Based on what I've read, the story is set in modern time or pre modern time, because her works in a company named Aerojet, there is from 1942, but they got financial problems, so it have to be a later in the years. In the text the main character mentions Sacramento, the capital of California in America. In the story we meet the main character Al, who is 31 and he is a father to two children, Alex and Mary. We also meet his wife Betty and her sister Sandy. We hear about their old dog Suzy and the new dog Sam. And later in the story we meet Jerry and Molly. Shortly the story is about Al and his stressful life. He has problems with the wife, the kids and he also has financial problems, but his smallest problem is the new dog, Sam. And Al tries to get rid of the dog and in the last part, he tries to get it back.
The narrator tries to give us, the readers a picture of a regular man, who have a very stressful life. “They were laying off at Aerojet when they should be hiring”#1. “Made him want to kill the goddam dog”#2.
Al has some problems with his job and issues with his family and the dog. And he is not a faithful husband.
“For example, there was Jill. Jill worked in bookkeeping at Weinstock’s. She was a nice girl, said she loved Al. she was just lonely, that´s what she told him the first night. She didn´t make it a habit, letting herself be picked up by married men, she also told him the first night”#3.
He got a family, but he still cheats on his wife, Betty. So he is not a good husband and that is why he thinks his wife doesn’t like him. Maybe he just used to be with several women, at the same time.
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#1 p. 122 lines 12-13(middle)
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#2 p. 124 line 12(end of the first section)
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#3 p. 123 lines 6-11 (start)
“He smiled at her, and smiled back. He took out his cigarettes and his lighter