Dogsong

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1985

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-5

Part 2, Chapters 6-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-9

Part 2, Chapters 10-14

Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Discussion Questions

Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3 Summary: “Dogsong”

The final part of the book is Russel’s song. The song is about his dogs and therefore is about him. The song is the story of his life and the understanding that he owes it all to his dogs. Among its words are:

Come see my dogs.

My dogs are what lead me,

they are what move me.

See my dogs in the steam, in the steam of my life.

They are me.

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Come, see my dogs.

I was nothing before them, no man

and no wife.

Without them no life, no girl-woman breathing

no song.

[…]

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Come see my dogs.

Out before me they go.

Out before me they curve

in the long line out

before me

they go, I go, we go. They are me (175).

Part 3 Analysis

Russel’s song invites the audience to come and see his dogs, and he is therefore inviting the listener to come and see him, to know him, since he and his dogs are a continuum of the same being: “They are me” (177). The story of his life is told in simply verse, and everything, including his wife and children, are reflected in, and are a reflection of, his dogs. He tells of his hunts,