Big Red

The opening four chapters introduce the narrative world, its main characters, and primary conflicts. Chapter 1 begins in media res, or in the middle of the protagonist Danny Pickett’s story. The narrator doesn’t offer background information about Danny’s character or life before depicting Danny in a challenging situation in the Wintapi wilderness.

The images of Danny tracking the bull and the bear in Chapter 1 establish the novel’s primary setting, Danny’s central character traits, and the tensions that define his life in the woods. Danny is familiar with the forested environment where he lives. However, this setting presents Danny with constant conflicts, questions, and challenges, all of which fuel his character’s coming-of-age journey. Danny has a positive relationship with his father and his boss. However, he doesn’t have any companions of his own. Therefore, when Danny meets and falls in love with Red, his childhood longings for friendship return. Danny’s relationships with his family, the natural world, and his new dog are central to the novel’s themes of Coming of Age and Personal Growth, the Bonds Between Human and Animals, and Respecting and Understanding Nature.

The Wintapi wilderness setting defines Danny’s understanding of belonging and of himself, reflecting the theme of Respecting and Understanding Nature. The vivid descriptions of the natural world throughout Chapters 1-4 enact Danny’s relationship with his environment. In Chapter 4, for example, Danny is glad to return to the Wintapi after his trip to New York. He learns a lot at the dog show, but these experiences rapidly fade away when “Danny [sees] Smokey Creek [again], above the bridge where it purled black against the beech roots and carved out deep little recesses in which the trout hid” (60). This passage continues for another half-page, and also describes the sunset as a painting and the mountains and valley as bright gold. Such descriptions capture the way that Danny sees his home in the woods. The novel’s third person point of view is limited to Danny’s perspective. Therefore, the way that the narrator describes the narrative world aligns with the way that Danny sees it; the environmental details the narrator includes are the details that are most important to Danny. Therefore, the setting has more than one purpose in Danny’s narrative: It both deepens Danny’s character and develops the novel’s exploration of how the individual might develop an understanding of the natural world.

Although Danny is accustomed to his life in the woods with his father, his home life augments his longing for closeness, which initiates the theme of the Bonds Between Humans and Animals. Since Danny’s mother is dead and he has no other friends or connections, when he discovers a unique bond with Red, he realizes his desire for kinship with another living being. In Chapter 1, after he meets Red for the first time, Danny remembers his childhood desire to “find a dog to shame all others, a fine dog that he could treasure, and cherish, and breed from so that all who loved fine dogs would come to see and buy his” (7). Red is this dream dog incarnate. Danny knows that he can’t afford to buy the dog from Mr. Haggin, but still doesn’t stop imagining Red in his life. The dog appears in both Danny’s waking and sleeping dreams, which illustrates Danny’s profound desire for companionship. The relationship that he develops with the dog throughout these opening chapters conveys the power and possibilities that relationships with animals can offer the individual.

Danny’s life begins to change when he becomes Red’s caretaker, an experience that will be at the heart of Danny’s Coming of Age and Personal Growth. The opportunity challenges Danny to work hard and to practice love and patience. The dog’s arrival at the Picketts’ cabin fills Danny with joy, excitement, and hope. In Chapter 2, for example, when Danny brings Red home for the first time, he realizes that the Wintapi will “never again be lonely” (25). The woods are “a hard and lonely place” (25) that isolate Danny and challenge him emotionally. Danny is Red’s new caretaker, but the dog promises to take care of and comfort Danny, too.

Danny and Red’s relationship also begets Danny and Mr. Haggin’s relationship. Their trip to New York for the dog show helps Danny to believe in himself. Since Mr. Haggin sees him as an upstanding, intelligent, and talented young man, Danny starts to see himself this way, too. Mr. Haggin gives Danny new responsibilities and encourages him to learn and grow. Therefore, Red’s entrance into Danny’s life marks the start of Danny’s personal growth and his journey from adolescence into adulthood.