Old Yeller Essay, Research Paper

OLD YELLER

This was one of my favorite books during my childhood days. The book is a classic, and

Disney later made it into a motion picture. the story’’s climax develops quickly by telling stories

and adventures of a boy named Travis and his old stray yellow dog named Yeller.At the introduction of the book Travis is plowing corn in the garden when an old yellow darts bye and causes the mule to jump. He chases the dog out of the garden and curses at him. Then a few days later the stray dog ate some of the deer meat that was very important for the family’’s survival. Travis was very angered and threatened to kill the mischievious yellow dog, but his younger brother, Arliss, would not allow this.

There are many more adventures that the book tells of Old Yeller throughout the story

and I am going to put a heavy emphasis on the three that I enjoyed the most. First of all Travis

and his brother Arliss were out in the forest with their mother and were cutting wood. This was

going to be used to mend a fence that had broke in the yard. While Arliss was off on his own

exploring that day he ran across a small bear cub and began to play with it. Travis yelled at him

to turn the cub loose. Arliss could see the mother bear coming, but he was too frightened to turn

the cub loose. Travis and his mother ran down the hill to assist Arliss, but they knew that they

were going to be too late. All of the sudden Old Yeller came like a flash and attacked the bear

from her side. The bear turned quickly to fight the dog off. Travis hoisted Arliss up and threw

him to their mother. Travis then began to run and shout at the two fighting animals. The bear

tucked it’’s tail and left. Old Yeller had saved the life of Arliss and they were all very appreciative of what Yeller had done.

One of the next highlights in the book is when Old Yeller knocks down Rose, “the milk

cow.” Travis and Old Yeller were out in the woods looking for Rose because she had been gone

for three days without a trace. Rose had been expecting to give birth at any time and went off by

herself to do this. Travis finally located Rose and she had already given birth to the calf. Travis

chased after the calf to lift it up. While attempting to do this Rose charged towards him. It was at

that time that Travis began to realize what a great dog he really had. Old Yeller dashed and

knocked down Rose then as she charged time and again at Yeller the dog tripped her up several

times. Later on that day while Travis was milking Rose she kept kicking the milk bucket over

and would not allow Travis to milk her. In order to put a stop to this incident Travis called over

Old Yeller to keep Rose in line. Old Yeller stood directly in front of Rose and thrashed forward

staring at her. The heifer was so frightened that she did not even try to budge.

The final adventure of Old Yeller that I would like to portray is very tragic and sad. It

begins with Rose contracting a disease called hydrophobia. This is an extremely fatal disease

which brings fourth foaming at the mouth of the animal. Rose, the cow, is killed and then burned

so that no other animals would eat her and spread the disease. Mama and her daughter Lisbeth

were burning the cow when a gray wolf tried to ambush them. Old Yeller came to their rescue

like a bolt of lightning and wrestled with the wolf. Both animals were biting and clawing at each

other. Travis then retrieved his rifle, took aim, and shot the wolf. The wolf also had hydrophobia

so that meant that Old Yeller had the chance of obtaining the sickness as well. After this incident

they were forced to lock Old Yeller up in a woodshed for a few weeks while keeping an eye on

him to make sure that he did not become ill. Nothing happened for a few days, but one night the

dog almost bit Mother and tried to lunge at her. At that moment Travis had no choice but to

shoot Old Yeller because it had become evident that the dog had contracted the disease. After

putting the poor yellow dog out of it’’s misery Travis took Yeller and buried him. As he stood

staring at the grave recollecting all the times Yeller had been there for he and his family he grew

very sad.

Lisbeth had soon later brought them a new puppy which helped to cheer Travis up. The

puppy was one of Old Yeller’’s offspring. He began to see similarities between the pup and the

old, yellow, stray named Old Yeller who had won over his heart. I really enjoyed reading this

book once again considering that it has probably been at least twelve years since I had read it the last time. It has many exciting adventures and is a little sad, but the ending helps to lift your spirit.