Old Yeller

by

Fred Gipson

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People and Animals Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
People and Animals Theme Icon
Masculinity and Emotion Theme Icon
Bravery vs. Fear Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Responsibility Theme Icon
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People and Animals Theme Icon

Old Yeller explores how the world of animals and the world of people overlap. Travis Coates and his beloved dog, Old Yeller, have an intense bond—and their connection suggests that while many people see the animal world as separate from their own, that could not be further from the truth. People and animals, the novel suggests, are deeply interconnected.

Old Yeller’s sudden arrival into the Coates family illustrates how, even though people consider themselves as separate from and even superior to animals, the animal world can easily intrude into the human world. The morning after Travis’s father Papa heads off on a cattle run to Kansas and leaves Travis alone to oversee the house, Travis finds a giant stray dog eating a store of meat that Papa hung out to dry. Travis is furious with the dog and tries to chase him away—but Travis’s nature-loving little brother, Arliss, says that he wants the dog to stay. Travis’s Mama, too, sees the benefits of having a watchdog around in Papa’s absence. There are several things about Old Yeller’s sudden appearance that speak to the idea that the human and animal worlds can’t be neatly separated—and that, in many ways, people and animals depend on each other. Old Yeller arrives at a time of need for the Coates family, which seems almost fated or meant to be—yet, later on in the novel, Travis learns that Old Yeller wandered away from his owner and sought refuge at the Coates farmhouse. Just as Travis and his family needed a protector, so too did Old Yeller need shelter. Old Yeller and the Coates family’s relationship is symbiotic from the start—and as their lives intersect, the Coateses form a deeper understanding of the interdependency between people and animals. The overlap between people and animals is further emphasized when Travis names Old Yeller for his distinctive bark. Old Yeller’s name isn’t just a reference to his yellow (which Travis pronounces as “yeller”) fur—Travis decides that the name is perfect for the dog after hearing his bark, which uncannily resembles a human yell. This detail about Old Yeller heightens readers’ sensitivity to the ever-blurring boundary between the world of people and the world of animals.

Shortly after Old Yeller’s arrival, a dramatic incident occurs that further illustrates how people and animals aren’t neatly separated from each other. One ordinary afternoon, Travis and his family must contend with a destructive fight between two raging bulls whose territorial fighting has brought them right onto the Coateses’ property. As the bulls violently charge and collide in the Coateses’ yard, it becomes clear that the animals have no regard for the fact that they’re smashing up private land owned by humans. The bulls destroy the fence surrounding the Coates property and bombard the Coateses’ log cabin with their fighting, threatening to tear the house down. This instance shows, quite literally, how the world of animals can easily collide with the world of humans at a moment’s notice. Though Travis and his family have lived in the countryside for a long time, and have perhaps felt that they’re more connected to nature than most, they’re still shocked by how the bulls intrude on their house in such an abrupt and violent way. Through this incident, Travis, Mama, and Little Arliss learn how the danger of the animal world can directly affect them.

Finally, the plague of hydrophobia (rabies) that ravages the countryside surrounding the Coates family’s home proves that people can’t insulate themselves from the animal world—the issues that plague one world often plague the other. When Old Yeller’s original owner, Burn Sanderson, shows up at the Coates home to ask for Old Yeller back, he quickly realizes how attached the family is to the dog and decides to let Old Yeller stay with his new owners. Before leaving, however, Burn warns Travis that there’s been a local outbreak of hydrophobia. Animals and people alike can be affected by the debilitating disease, which attacks the sufferer’s brain and makes them vicious and disoriented. As Travis faces the gravity of such a disease, he realizes that both animals and people experience the same symptoms—and, in this way, Travis and Old Yeller’s worlds are even more interconnected. When Old Yeller is indeed bitten by a rabid wolf while saving the Coateses from the animal, Travis makes the devastating choice to kill Old Yeller before the hydrophobia can affect him. This sacrifice illustrates Travis’s understanding that the world of animals and the world of people are inextricable: he knows that if Old Yeller’s condition is allowed to worsen, the dog could spread hydrophobia to Little Arliss, to Mama, or to Travis himself. Travis’s killing of Old Yeller is an act of mercy not only for the dog himself, but for Travis’s beloved family members and neighbors. In this way, Travis is able to see how goings-on in the animal world directly impact the human world.

