Sounder by William Armstrong

Sounder by William Armstrong is a story of compassion about a great hunting dog that impacts a boy’s life in an amazing way. It is a story that depicts ways in which animals and humans can share great bonds among each other. It also shows how the emotions of animals and humans are not that different. In many circumstances, the feelings are almost quite mutual.

Chapter one begins with the father standing on his porch stroking his hunting dog Sounder. His son, being a curious young boy, asks his father how he got Sounder. He explains that Sounder came to him as a pup. He found him on the side of the road. The boy loves his father’s dog, especially now that it is winter and too cold to make the eight mile walk to school. The boy pictures Sounder shaking a possum dead from a tree without even puncturing the skin. This is what makes him such a great hunting dog. Sounder’s most impressive quality however was his echoing bark which rang so loudly that most of their neighbors could even hear it.

As the father and son are talking, the father tells his son that if it is not too windy later, they will go hunting that night. They then go inside where the boy’s mother is cooking dinner, corn mush in fact. They eat together as a family, which includes the three younger children as well. At the table, the boy’s parents talk about how the hunting should be better next year. The boy then pictures all the empty sacks his father and Sounder have come home with on their many hunting trips. After dinner it begins to get windy so the boy feeds Sounder and his father goes off to hunt by himself. For extra money, the boy’s mother spends her night hours shelling walnuts. He wishes she should sing or tell him a story because he is quite lonely