Old Yeller

Summary

Old Yeller is narrated by Travis Coates, who looks back on the year he was fourteen, in the late 1860s, on his family's homestead near the settlement of Salt Licks in the Texas Hill Country. After the Civil War cattle money is scarce, so Papa joins the other men of the settlement on a long drive to sell cattle in Kansas, leaving Travis as the man of the place with Mama and his little brother, Arliss. A big, ugly yellow stray turns up and steals a whole side of hog meat, and Travis wants to run him off, but Arliss claims him. Travis comes round when the dog stands between Arliss and a furious mother bear after the little boy grabs her cub at the spring. From then on Old Yeller works beside Travis: he helps catch and mark the half-wild hogs, guards the corn patch, and helps manage the cattle. Travis learns from the neighbor Bud Searcy and his granddaughter Lisbeth that the dog has been raiding the settlement for food. When Travis is trapped among a pack of wild hogs and badly cut by their tusks, Old Yeller fights them off and is torn open himself; Mama sews up the dog's wounds and tends Travis through weeks of recovery. A cowman named Burn Sanderson then arrives to claim the dog, but seeing how Arliss loves him, he trades Old Yeller to the boy for a horned toad and a home-cooked meal, and warns the family that hydrophobia is spreading through the country. Soon a cow and other animals go mad. One night, while Mama and Lisbeth are burning a dead cow, a rabid wolf attacks them, and Old Yeller kills it but is bitten. Knowing the dog will sicken, Mama asks Travis to shoot him, and he does. Grieving and angry, Travis barely notices when Papa returns with a horse for him and tells him that life can be hard but a man must not let the hard parts spoil the good. Lisbeth has given the family a pup fathered by Old Yeller; when Travis catches it stealing food just as the old dog used to, he decides it will do. Harper & Brothers published the book in 1956 with drawings by Carl Burger; it received a 1957 Newbery Honor, and Disney filmed it in 1957.

Plot or Argument

• Papa leaves for Kansas

  Papa goes on the cattle drive and puts Travis in charge of the homestead at Salt Licks.

• The meat-stealing stray

  A yellow dog steals a side of meat and Travis wants him gone, but Arliss adopts him.

• The bear at the spring

  Arliss grabs a bear cub; Old Yeller holds off the she-bear and Travis changes his mind about the dog.

• Work on the homestead

  Old Yeller helps with the corn patch, the cattle and the half-wild hogs; Bud Searcy and Lisbeth reveal his night raids.

• The hog fight

  Travis falls among wild hogs and is gashed; Old Yeller saves him and is badly wounded; Mama doctors them both.

• Burn Sanderson's trade

  The dog's owner trades him to Arliss for a horned toad and a meal, and warns of hydrophobia.

• The hydrophobia plague

  Animals go mad; a rabid wolf attacks Mama and Lisbeth at night; Old Yeller kills it and is bitten, and Travis shoots him.

• Papa's return and the pup

  Papa comes home with a horse and words of comfort; Travis accepts Old Yeller's pup after it steals food.

Characters

• Travis Coates, narrator and protagonist

  Fourteen-year-old who runs the homestead while his father is away and learns a man's burdens.

• Old Yeller, the dog

  Big, ugly, thieving yellow stray who becomes the family's fearless protector.

• Little Arliss, Travis's younger brother

  Wild, headstrong five-year-old who claims the dog and catches every creature he can.

• Mama, Travis's mother

  Calm, capable frontier woman who doctors wounds and helps Travis face the hardest choice.

• Papa (Jim Coates), Travis's father

  Leaves on the cattle drive to Kansas and returns at the end to comfort his son.

• Bud Searcy, neighbor

  Talkative, lazy settler who passes on gossip and warnings.

• Lisbeth Searcy, Bud's granddaughter

  Quiet girl who helps the family through the hydrophobia and gives them Old Yeller's pup.

• Burn Sanderson, cowman

  Old Yeller's owner, who gives the dog up to Arliss and warns of the plague.

