Dog Man Unleashed

An allusion is an indirect reference to another text, a well-known person, or a historical event. In Dog Man Unleashed, there are several allusions to books and songs. When Petey devises his escape by creating a flat paper version of himself, he says, “I saw this in a book once” (68), referring to Jeff Brown’s Flat Stanley. Dr. Boog E. Feeva’s name is a reference to the song “Boogie Fever” by the Sylvers. The diction of, “Flippy’s brain grew eleven sizes that day” (54), is an allusion to Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas because it closely mimics a well-known quote from this book. When a reader encounters and recognizes an allusion in Pilkey’s book, the moment of recognition creates a feeling of being “in on the joke,” helping to develop the story’s humorous tone.

Anthropomorphism is when something non-human is portrayed as if it is a human being. Dog Man himself is anthropomorphized—although he has the head of a dog and the mind of a dog, he in many ways thinks and acts like a human being. Petey, Flat Petey, and