Unconventional Motivations for Love in Puppy by George Saunders

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The idea of love's motivation takes on a nontraditional form throughout Puppy by George Saunders. The internal conflict Marie struggles with was developed as a child when her mother did not show the love for her she believed other children her age received. She tries to break this cycle from happening to her own children by soliciting their desires with material items. For Callie, her love takes a more direct approach. She is financially inferior to Marie, and cannot satisfy her children with the video games or other physical items they seek.

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However, she remained optimistic by allowing her children to focus on the best parts of their life and escape their own environment.

Marie often expressed her love towards her children by sharing material gifts with them, and bond over the items. She became closer to Josh by learning how to use his Baker. “In the back seat, Josh made the git-git-git sound he always made when his Baker was in Baking Mode, trying to get his Loaves into the oven while fighting off various Hungry Denizens, such as a Fox with a distended stomach; such as a fey Robin that would improbably carry the Loaf away, speared on its beak, whenever it had succeeded in dropping a Clonking Rock on your Baker, all of which Marie had learned over the summer by studying the Noble Baker manual while Josh was asleep.” Marie’s mother would say Marie’s children were spoiled, but Marie softened the idea by saying her children were well loved.

Marie justified her behavior by recalling the shortfalls of her own childhood. “At least she’d never locked one of them in a closet,” she remarked to herself. Of all the things she brought to mind from her childhood, none of them were of monetary significance. The only negative memories she could recall pertained to her mother’s drunkenness and neglect. Despite learning from the shortfalls of her childhood, she never realized that tangible wealth would not leave lasting memories or familial bonds.

To Callie, love for her son, Bo, was motivated by protection and strict guidance. When she was young she would use imagination to free herself from her surroundings. She passed this childhood onto her own son by chaining him up in the yard. This kept him in the yard the same way she had been when she was younger. As a child Callie made bad choices. “She remembered Sister Carol saying, ‘Callie, you are bright enough but you incline toward that which does not benefit you.’” She recognized this same trend of poor judgment in Bo, specifically his highway crossing misadventures. In the way Callie’s elders had sought to restrict her, Callie sought to restrict Bo.

When Marie witnessed the conditions Bo lived in, she was reminded of her own childhood. Although both mothers had harsh upbringings, both Callie and Marie chose to raise their own children much differently than each other, but similar to the ways they had been raised themselves. Callie had more of an optimistic childhood, and never rationalized the situation she was in. She used fantasy in her yard to escape the brunt of her surroundings. Marie accepted her circumstances as she grew up, and managed to establish strong optimism with her children. She even strived to instill her children with the awareness she had in childhood, by allowing them to appreciate the positive aspects of their situation. “Josh joined her at the window. She let him look. He should know that the world was not all lessons and iguanas and Nintendo. It was also this muddy simple boy tethered like an animal.” Her actions of revealing Bo’s status to Josh were motivated by her love for Josh. Even Callie’s more unconventional approach to raising Bo was rooted in her love for him. “Who loved him more than anyone else in the world loved him? Her.”