Why Should Prince Be Considered A Pacifist?

This passage develops the character of Prince. Firstly, he is revealed to be a pacifist. As a dog with canine and vicious instincts, it is ironic for Prince to be unwilling to dominate other dogs, but still, he prefers not to subdue other dogs. He does not avoid dominating dogs because he cannot dominate other dogs, he knows how to defend himself, but instead because he prefers to share his language. Prince prefers peaceful sharing of ideas to violence. Also, he acknowledges that being defeated in a violet fight does not help spread his ideas. Prince acknowledges that violence will not accomplish his goal of spreading his language no matter the result. He swears off of violence. Thus, he is a pacifist. Additionally, Prince’s open-mindedness to the new ways of thinking is emphasized once more. Not only does he write poems, but now he wishes to share the new ways and language to other
dogs. This is such a priority that he will give up his ability to dominate in order to get other dogs to listen.
Relative to plot, this passage is part of the rising action. The conflict of the novel is between the old way of thinking and the new way of thinking. Prince’s objective is to spread the way of human thinking by sharing his language. His obstacle to this objective is the violent canine instincts of the old dog way that other dogs have. The obstacle to the spread of the new way is the old way. Thus, the tensions between canine dogs and dogs who embrace human intelligence is intensified.
Finally, the theme revealed in this passage is that the avoidance of violence is often the key to ensuring the opponent will conform to one’s ideas.
Prince’s goal is to spread his way of thinking and his language. He has the power to dominate dogs and force them to follow him because he knows how to fight and defend himself, but he does not use violence. He acknowledges the futility of violence to conform others. He knows that those who dominate him are poor listeners because they are too preoccupied with mounting him and asserting dominance. It is impossible to conform someone to an idea when he will not listen. Also, he cannot teach those he dominated. Those that are dominated will wish to flee their attacker. So if Prince attacks a dog and dominates, the dog will flee before conforming to Prince’s idea. He recognizes that violence is not the way to reach his objective of conforming the other dog to his new idea of thinking. Thus, he recognizes that he must avoid violent situations if he hopes to get anywhere. He must find another strategy other than violence to spread his
wisdom.
Unfortunately, Prince loses his hearing and sight before he is ever able to succeed.