Previous
Cows
In Orbiting Jupiter, the yellow dog represents 12-year-old Jack Hurd’s desire to rescue his 14-year-old foster brother, Joseph Brook, from Joseph’s traumatic past—and Jack’s ultimate inability to do so. One day, when Jack and Joseph are walking home from school, Joseph wanders out onto a frozen river by the road. Jack knows that the ice doesn’t freeze solid until later in winter, so he tries desperately to persuade Joseph to come back to the road. When Joseph falls through the ice, Jack vividly remembers a yellow dog he saw at age six: the dog had half-fallen through the river ice and was struggling to climb to safety. Six-year-old Jack wanted to run and help the dog, but his mother Mrs. Hurd held him back to keep him out of danger—and the dog drowned.
Jack’s flashback draws a connection between the helpless dog and the traumatized Joseph, who later tells Jack that he went onto the ice because his first love Madeleine, who died giving birth to their daughter Jupiter, adored skating. Later, the novel emphasizes the connection between Joseph and the yellow dog when Joseph and Jack’s vice principal, Mr. Canton, scolds Jack for defending Joseph in a locker-room fight by saying, “Trouble follows [Joseph] like a yellow dog.” Joseph dies at the novel’s climax when his drunk, abusive father, Mr. Brook, drives him onto a derelict bridge that collapses under their car—leading them to drown in the very river that killed the yellow dog and from which Jack rescued Joseph from earlier in the book. In hindsight, readers can see that Jack’s inability to save the yellow dog from drowning as a six-year-old foreshadows his powerlessness to save his beloved foster brother from his traumatic past or abusive adults years later.
Yellow Dog Quotes in Orbiting Jupiter
The Orbiting Jupiter quotes below all refer to the symbol of Yellow Dog. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2 Quotes
The winter I was six, I saw a yellow dog on thin ice on the Alliance. I was with my mother, and we were walking back from a breakfast potluck at First Congregational before it became old First Congregational. The yellow dog was out farther on the ice than Joseph, but not much, and it had fallen through and its eyes were huge and it was grabbing on with its front paws, scratching, looking for something to hold onto. It wasn’t making a sound. I told my mother we had to go get it, but she held my arm so I wouldn’t go down to the river.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
One day, while Jack and Joseph are walking home from school, Joseph swerves off the road and ventures onto the thin ice covering the Alliance River. As Jack desperately tries to convince Joseph to return to solid ground, he flashes back to the time when, at age six, he saw a yellow dog fall through the ice on the Alliance River and eventually drown. This flashback serves both to characterize Jack—as someone who has matured out of childhood into young adolescence but not into full adulthood—and to foreshadow Joseph’s eventual fate. At six, Jack wanted to save the yellow dog, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae co
Chapter 5 Quotes
“You might get suspended for fighting. All because you were hanging around Joseph Brook. I’m telling you, I know his type. Trouble follows him like a yellow dog.”
“I’ve seen what happens to yellow dogs,” I said.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
When eighth-grader Jay Perkins and two of his friends jump Joseph in the locker room after PE, sixth-grader Jack enters the fray to protect Joseph. Afterward, Jack is sent to Mr. Canton’s office while the other boys are sent to the principal’s office. Mr. Canton immediately blames Joseph for the fight and for Jack’s involvement, saying that he knows Joseph’s “type” and that “trouble follows him like a yellow dog.” When Mr. Canton uses the phrase “yellow dog,” it has the colloquial meaning of a bad, low-down, or despicable person. By talking about Joseph’s type and comparing him to a Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi
Get the entire Orbiting Jupiter LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Yellow Dog Symbol Timeline in Orbiting Jupiter
The timeline below shows where the symbol Yellow Dog appears in Orbiting Jupiter. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...how, at age six, he was walking home with Mrs. Hurd when he saw a yellow dog half-fallen through thin ice on the river, scrabbling silently to climb out of the water....
(full context)
Chapter 5
...Canton says that Jack is in trouble because of Joseph: “Trouble follows him like a yellow dog ,” Mr. Canton says. Jack replies: “I’ve seen what happens to yellow dogs.” When Mr....
(full context)