Though Old Yeller is commonly considered a tragic story, Travis and his family’s transformative love for their dog is also an educational tale about how people and animals depend on each other for health, happiness, and survival. As Travis and his family learn to love Old Yeller and embark on countless adventures with him, they all come to see how deeply intertwined their world is with the world of animals.

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People and Animals Quotes in Old Yeller

Below you will find the important quotes in Old Yeller related to the theme of People and Animals.
Chapter 1 Quotes

We called him Old Yeller. The name had a sort of double meaning. One part meant that his short hair was a dingy yellow, a color that we called "yeller" in those days. The other meant that when he opened his head, the sound he let out came closer to being a yell than a bark.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:

"What you're needing worse than a horse is a good dog."

"Yessir," I said, "but a horse is what I'm wanting the worst."

"All right," he said. "You act a man's part while I'm gone, and I'll see that you get a man's horse to ride when I sell the cattle. I think we can shake on that deal."

He reached out his hand, and we shook. It was the first time I'd ever shaken hands like a man. It made me feel big and solemn and important in a way I'd never felt before. I knew then that I could handle whatever needed to be done while Papa was gone.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Papa (speaker)
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

A big diamond-back rattler struck at Papa and Papa chopped his head off with one quick lick of his scythe. The head dropped to the ground three or four feet away from the writhing body. It lay there, with the ugly mouth opening and shutting, still trying to bite something.

As smart as Bell was, you'd have thought he'd have better sense than to go up and nuzzle that rattler's head. But he didn't, and a second later, he was falling back, howling and slinging his own head till his ears popped. But it was too late then. […] He died that night, and I cried for a week.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Papa, Bell
Related Symbols: The Rattlesnake Head
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

I'd hit her but hadn't made a killing shot.

I didn't like that. I never minded killing for meat. Like Papa had told me, every creature has to kill to live. But to wound an animal was something else. Especially one as pretty and harmless as a deer. It made me sick to think of the doe's escaping, maybe to hurt for days before she finally died.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller, Papa
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

We sat and ate and listened to [the bulls]. We could tell by their rumblings and bawlings that they were gradually working their way down through the brush toward each other and getting madder by the minute.

I always liked to see a fight between bulls or bears or wild boars or almost any wild animals. Now, I got so excited that I jumped up from the table and went to the door and stood listening. I'd made up my mind that if the bulls met and started a fight, I was going to see it.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Little Arliss, Mama, Chongo and Roany
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

But I was too excited about the fight. I didn't see the danger in time. I was still aside the top rail when the struggling bulls crashed through the fence, splintering the posts and rails, and toppling me to the ground almost under them. […] The roaring of the bulls was right in my ears. The hot, reeking scent of their blood was in my nose. The bone-crashing weight of their hoofs was stomping all around and over me, churning up such a fog of dust that I couldn't see a thing.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Chongo and Roany
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

Every night before Mama let him go to bed, she'd make Arliss empty his pockets of whatever he'd captured during the day. Generally, it would be a tangled-up mess of grasshoppers and worms and praying bugs and little rusty tree lizards. […] Sometimes it was stuff like a young bird that had fallen out of its nest before it could fly, or a green-speckled spring frog or a striped water snake. And once he turned out of his pocket a wadded-up baby copperhead that nearly threw Mama into spasms.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Little Arliss, Mama
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

That day when I saw [Little Arliss] in the spring, so helpless against the angry she bear, I learned different. I knew then that I loved him as much as I did Mama and Papa, maybe in some ways even a little bit more.

So it was only natural for me to come to love the dog that saved him.

After that, I couldn't do enough for Old Yeller. What if he was a big ugly meat-stealing rascal? […] None of that made a lick of difference now. He’d pitched in and saved Little Arliss when I couldn’t possibly have done it, and that was enough for me.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller, Little Arliss, Mama, Papa
Page Number: 43-44
Explanation and Analysis:

This sure looked like a case of hydrophobia to [Bud] Searcy, as anybody knew that no fox in his right mind was going to jump on a hunter.

Which reminded him of an uncle of his that got mad-dog bit down in the piney woods of East Texas. This was way back when Searcy was a little boy. As soon as the dog bit him, the man knew he was bound to die; so he went and got a big log chain and tied one end around the bottom of a tree and the other one to one of his legs. And right there he stayed till the sickness got him and he lost his mind.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Mama, Bud Searcy
Related Symbols: Hydrophobia (Rabies)
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

It made me mad. "You thievin' rascal," I said. "I ought to get a club and break your back—in fourteen different places."

