On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Little Dog is a literature student and a writer. Consequently, many of the metaphors he uses to explain his reality are based on writing. Comparisons with commas and periods are a common motif throughout the novel. Little Dog uses commas to explain adolescence, fetal development, and things left incomplete. In Vietnam, when Lan is confronted by a military checkpoint holding the infant Rose, she wets herself. Little Dog explains that the puddle means “she is standing on the life-sized period of her own sentence, alive” (44). Little Dog views life in terms of words and sentences; a period would indicate that Lan’s life was to end there—but she lived beyond it.

Significantly, Trevor has a comma-shaped scar on his neck. When they part for what would be the final time, Little Dog takes notice of it. Looking back, he wishes he could kiss it, to make it a “comma superimposed by a period the mouth so naturally makes,” and asks “Isn’t that the saddest thing in the world, Ma? A comma forced to be a period?” (169). This comment symbolizes Little Dog’s ability as a writer to capture the real world in his words; however, it also emphasizes the small impact those words have on the past. Their parting was supposed to be a pause, a comma. Instead, Trevor’s death means it was an ending—a period.