Lessons

• Becoming the man of the place

  Papa leaves Travis in charge, and the boy plows, hunts, marks hogs and guards his mother and brother. The book shows responsibility as something that grows by doing hard work day after day, and that sometimes asks for a choice no one else can make.

  • What jobs does Travis do while Papa is gone?
  • When does Travis act most like a grown man?
  • What is the hardest thing Travis has to do?

• Loyalty that gives everything

  Old Yeller faces a bear, a pack of wild hogs and a rabid wolf to protect the family. His courage costs him his life, and the family's love for him is measured by how much they lose.

  • What three times does Old Yeller save someone in the family?
  • Why does Travis change his mind about the dog?

• Grief and going on

  After he shoots Old Yeller, Travis cannot find joy in anything, even his new horse. Papa tells him that life brings hard things but a person must not let them spoil the good, and the pup that steals food like the old dog helps Travis begin again.

  • What does Papa tell Travis when he comes home?
  • Why does Travis finally decide to keep the pup?
  • Does loving a new dog mean forgetting the old one?

Context

The novel is set in the late 1860s in the Texas Hill Country, where families lived far apart, raised free-ranging hogs and longhorn cattle, and depended on the men's long drives north to the Kansas railheads for cash after the Civil War. Wild animals, isolation and diseases such as hydrophobia (rabies), for which there was then no treatment, were real dangers on the frontier.

Composition

Gipson grew up near Mason, Texas, and drew on stories he heard from his grandfather and on the ranch life of the region. He placed the Coates homestead near an imagined settlement called Salt Licks. Harper & Brothers published the book in 1956 with illustrations by Carl Burger.

Reception

Old Yeller received a Newbery Honor in 1957 and children's choice awards including the William Allen White Children's Book Award. Walt Disney's 1957 film, starring Tommy Kirk, Dorothy McGuire and Fess Parker, made the story widely known, and Gipson continued it in Savage Sam (1962), which follows Arliss and Old Yeller's son.

Comparisons

• where-the-red-fern-grows

  Both are boy-and-dog stories of the rural South and West in which the dogs die defending their master, and the boy must learn to grieve and go on.

• the-call-of-the-wild

  London tells his frontier story from the dog's side, Gipson from the boy's; both show a dog's strength and loyalty tested by a hard, wild country.

• of-mice-and-men

  Candy's old dog in Steinbeck and Old Yeller are both shot for a reason their owners cannot deny; Candy regrets letting another do it, while Travis does it himself.

• shane

  Both are mid-century Westerns narrated by a boy looking back, in which a protector arrives, defends the homestead, and is lost to the family by the end.

• little-britches

  Ralph Moody's boy and Travis Coates both grow up early doing a man's ranch work while learning from their fathers what it means to be a man.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Why Travis does not want the yellow dog at first, and the moment he changes his mind.
• The three great fights: the she-bear at the spring, the wild hogs, and the wolf at the fire.
• What Burn Sanderson does when he sees how much Arliss loves the dog.
• Mama's calm in every danger, and how she helps Travis make his hardest choice.
• What Papa says to Travis at the end, and what the pup does that makes Travis laugh.

Key terms and names

Yeller

The way the Coates family says yellow. The dog's name means both his dingy yellow color and his yelling bark.

Cattle drive

A long trip driving herds north to sell. Papa goes all the way to Kansas, leaving Travis in charge for months.

Salt Licks

The small settlement near the Coates homestead where the Searcys live.

Hydrophobia

The old name for rabies, a sickness spread by bites that makes animals mad and that no one could cure then.

Marking hogs

Cutting a family's own sign in the ears of half-wild hogs so everyone knows whose they are. Travis and Old Yeller do this work together.