But I didn't really mean it, and I didn't say it loud and ugly. I knew that if I did, he'd fall over and start yelling like he was dying. And there I'd be-in a fight with Little Arliss again.

"When they shoot you, I'm going to laugh," I told him.

But I knew that I wouldn't.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller, Lisbeth Searcy, Bud Searcy
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

I didn't wait to hear any more. I ran off. I was so full of relief that I was about to pop. I knew that if I didn't get out of sight in a hurry, this Burn Sanderson was going to catch me crying.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller, Little Arliss, Papa, Burn Sanderson
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:

"You're not scared, are you, boy? I'm only telling you because I know your papa left you in charge of things. I know you can handle whatever comes up. I'm just telling you to watch close and not let anything—anything—get to you or your folks with hydrophobia. Think you can do that?"

I swallowed. "I can do it," I told him. "I'm not scared."

The sternness left Burn Sanderson's face. He put a hand on my shoulder, just as Papa had the day he left.

"Good boy," he said. "That's the way a man talks."

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Burn Sanderson (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hydrophobia (Rabies)
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

A boy, before he really grows up, is pretty much like a wild animal.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

A big lump came up into my throat. Tears stung my eyes, blinding me. Here he was, trying to lick my wound, when he was bleeding from a dozen worse ones.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

For the next couple of weeks, Old Yeller and I had a rough time of it. I lay on the bed inside the cabin and Yeller lay on the cowhide in the dog run, and we both hurt so bad that we were wallowing and groaning and whimpering all the time. Sometimes I hurt so bad that I didn't quite know what was happening. I'd hear grunts and groans and couldn't tell if they were mine or Yeller's.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller
Related Symbols: Hydrophobia (Rabies)
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Now, I knew that Spot wouldn't get well, and this bull wouldn't, either. I knew they were both deathly sick with hydrophobia. Old Yeller had scented that sickness in this bull and somehow sensed how fearfully dangerous it was.

I thought of Lisbeth and Little Arliss down past the spring. I came up out of my chair, calling for Mama. "Mama!" I said. "Bring me my gun, Mama!"

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller, Little Arliss, Lisbeth Searcy, Spot, Chongo and Roany
Related Symbols: Hydrophobia (Rabies)
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

We couldn't leave the dead bull to lie there that close to the cabin. In a few days, the scent of rotting flesh would drive us out. Also, the carcass lay too close to the spring. Mama was afraid it would foul up our drinking water.

"We'll have to try to drag it further from the cabin and burn it," she said.

"Burn it?" I said in surprise. "Why can't we just leave it for the buzzards and varmints to clean up?"

"Because that might spread the sickness," Mama said. "If the varmints eat it, they might get the sickness, too."

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Mama (speaker), Papa, Chongo and Roany
Related Symbols: Hydrophobia (Rabies)
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:

I went off to the spring after a bucket of fresh water and wondered when Papa would come back. Mama had said a couple of days ago that it was about that time, and I hoped so. […] This hydrophobia plague had me scared. I'd handled things pretty well until that came along. Of course, I'd gotten a pretty bad hog cut, but that could have happened to anybody, even a grown man. And I was about to get well of that. But if the sickness got more of our cattle, I wouldn't know what to do.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller, Mama, Papa, Lisbeth Searcy, Spot
Related Symbols: Hydrophobia (Rabies)
Page Number: 119
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

"But Mama," I said. "We don't know for certain. We could wait and see. We could tie him or shut him up in the corncrib or some place till we know for sure!"

Mama broke down and went to crying then. She put her head on my shoulder and held me so tight that she nearly choked off my breath.

"We can't take a chance, Son,” she sobbed. "It would be you or me or Little Arliss or Lisbeth next. I'll shoot him if you can't, but either way, we've got to do it. We just can't take the chance!"

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Mama (speaker), Old Yeller, Little Arliss, Lisbeth Searcy
Related Symbols: Hydrophobia (Rabies)
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:

It was going to kill something inside me to do it, but I knew then that I had to shoot my big yeller dog.

Once I knew for sure I had it to do, I don't think I really felt anything. I was just numb all over, like a dead man walking.

Quickly, I left Mama and went to stand in the light of the burning bear grass. I reloaded my gun and called Old Yeller back from the house. I stuck the muzzle of the gun against his head and pulled the trigger.

Related Characters: Travis Coates (speaker), Old Yeller, Mama, Papa
Related Symbols: Hydrophobia (Rabies)
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis: