57 pages • 1 hour read
Fred GipsonOld Yeller
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1942A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaChapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Travis Coates recalls the events that happened when he was 14, during the late 1860s following the American Civil War. That summer, a “dingy yellow” or “yeller” dog comes into his life (1). At first, Travis resents the dog, then comes to love it. When he must kill the dog, it is as hard as killing a family member.
Travis lives with his Mama, Papa, and five-year old brother Little Arliss in a log cabin along Birdsong Creek in the Texas Hill Country. The menfolk of the Salt Licks settlement plan to drive their cattle north to Abilene and sell them for cash money. Before Papa leaves, he tells Travis to be the man of the family and take care of everything while he is gone. He promises to bring Travis a horse if he holds up his end of the bargain. Travis knows the family needs a dog to help guard the property and protect the family, but after the death of his beloved older dog, Bell, from a rattlesnake bite the previous summer, Travis does not want another dog. Travis takes his adult responsibilities seriously, teaching both Little Arliss and the stubborn mule, Jumper, that he is now in charge. Mama shows quiet support of Travis’s new role as man of the family.
Chapter 2 Summary
Travis goes to cut meat for breakfast and discovers that a “big ugly slick-haired yeller dog” (13) has climbed up onto a barrel, pulled down the meat, and eaten it all. The dog acts like Travis’s friend, wagging its stubby tail, but Travis is angry. He calls the dog a thief and tries to kick it. The dog avoids the blow and rolls on its back, caterwauling. The noise brings Mama and Little Arliss from the house. Little Arliss rushes to defend the dog. He grabs a big stick and clubs Travis. As the dog licks away Little Arliss’s tears, Mama laughingly declares that they now have a dog. Travis does not want to keep the dog, but Mama knows Little Arliss is lonely, and he deserves a dog like Travis had when he was little. Travis plans to bide his time and get rid of the dog. Guessing his thoughts, Mama tells Travis to go hunting and think about what she said.
Chapter 3 Summary
As Travis waits for game to approach the Salt Licks—rocks with a high salt content that animals come to lick—he thinks about everything his Papa taught him about hunting. Travis is a skilled hunter and has also shot killer animals, like bobcats. Travis shoots a doe, but she runs away. Travis is dismayed that he wounded her, rather than killing her. Suddenly, the doe drops dead. Proud that he killed the deer as well as his Papa could, Travis magnanimously thinks he will let Little Arliss keep the yellow dog—until he sees Little Arliss and the dog playing in their drinking-water spring. Travis angrily throws rocks at the dog, but Little Arliss fires rocks back at Travis until Mama intervenes. Aggrieved that Mama treats him like a little boy, Travis blames Old Yeller. He hangs the fresh venison up where Old Yeller can reach it, hoping the dog will steal the meat like before and Mama will be forced to get rid of him, but Old Yeller does not fall for the trap.
Chapter 4 Summary
Two Longhorn range bulls come into the clearing in front of the Coates’s cabin, fixing to fight. Excited to watch, Travis, Mama, and Little Arliss sit atop the split rail fence. The yellow-colored bull they call Chongo because of his droopy horn. The red roan bull they name Roany. Old Yeller tries to drive the bulls away, but Travis stops him, not wanting him to spoil their entertainment. The animals crash through the fence, nearly trampling Travis. The family runs inside the cabin, but the bulls slam against it. Travis worries they could level the cabin. Travis intends to drive them off with a bullwhip, but Mama suggests he sic Old Yeller on them. Travis calls Yeller, but the dog sees the whip in his hand. Believing Travis is going to hurt him, Yeller runs off. Travis is furious at Yeller. Travis whips the bulls without effect. Fortunately, Roany falls into a hay cart which rolls down the hill, dumping him in the spring. Chongo follows but licks the spinning cart wheel and scrapes his tongue, ending the fight.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
First-person narrator and protagonist, Travis Coates, speaks from a point in the future, relating events that happened to him when he was 14. Using this perspective allows Gipson to let Travis look back on this time in his life with an adult sensibility. Travis immediately foreshadows both his bond with Old Yeller and the dog’s death, thereby increasing readers’ suspense and setting the stage for Travis’s own journey to maturation.
The transition from boyhood to adulthood is the central theme in Old Yeller. Travis is on the cusp of manhood. With his father gone, Travis takes his adult responsibilities of caring for Mama, Little Arliss, and the homestead very seriously. Travis respects his Papa’s skills and strives to emulate him, even using his father’s words, “I’m going to wear him to a frazzle” (8) to threaten Little Arliss into compliance. Travis’s successful deer hunt makes him feel equal to his Papa, “big and strong and sure of myself” (25), a true man.
Mama understands this transition period, smiling at Travis’s efforts to assert his authority over his little brother, rather than telling him he is “too big for his britches” (8). She shows her support for Travis’s role as man of the family by postponing dinner for Travis when he is late returning from working the cornfield, as she does for Papa. At the same time, Travis still displays boyish behaviors: sulking when Mama dresses him down and feeling aggrieved that she does not take him seriously as a man.
Initially, Old Yeller infuriates Travis. He resents the big yellow dog because of the close bond he shared with Bell, the dog he grew up with. It makes Travis angry to think of another dog taking Bell’s place. Now, Travis believes that as an adult, he is past caring for any dog: He wants a horse, which is a symbol of both freedom and adulthood. A horse would allow him to be more like his Papa. In these opening chapters, Travis is hostile towards Yeller, to the point of passive-aggressively plotting to get rid of him. His unfriendly response to the dog adds tension to the plot as the reader waits to see what will make Travis change his mind, since we know from the first sentences that Travis will come to love the yeller dog.
Fred Gipson was born in 1908 in Mason, Texas, a small farming community located in the Texas Hill Country. Gipson uses this locale, though set 40 years before his birth, in Old Yeller. The novel is an example of regionalism: a book in which the landscape and geography have a strong effect on the characters’ lives. Distinctive natural features such as the bee myrtle alongside their creek, mesquite trees, and the Salt Licks all influence the characters’ thoughts and behaviors. Unique dialect and customs also contribute to this sense of regionalism. Papa for instance, declares that he wants cash money to have a “tight tail-holt on the world” (2).
At the age of 14, Travis is sensitive to both the dangers and beauty of the land they live in. He appreciates the pretty, gentle nature of the doe while understanding the animal is sustenance for the family. He is a capable protector, aware of the dangers that javelinas, rattlesnakes, wolves, bears, and panthers pose to his family.
Indian raiders are additional threats to the Coates family. The menfolk warn the women what to do “in case the Indians came off the reservations” (2), and Papa fought the Comanches for the family land. The United States began moving the Comanche into reservations in 1867 with the Treaty of Medicine Lodge, which promised several tribes protection from white intruders in return for their relocation westward and cessation of hostilities. Gipson treats the conflict between settlers and Native Americans practically; as a given in the Coates’s lives, without specifically promoting the idea of Manifest Destiny. Although Travis’s comments that “We lived then in a new country and a good one” where there are bountiful natural resources, and that the “Indians had been put onto reservations with the return of U.S. soldiers to the Texas forts” (2), suggest he believes settlers have the right to the land. In this respect, Old Yeller reflects a cultural insensitivity and ethnocentrism of both the era in which the book was written (1956), as well as the era it is set (1860s).
In living completely off the land, Travis and his family display true frontier individualism. They must do everything for themselves: from growing, raising, and hunting their own food, to making soap, fashioning buckets made from hide (20), and protecting their homestead. Everything they have, they built with their own hands. Survival takes ingenuity and skill. This connection to the land is a central motif in Old Yeller, informing the themes of character versus nature and coming of age.
