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Brittany Arocha

Prompt III

English 1158/ Bimbisar Irom

March 16, 2009

Religious and Non-Religious Cover

Most people would think that the word “dogeaters” would mean people who

eat dogs. The author of the novel DOGEATERS ,Jessica Hagedorn, portrays this

differently. The author’s cover has numerous elements going on which makes the

reader drawn to the story before they even open the cover.

The overall book cover is not symmetrically designed. The book cover is

designed in a triangular fashion. There are at least seven “triangles” that are

located on the book. The main triangle is the female’s body. The triangle goes from

finger to finger down to her toes and back to the other finger. The other triangles

are randomly distributed throughout the cover. The main triangle though is what

brings the reader to the main element which is an object in the woman’s stomach.

This object looks like a fetus, and is surrounded in a red substance that is perceived

to be the woman’s amniotic fluid.

After the reader sees the main object in the triangle there eye then travels to

the miter. On the way up to the miter the reader see’s a head. This head is not like

a human head, but instead a statue’s head. Once the reader reaches the miter

which is brightly colored red with a gold cross on it, they see angels. The angels are

lightly colored, but yet are still visible to see that they are holding the hat. This

section of the cover can be symbolized as religious. The woman itself can be seen

as religious because she is in a crucifixion stance. She has her arms out and her

legs together, just like Jesus was nailed onto the cross when he was crucified. The
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reader then sees the miter which is also another religious object. This object is

religious because the Pope wears it all the time and he is seen as a figure that does

nothing wrong and helps everyone out. The angels are also seen as religious figure.

They are seen as religious because they are also seen in the drawings of Adam and

Eve. In Adam and Eve they are drawn out to be watching over Adam and Eve and in

the case of the book cover it is almost the same exact thing. They are most likely

there to be seen as watching over the fetus that is inside of the woman’s body.

After the religious factor has been shown, a factor of hell is portrayed,

because after the reader sees all of the religious factors like the angels and the

miter, they see the woman holding a head. This head has been severed off of a

body, possibly the woman’s body being shown. This is thought to be the woman’s

head because the head on the body is replaced by a statues head and her head is

no longer there. People who go to hell are thought to be those that kill people or do

violent crimes. Decapitating people is a violent crime that would send you to hell.

To back this thought up, the reader then goes to the other side of the body where a

sword is being held. The sword is thought to be the one that decapitated the head

and therefore caused the woman to lose her head. The lost of her head would also

be the result of the fetus’s death that is growing inside of her body, which is also a

crime that would send a person to hell.

Finally, the reader’s eye is drawn to the word “dogeaters” which is in bold

white letters located in the middle of the book. The letters are not written in a

straight line, but instead in an up and down motion. They are also squiggly as if a

child was writing it or else a person in trouble was writing it. In general even after a

person looks at the cover, they still wonder what does the meaning of DOGEATERS.

The only way a person is to know this is by actually opening the book and reading it.
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The author of DOGEATERS does a remarkable job at drawing the readers in and

wanting to know what the story is.