A Biblical Exegesis of P.D. Eastman's "Go, Dog, Go"
Previously in children’s book coverage:
A round table with Grace and Lily about all of our baby books:
GRACE: “Good night, you, get under there” — I think the thing I like about that one is the prosody. It’s really good.
DANNY: Whereas I feel like, Have You Ever Seen A Flower, which I love, the text is really trying too hard sometimes —
GRACE: Well, that’s a book about the saturation of image. I mean, there are words in it, but it’s mostly about blood turning into flowers, and flowers turning into blood —
DANNY: I wish it would scale back on the prosody. I always feel like, you’ve got great stuff here, you don’t need to be asking precious questions about columns and labyrinths.
The Pages of Goodnight Moon, Ranked by our Ten-Month-Old Son:
“The baby Rocco is ten months old today. He takes two naps a day and goes to sleep for the night around 7pm, which means that he experiences “bedtime” three times a day. It’s remarkable, how much of his day revolves around getting ready for bed. When he was a newborn, he slept even more than this, but there was less of a process to it. We could just wrap him up and stow him on his back, and he’d be out like a light. Now that he’s older, he has to be formally guided into sleep, like a little king responsible for discharging certain religio-civic rituals.”
Each encounter runs along the same lines. They say hello; she asks him if he likes her hat; he offers judgment, and they part ways. He never likes any of her hats until the very last; the Party Hat. After he sees the Party Hat they ride off into the sunset together.
(It may interest you to know that the baby calls this book Dog Go Dog, and that he correctly identifies the sunset on the final page by pointing a fat, deliberate hand towards the sun and croaking, “Sun set,” after which he shake the book at me and say, “Dog Go Dog again.”)
Dog. Big dog. Little dog.
Psalms 22:16: “For dogs have surrounded me.”
Big dogs and little dogs. Black and white dogs.
Acts 10:12: “In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts.”
“Hello!”
“Hello!”
“Do you like my hat?”
“I do not.”
“Good-by! Good-by!”
Matthew 6:28-30: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
One little dog going in. Three big dogs going out.
Psalms 121:8: “The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forever.”
A red dog on a blue tree. A blue dog on a red tree. A green dog on a yellow tree.
Rev. 9:17: “And thus I saw the beasts in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery read, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.”
Some big dogs and some little dogs going around in cars. A dog out of a car.
Deuteronomy 1:17: “You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great.”
Two big dogs going up. One little dog going down.
Genesis 47:4: “I will go down with you and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.”
The green dog is up. The yellow dog is down. The blue dog is in. The red dog is out.
Genesis 37:8: “Shall you indeed reign over us? Shall you indeed have dominion over us?”
One dog up on a house. Three dogs down in the water.
1 John 5:8: “And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.”
A green dog over a tree. A yellow dog under a tree.
John 1:48: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
Two dogs in a house on a boat in the water. A dog over the water. A dog under the water.
Ezekiel 47:1: “Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east.”
The dogs are all going around, and around, and around. “Go around again!”
Ecclesiastes 1:1-6: “‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher; ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’
What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit.”
The sun is up. The sun is yellow. The yellow sun is over the house.
“It is hot out here in the sun.”
“It is not hot here under the house.”
Luke 16: 22-26: “So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’”
Now it is night. Three dogs at a party on a boat at night.
Mark 4:35-36: “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, ‘Let us cross over to the other side.’ Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was.”
Dogs at work. Work, dogs, work!
Exodus 5:9: “Let more work be laid on them, that they may labor in it.” (cf. Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, ‘till you return to the ground.”)
Dogs at play. “Play, dogs, play!”
Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”
“Hello again.”
“Hello?”
“Do you like my hat?”
“I do not like it.”
“Good-by again.”
“Good-by!”
John 18:21: “Why do you ask me?”
Dogs in cars again. Going away. Going away fast.
John 14:2: “I am going away to prepare a place for you.”
Look at those dogs go. Go, dogs. Go!
Deuteronomy 3:27: “Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes.”
“Stop, dogs. Stop! The light is red now.”
Jeremiah 6:16: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
“Go, dogs. Go! The light is green now.”
Isaiah 43:18: “Forget the former things; do not consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness.”
“Hello again.”
“Hello.”
“Do you like my hat?”
“I do not like it.”
“Good-by again.”
“Good-by.”
Matthew 6:28-30, ibid.
Two dogs at play. At play up on top. “Go down, dogs. Do not play up there. Go down.”
Luke 14:8-9: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.”
Now it is night. Night is not a time for play. It is time for sleep. The dogs go to sleep. They will sleep all night.
Psalms 4:8: “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
Now it is day. The sun is up. Now is the time for all dogs to get up.
“Get up!”
It is day. Time to get going. Go, dogs. Go!
1 Thessalonians 5:6: “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”
There they go. Look at those dogs go! Why are they going fast in those cars? What are they going to do? Where are those dogs going?
Ecclesiastes 2:22-24: “For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.”
Look where they are going. They are all going to that big tree over there. Now the cars stop. Now all the dogs get out. And now look where those dogs are going! To the tree! To the tree!
Jeremiah 17:8: “For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
Up the tree! Up the tree! Up they go to the top of the tree. Why? Will they work there? Will they play there? What is up there on top of that tree?
Genesis 28:12: “Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”
A dog party! A big dog party! Big dogs, little dogs, red dogs, blue dogs, yellow dogs, green dogs, black dogs, and white dogs are all at a dog party! What a dog party!
Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
“Hello again. And now do you like my hat?”
“I do. What a hat! I like it! I like that party hat!”
Proverbs 31:10-24: “A virtuous woman, who can find?...Her clothing is fine linen and purple…Strength and honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come.”
“Good-by!”
“Good-by.”
Titus 3:15: “All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.”