Old Yeller

The traditional view of “manhood” that Travis accepts is a motif that informs the novel’s coming-of-age theme. Papa instructs Travis to take a man’s role while he is gone, which entails protecting the women and children, crops, and livestock, and providing wood for fuel, and game for meat. Papa has shared his homesteading knowledge and trained Travis to follow in his footsteps. Travis has the physical skills but does not yet have the emotional maturity of a man. Travis thinks that being the “man of the family” while Papa is gone involves asserting his authority and having others listen to and follow his directions.

Travis believes owning a horse is a status symbol of manhood. A horse will give him the same freedom that his father enjoys, the ability to travel beyond the limited domain of his childhood and see “all the big new country of plains and creeks and rivers and mountains and timber and new towns and Indian camps” (72).

Travis also associates manhood with stoicism. Emotions reveal an emasculated weakness. Travis suppresses his desire to cry, firmly damps down his fear of the hogs, and resists revealing to Lisbeth that he is in pain. Travis chafes to see Lisbeth succeeding at his jobs because she is girl and should not be able to manage men’s work well as him. Travis comforts himself knowing that as a man, he can do things that she cannot. Having distinct abilities that differ by gender is important to Travis’s sense of self-identity.

While he succeeds in acting like a man and making Papa proud, it comes at a high price. Travis realizes that men do feel and show emotion. The true test of manhood is to honor Yeller’s memory and move forward with life. 

Guns are essential tools for the settlers in Salt Licks. Guns provide protection and the means to hunt and provide food. Guns confer power to the characters in their struggle against nature and help place humans at the top of the natural hierarchy. At the age of 14, Travis can wield a gun as effectively as Papa: The weapon is a symbol of his imminent adulthood. Guns also represent strength, authority, and masculinity. Mama has used a gun before, but her efforts wounded a hog-eating bear that Papa had to finish off. Throughout the novel, Mama defers to Travis to shoot dangerous animals and to hunt game, suggesting that the use of a gun falls primarily within the traditionally male domain.