Their Dogs Came with Them - Book Report/Review Example

The visible effects in the novel are displacement, loss, abandonment, violation, madness, and extreme loneliness. The presence of the dogs in the novel can be explained in two ways. The first is the bulldozers and earthmovers that want to bring urbanization, and the second is the Chicano activists who were hunted and shot down by the authorities during the Chicano Moratorium. The presence of the first category of dogs can be identified from the very beginning of the work. Admittedly, the work begins with an epigraph from the Miguel Leon-Portilla’s The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of Spanish conquistadors and the canine companions.

It reads: “their dogs came with them, running ahead of the column. They raised their muzzles high; they lifted their muzzles to the wind. They raced on before with saliva dripping from their jaws.” It seems at first a bit puzzling to identify as to what are the dogs in the novel. However, as one sees the opening of the narrative, the doubts disappear. It begins with a child watching an old woman packing up her belongings as her home is about to be taken over by bulldozers. The bulldozers have arrived on First Street, their muzzles like sharpened metal teeth making way for the freeway.

Thus, the first category of ‘dogs’ in this novel too runs ahead of the column to make way. . This analyzes should begin from the Chicano Moratorium of 1960s. As the Chicano Moratorium gained momentum, authorities resorted to suppression. Thus, there was firing and helicopter attacks. It is only rational to think that the second category of dogs in the novel is the Chicano Moratorium activists who were hunted and tortured by the authorities. To illustrate this ambiguity regarding dogs, one should go to chapter one of the novel that deals with Ermila Zumaya child.

As a young woman, she watches helicopters ‘burst out of the midnight sky to shoot dogs not chained up by curfew’ (12). Thus, it becomes clear that this group of dogs is anti-social; that is, the Chicano Moratorium activists. However, in the very same chapter, one can see a Zumaya child who is injured by dog bite (12). Here, it is possible to explain the situation in two ways. The first one is that Zumaya child is injured by urbanization that caused the disappearance of her community and identity.

The second explanation is that because of the presence of the Chicano Moratorium activists, people like Zumaya child are injured because the authorities are making the community life a hell through raids and attacks. Now, it is time to look into the effects of this new colonization and the way the four hapless characters try to react to the situation. One can see that all the four characters are from the same place, the same time period, the same gender, and the same community. As a result, they all go through similar situations.

To illustrate, there is Ermila who is transferred by social services from a foster home to her grandparents’ house. She is an orphan, and has no friends. In addition, she is abused at her grandparents’ house. The child witnesses that in a few weeks,