57 pages • 1 hour read
Fred GipsonOld Yeller
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1942A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Water
Water represents life in Old Yeller. The clean drinking water from their spring nourishes and sustains Travis and his family. Twice, Little Arliss plays with the dogs in the spring. The first time, Travis yells at his brother for contaminating their water source, the second time, a more mature Travis laughs, recognizing how life has cycled around, from Old Yeller’s death to the new life of the young speckled pup. Water is a source of life for the settlers. It is essential for their sustenance and that of their crops and livestock. Water is also a healing force: Mama tirelessly hauls water from the spring to combat Travis’s fever.
Drought is water’s opposing force. Drought brings hardship by drying up the grasslands and pasture. Death comes with the drought in the form of hydrophobia, which literally means “fear of water.” Hydrophobia causes madness and the inability to swallow or take in water: it is a death sentence.
Water’s power to cleanse, heal, and restore is evident in the night-long rainstorm. The rain “seemed to wash away the hydrophobia plague” (155), clearing away the drought and death. The storm also heralds the arrival of 
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