Man's Best Friend

        Manchee is my favorite character in the novel The Knife of Never Letting Go. I attribute this to my obsession and love of dogs. Manchee is a big character in the novel. He is the main character Todd's dog. This dog was given as a present to Todd by his uncle. Oh, and Manchee is affected by the noise as well, and by that I mean Manchee can speak through his mind. Todd doesn't appreciate Manchee, but Manchee always appreciates Todd. Towards the end of the book Todd starts to notice how important Manchee is.This relationship between Todd and Manchee is a classic example of dogs being "man's best friend". Manchee sticks with Todd through everything that happens in this novel just as a dog does with their owners. Manchee is not the smartest which I think that Ness was wrong in portraying him in this manner. I think that dogs are naturally smart. Manchee did help Todd an he had his moments, but the way his thoughts were written out made it seem like dogs were inferior. For example in the beginning of the book Manchee is barking at a squirrel and even the squirrel sounded learned and sophisticated while Manchee was portrayed as being at an elementary school level. Ness should have portrayed the thoughts of Manchee as a little more sophisticated while still adding in the humorous "squirrel!" and "ball!" in there somewhere. I understand that his stupor is to add humor and to support the reader into understanding why Todd is not in love with Manchee like the usual dog owner is. I just think that Ness went about it the wrong way. Another thing that I would change about Manchee and his part in the story is how Todd treats him. Todd never fully appreciates Manchee. Now the one thing that I absolutely HATE about this novel is the death of Manchee. I hope I didn't spoil this part for anyone. I hated Todd after he left Manchee behind, and I know that he was ill and he tried, but you can't kill a dog in any book an expect me to not be upset. In my opinion, you can kill off a character, but not a dog. I mean look at how people reacted to Michael Vick and his involvement with dogs. I just think that Ness should have kept Manchee for the entire trilogy. If I read on to the next books I will definitely miss the character of Manchee, and I will miss the humor and lightness he brought to the book. He truly was, in the end, "man's best friend".