. Though Peter has lost his leg to a canon shell, not to long ago, he doesn't seem to be bothered about it. He begins to joke about how others will react when they pull him out of his plane and see his bloody mess. Peter talks about how he doesn't even feel that the injury is really apart of him. He compares his injury to looking at a dead cat, not really apart of him, but disturbing and slightly interesting.

From that, one could say Peter is a man that doesn't let things bother him unless he is truly being bothered; he doesn't feel the pain of his missing leg, so he's okay. This is very common today. People often let things pass if they're not directly affected. With that evidence, one can begin to say that Peter is an ordinary man that thinks very much like most people in the world.

After a little while, Peter is shot down behind enemy lines, and is taken hostage into what appears to be a hospital. Strangely, the people that are holding him hostage treat him as if he were really in a hospital. With the way that things are told in the story, the reader is lead to think that Peter is in a real hospital. The nurse takes care of him, keeping him clean, and tending to his needs. Peter feels that he is in a real hospital.

On different occasions, Peter notices things that seem out of place. The biggest thing he noticed was a sign that read "Garde Au Chien." With that, Peter knew that he wasn't where he thought he was. Peter was in France. When he realized this, he became stressed and his wounds began throbbing with great pain.

After this, Peter could only think of one thing. A sentence ran through his head saying, "And if they get you, don't forget, just your name, rank and number. Nothing else. For God's sake, say nothing else." It was something his Intelligence Officer told him.