Horned toad

A small, spiny Texas lizard. Arliss trades one, plus a good supper, to Burn Sanderson for Old Yeller.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does Papa leave home, and who is in charge while he is gone?
2. Comprehension How does Old Yeller save Arliss at the spring?
3. Comprehension What does Burn Sanderson take in trade for Old Yeller, and what warning does he give?
4. Interpretation Old Yeller is a thief and a hero. Why does the family love him anyway?
5. Interpretation Why does Burn Sanderson give the dog to Arliss even though Old Yeller belongs to him?
6. Interpretation Why does Travis shoot Old Yeller himself instead of asking Mama to do it?
7. Big Question Papa says hard things happen and you must not let them spoil the good things. Is that true? How can someone keep going after losing something they love?

Faith Connections

• John 15:13 (Scripture)

  Jesus calls laying down one's life for friends the greatest love. Old Yeller is only a dog, but his last fight with the wolf beside the burning cow, to save Mama and Lisbeth, gives children a picture of that kind of love.

• Proverbs 12:10 (Scripture)

  A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. Travis and Mama care for Old Yeller's wounds, and even the shooting is done to spare him and the family a worse end.

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 (Scripture)

  There is a time to weep and a time to laugh. Travis weeps for Old Yeller, and at the very end the pup's meat-stealing makes him laugh again.

• 1 Corinthians 13:11 (Scripture)

  When I became a man, I put away childish things. The summer Papa is gone, Travis takes up a man's work and a man's sorrow.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Travis must be the man of the family while Papa is gone. Old Yeller proves his loyalty by saving Arliss, Travis and Mama again and again. But a dog bitten by a mad wolf will go mad and could harm the family he saved. So Travis, out of love for his family and the dog, must shoot him, and growing up means bearing that grief and still choosing to love again.

Rhetorical device: foreshadowing. Burn Sanderson's warning about hydrophobia, given right after the happy trade for the horned toad, prepares the reader for the wolf at the fire and the choice Travis must make.

Debate: Resolved: that Travis did the right thing when he shot Old Yeller.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Tell about the three times Old Yeller fought to protect the Coates family. Which fight showed his courage best, and why?

Comparison with Where the Red Fern Grows: Travis loses Old Yeller and Billy loses Old Dan and Little Ann. Compare how each boy grieves and what helps him go on.

Medical Lens

The climax turns on hydrophobia, the period name for rabies, spreading among wild animals and stock in the Hill Country. In the 1860s there was no treatment; Pasteur's post-exposure vaccine came only in 1885, and a bitten animal or person could only be watched. The book shows the frontier understanding of the disease plainly: animals turn strange and aggressive, a bitten dog must be destroyed before he sickens, and carcasses are burned. Frontier wound care also appears: after the hog fight Mama sews up Old Yeller's torn body and nurses Travis's slashed leg at home, with no doctor in reach. Travis's numb, angry grief after shooting the dog, and Papa's counsel on his return, give a clear picture of a boy's bereavement. Readings of the disease's course should be checked against the text, which presents it as the family experienced it rather than clinically.

• The hog fight

  Travis is gashed by wild hogs and Old Yeller is ripped open; Mama stitches the dog and tends Travis through weeks of recovery.

  Nursing Caregiving Pain
• Burn Sanderson's visit

  Sanderson warns the family that hydrophobia is loose in the country and describes how it spreads among animals.

  Fever Infection Plague Epidemic
• The wolf at the fire

  A rabid wolf attacks Mama and Lisbeth at night; Old Yeller kills it and is bitten, and Mama and Travis decide he must be shot.

  Fever Infection Death Dying
• Final chapter

  Travis's grief after the shooting and Papa's words to him on his return.

  Grief

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Make a map of the Coates homestead showing the cabin, the spring, the corn patch and the places where Old Yeller fought the bear, the hogs and the wolf.

• Fiction

  Write a letter from Travis to Papa on the cattle drive, telling him about the day Old Yeller saved Arliss from the bear.

• Dialogue

  Act out the conversation between Travis and Papa when Papa comes home, with one student as each.

Further Reading

• Savage Sam, Fred Gipson

  The 1962 sequel, about Old Yeller's son.

• Hound-Dog Man, Fred Gipson

• Old Yeller (1957 film), Robert Stevenson (director)