Sounder

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1969

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-8

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Biblical Stories

Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of racism, violence, physical abuse, cruelty to animals, animal illness, and death.

In Sounder, the protagonist is inspired by the biblical heroes from his mother’s stories. These characters and their stories collectively serve as motifs for The Power of Storytelling. In his rural life with his family, the boy relies on oral storytelling for companionship and learning. Because he lacks friends, hobbies, and schoolwork, the act of storytelling helps him to pass the lonely evening hours.

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Later in the novel, the boy retells the same stories when he is on the road, looking for his father. By remembering each story and its happy ending, the boy finds courage and hope that he, too, can prevail over his challenges just as the biblical heroes David and Joseph did. As the narrative states, “In his lonely journeying, the boy had learned to tell himself the stories his mother had told him at night in the cabin. He liked the way they always ended with the right thing happening. And people in stories were never feared of anything” (50). As he recalls each story, the boy connects his own problems with the biblical heroes’ experiences, gaining courage. For instance, he recalls that the Lord’s sign to David involved wind blowing in the cedar trees, and he thinks of this as he sleeps in the windy forest by himself. The boy uses his love of storytelling and his admiration for biblical heroes to sustain his mental resilience throughout his challenging experiences.

Sounder

In the novel, the character of the coon dog Sounder is a motif for the theme of Surviving Racism and Hostility. Just like the family who takes care of him, Sounder has the potential to be healthy, happy, and purposeful, but he is cruelly injured by his more powerful neighbors, and his entire life is drastically altered as a result. At the beginning of the story, Sounder’s skill as a hunter allows him to help provide for his human caretakers, who need his help with catching wild game. As the dog eagerly catches fresh game and lays it proudly “at his master’s feet” (10), Armstrong uses these scenes to portray Sounder as a productive, full-fledged member of the family. Sounder’s contributions make a significant difference to the family’s well-being, and his hunting helps them to supplement the meager income that they glean from their patch of land on the plantation. The narrative makes it a point to stress both the family’s financial straits and the dog’s contributions, stating, “In the winter when there were no crops and no pay, fifty cents for a possum and two dollars for a coonhide bought flour and overall jackets with blanket linings” (10). In addition to his pragmatic contributions, Sounder is also depicted as a majestic, beautiful animal with a striking voice that “fill[s] up the night and [makes] music as though the branches of all the trees were being pulled across silver strings” (10).

Sounder’s athleticism, skill and beauty are diminished forever when the cruel deputies arrive and arrest the father for theft. As they drive their wagon away, they needlessly shoot at Sounder, wounding him badly, and the narrative captures the trauma of the moment with a violent, visceral description, stating, “[Sounder] fell again and pushed his body along with his hind legs. One side of his head was a mass of blood. The blast had torn off the whole side of his head and shoulder” (22).

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In spite of his terrible injuries, Sounder survives, and the author’s descriptions of the dog’s miraculous appearance emphasize the animal’s resilience to hardship: “There on the cabin porch, on three legs, stood the living skeleton of what had been a mighty coon hound” (44). Now missing an eye and a leg, Sounder can only survive instead of thriving; he is no longer the keen hunter with a powerful bark, so he keeps the boy company and watches over the cabin. Although Sounder begins the novel as a healthy and purposeful dog, he is badly disabled due to others’ cruelty, and his fate therefore becomes an extended metaphor for the similar experiences that the boy and his family undergo at the hands of those who embrace the immorality of violence and racism.

The Ham and the Pork Sausages

In Sounder, the family’s ham and sausages are symbols of the rights and freedoms that society denies to the boy and his family. As Black sharecroppers in the American South during the late 19th century, the family copes with numerous constraints on their freedom, enduring extreme forms of racism and segregation, as well as laboring under the constraints of limited education and their ongoing obligation to pay rent to their plantation landlords through their labor.

The ham and sausages therefore represent the essential supplies and resources that the boy and his family need but cannot have. Although the narrative never explicitly confirms whether the boy’s father bought or stole the ham, the mother’s worried humming over the meal preparations implies that he may have stolen it. Within this context, the father’s decision to take the ham and share it with his family represents his desire to claim the same rights and freedoms as his white neighbors and experience the same quality of life. When the father is punished for taking this risk to care for his family, it is clear that the villainous authorities who come to arrest and imprison him represent the people and power structures that use violent means to ensure that he and his family to remain oppressed. When the father’s incarceration and injury lead to his death, the author further emphasizes the consequences of these injustices.