They do us the honor of treating us like gods, and we respond by treating them like things

The expression “They do us the honor of treating us like gods, and we respond by treating them like things” names a stark imbalance between the trust dogs place in humans and the way humans treat them. In Disgrace, Lucy uses it while reflecting on the fate of unwanted dogs; the sentence makes their vulnerability a matter of human responsibility, not merely a measure of human feeling.

Wording and Ethical Reversal

The expression turns on a contrast between “gods” and “things.” Dogs’ treatment of humans is cast as an honor, while the human response is to deny them meaningful standing by treating them as objects. The balanced phrasing sharpens the accusation: the failure lies not in the animals’ regard for people, but in what people do with that regard.

Narrative Context

The line belongs to a discussion of White God, a film partly inspired by Disgrace. After losing his teaching position, David Lurie leaves Cape Town for a village in the Eastern Cape, where his daughter Lucy has a small subsistence farm; he eventually works at an animal shelter. Lucy’s reflection on the multitude of unwanted dogs gives the expression its concrete context. Their fate connects the film’s inspiration to the novel’s movement from Lurie’s professional downfall toward work among abandoned animals, while keeping the ethical focus on the humans who treat them as disposable.