History Literature / TheStoryOfDoctorDolittle

* TheLoad: Gub-Gub is pretty much only there for comedy relief. He's definitely the most useless of the animal companions; he doesn't contibute much to the plot other than cause trouble for the others with his complaining, inconvenient appetite and coweardice.

John Dolittle is a doctor living in the small village, Puddleby[[note]]short for Puddleby-on-the-Marsh[[/note]]. He is a highly competent and well-respected physician, but he is also somewhat of an animal hoarder, which drives away almost all of the paying human customers. The only exception is the Cat's-meat-man (a man who sells meat for pets to eat, not a man who sells the meat of cats) who's never had any problem with animals. John Doolittle even drives his own spinster sister away when he adopts a crocodile, and he's left penniless with no one to take care of his house or manage his money.

* AnimalStereotypes: Played straight in some instances, subverted in others, played with on a few occasions.

** Subverted: Dab-Dab is a practical and sensible duck with no trace of the stereotypical clumsiness and dimness you tend to see in fictional ducks, and Chee-Chee has none of the traditional mischievousness of a monkey. The subversion of animal stereotypes is even a plot point at a few occasions; the crocodile is a totally harmless GentleGiant, but the people of Puddleby are incapable of seeing it as such because everyone knows crocdiles are vicious killers. The sharks in the sea are polite and friendly to the Doctor, and refrain from eating the pirates when he asks them not to, but the pirates are still terrified of the sharks because everyone knows sharks eat people.

** Straight: Gub-Gup, Jip and Too-Too are straight examples, being respectively a greedy pig, a heroic and loyal dog, and a clever owl. Polynesia, being a parrot, is highly intelligent and can converse as well as any human.

*** Straight: Gub-Gup, Jip and Too-Too are straight examples, being respectively a greedy pig, a heroic and loyal dog, and a clever owl. Polynesia, being a parrot, is highly intelligent and can converse as well as any human.
*** Subverted: Dab-Dab is a practical and sensible duck with no trace of the stereotypical clumsiness and dimness you tend to see in fictional ducks, and Chee-Chee has none of the traditional mischievousness of a monkey. The subversion of animal stereotypes is even a plot point at a few occasions; the crocodile is a totally harmless GentleGiant, but the people of Puddleby are incapable of seeing it as such because everyone knows crocdiles are vicious killers. The sharks in the sea are polite and friendly to the Doctor, and refrain from eating the pirates when he asks them not to, but the pirates are still terrified of the sharks because everyone knows sharks eat people.

* {{Bowdlerize}}: Bumpo wishing to be [[MightyWhitey white]] is edited out of some later editions of the book.

* MightyWhitey: Bumpo agrees to help Doctor Dolittle if the Doctor will in turn make him white.

* PutOnABus: Or rather, Left Behind At The Bus Stop While The Narrative Follows The Bus. Polynesia, Chee-Chee and the crocodile remain behind in Africa while Doctor Dolittle and the other animals travel back to England, meaning that they vanish from the latter half of the book. Both Polynesia and Chee-Chee would [[TheBusCameBack return to the Doctor]] in the sequel, but the crocodile never did.

* AnimalTalk: Averted. Each animal species has its own language. Polynesia, the Doctor's parrot, is multilingual and taught Dolittle his first animal languages. Though the Doctor's household consists of (among others) a dog, a horse, a goose, an owl, a pig and a mouse, and they can talk with each other easily, so there is some lingua franca going on. Polynesia is the only one who can speak human languages.

* AnimalTalk: Subverted. Each animal species has its own language. Polynesia, the Doctor's parrot, is multilingual and taught Dolittle his first animal languages. Much of the book "The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle" actually deals with Dolittle attempting to learn the language of shellfish and several other aquatic species and requires a scene in which a giant sea snail has to talk to the doctor through a sea urchin, who translates for a starfish, who translates for some dolphins, who translate for Doctor Dolittle.
** Though the Doctor's household consists of (among others) a dog, a horse, a goose, an owl, a pig and a mouse, and they can talk with each other easily, so there is some lingua franca going on. Polynesia is the only one who can speak human languages.

* PollyWantsAMicrophone: [[AmplifiedAnimalAptitude Although ''all'' animals are implied to be sapient]], Polynesia is a parrot who can understand and speak fluent English (among other languages). She's fluent in English because the Doctor taught it to her, enabling her to return the favor by teaching him animal languages.

John Dolittle is a doctor living in the small village, Puddleby[[hottip:*: short for Puddleby-on-the-Marsh]]. He is a highly competent and well-respected physician, but he is also somewhat of an animal hoarder, which drives away almost all of the paying human customers. The only exception is the Cat's-meat-man (a man who sells meat for pets to eat, not a man who sells the meat of cats) who's never had any problem with animals. John Doolittle even drives his own spinster sister away when he adopts a crocodile, and he's left penniless with no one to take care of his house or manage his money.

* PollyWantsAMicrophone: [[AmplifiedAnimalAptitude Although ''all'' animals are implied to be sapient]], Polynesia is a parrot who can understand and speak fluent English among other things.
** Unusually, Polynesia is fluent in English because the Doctor taught it to her, enabling her to return the favor by teaching him animal languages.

''The Story of Doctor Dolittle'' is the first book of Creator/HughLofting's ''DoctorDolittle'' series. It was published in 1920 and now in the public domain and can be read [[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/501/501-h/501-h.htm here]].

''The Story of Doctor Dolittle'' is the first book of {{Hugh Lofting}}'s ''DoctorDolittle'' series. It was published in 1920 and now in the public domain and can be read [[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/501/501-h/501-h.htm here]].

* TranslationConvention: Happens in a lot of the conversations between animals.

* TheDoctorDolittle: The trope namer. All animals speak different languages, some incorporating body language.