Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Old Yeller, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
People and Animals
Masculinity and Emotion
Bravery vs. Fear
Coming of Age and Responsibility
Summary
Analysis
By the next day, Travis has already forgotten all about Burn’s terrifying warning. Boys, the older Travis notes in retrospect, are like wild animals in that way. The morning after Burn leaves, it’s time to mark hogs. Travis is excited about the thrilling, dangerous work of rounding up and tagging his family’s hogs, which run loose on the range. The hogs are wild and aggressive—Mama is terrified of them, and she hates the idea of Travis going out to tag them alone. But Travis insists that with Old Yeller by his side, he’ll be just fine—however, even Travis knows that the violent hogs will attack at the first opportunity. Still, he has always had fun marking and castrating hogs with Papa, and he’s anxious to prove that he can do the task himself.
In this passage shows how the human world and the animal world overlap not just practically but emotionally. As the older Travis looks back on his foolhardy youth, he feels that at 14, he was more like a wild animal than a man. Travis endearingly recalls his refusal to feel fear: as a young man, he’s determined to prove that he's responsible and mature, so he's willing to suppress his instincts in order to do so.
Themes
Travis and Old Yeller set out and soon encounter their first group of hogs. Old Yeller rounds the hogs up, narrowly avoiding their sharp tusks, which Travis calls “tushes.” Old Yeller is fast and nimble, but Travis finds himself a bit frightened by the fierce chase. Travis climbs up into a large live oak and out onto a branch that’s low to the ground but still out of the hogs’ reach. Old Yeller brings the hogs over to Travis, and Travis begins picking the small young pigs up off the ground and into the tree, where he marks their ears and castrates them with his hunting knife.
The work of rounding up, tagging, and castrating hogs is dangerous, bloody, and chaotic. Travis has a plan in place—but as he sets to his task, it’s clear that Travis’s position is precarious.
Themes
As the scent of blood fills the air, the older hogs on the ground grow wild and angry. Travis knows that if he falls out of the tree, the hogs below will slash him apart. He feels afraid—but he remembers that Papa always told him that fear was a “right and natural” emotion and nothing to feel ashamed of. Travis successfully wrangles his feelings of fear just as he wrangles the hogs—in less than an hour, he’s done with the job. Travis waits in the tree for an hour after the hogs depart to make sure the coast is clear—and Old Yeller waits with him the whole time.
As the gravity of Travis’s situation sets in, he at least begins to acknowledge the fear he’s been feeling all along and process it with the attention it deserves. Since Papa’s departure, Travis has told himself that feeling fear is an impediment to acting manly, taking responsibility, and being brave—now, however, he realizes that fear is an important part of life.
Themes
