dog heart

The novel Heart of a Dog by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov is a satirical literary masterpiece that boldly exposes the absurdity of social transformations in the early Soviet Union. The story begins with a bizarre medical operation performed by Dr. Preobrazhensky and his assistant, Bormental, where a stray dog ??is implanted with the pituitary gland of a recently killed human being. The operation transforms the dog into a deformed human creature, but lacks the culture and knowledge to qualify as a full human being. While the doctors try in vain to tame it, Shvonder, a representative of the socialist revolutionary movement, exploits this "e;man-dog"e; as an instrument of the new authorities. He is given an official name, a job, and social legitimacy, and even begins writing reports against his creators. Through this absurd narrative, mixed with black humor, Bulgakov delivers a scathing critique of the Soviet system, which elevated ignorance and the mob at the expense of culture and science. It is a novel that reveals a tragic-satirical panorama of man's struggle between his animal nature and his human culture, and of the failure of forced social experiments to create a "e;new man."e;