Previous
Tommy
Alligator, the family “snake-dog,” attempts to kill the snake at the beginning of the story but is unable to catch it; as he attempts to burrow under house in pursuit of the reptile, the bushwoman restrains him because she knows that they “cannot afford to lose him.” The family’s reliance on Alligator reflects humankind’s broader reliance on the natural world even as it seeks to dominate it. At the same time, however, the fact that Alligator is domesticated and seeks to protect his human owners could suggest the breadth of humanity’s power to control nature. Indeed, the dog successfully catches and kills the snake at the end of the story, thereby saving the family.
Alligator Quotes in The Drover’s Wife
The The Drover’s Wife quotes below are all either spoken by Alligator or refer to Alligator. 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:
).
The Drover’s Wife Quotes
He hates snakes and has killed many, but he will be bitten someday and die; most snake-dogs end that way.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Drover’s Wife LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Alligator Character Timeline in The Drover’s Wife
The timeline below shows where the character Alligator appears in The Drover’s Wife. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Drover’s Wife
...snake, despite his mother’s sharp protest, and goes after it along with the family dog, Alligator. Both are unable to catch it, however, and the snake slips through a crack in...
(full context)
Alligator, who is “not a very beautiful dog,” lives chiefly with the family to protect them,...
(full context)
...in soot that her “baby screamed and struggled convulsively, thinking it was a blackman,” and Alligator attacked her until Tommy was able to pull him away.
(full context)
...going to spend the night, until she threatened him with a long metal bar and Alligator.
(full context)
Daylight is nearing when suddenly Alligator expresses interest in a crack in the wall, and the bushwoman grabs her stick. A...
(full context)
