A Boy And His Dog

♦ THEMES AND CHARACTERS ♦

Harlan Ellison's personal beliefs about the ethical and moral behavior of humans in their various interactions have been made very clear in A Boy and His Dog, and time and again in the themes of his fiction, and overtly in his nonfiction writing. Ellison outlines the themes he writes about in this story, in a quote from The Harlan Ellison Hornbook: "My philosophy of life is that the meek shall inherit nothing but debasement, frustration and ignoble deaths." Ellison goes on to say

that there is security in personal strength; that you CAN fight City Hall and WIN; that any action is better than no action, even if it's the wrong action; that you never reach glory or self-fulfillment unless you're willing to risk everything, dare anything, put yourself dead on the line every time; and that once one becomes strong or rich or potent or powerful it is the responsibility of the strong to help the weak BECOME strong.

The author has made his personal beliefs the themes of this short novel. Through the experiences of Vic, the reader is shown that meek people do suffer and die, that Vic does find some security in his personal strength and his struggles against attacks in the communities he enters, that Vic is willing to take great risks to stay close to Quilla

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June, and finally that Vic decides to help his weak friend Blood survive, though he has no such compassion for Quilla June.

Though Vic is barely eighteen years old, it is clear when the story begins that he has been on his own for years. It is also clear that he could not have survived this long without the dog Blood. Not only are they an effective team for finding food and water and other essentials of life, but they converse together and give each other their attention and loyalty.

The dog is a far more complex and interesting character than the boy. Blood is better educated, from his training and experience and telepathic links with other men in the past, though it is not hard to be better educated than Vic, who is in many respects a feral child. As a medium-sized dog, Blood is tough and strong, a good partner for a skinny young man. With Blood's guidance, Vic is capable and knowledgeable in the hunting and scavenging skills needed to survive in this dangerous environment.

The reader might ask why Blood needs a human companion at all ... but the boy finds them food, tends their hurts, can fire a gun, and can fight to defend his partner in the dangerous world that post-apocalyptic Arizona has become. But even more than that, Vic is someone to talk with and teach. Blood needs that, and he needs a human for him to be loyal to above all else. In that, he is clearly still a dog, for all his memory and conversation and telepathy. He is not a wolf, which hunts its own food and resists domestication by humans.

Even with an experienced dog as his guide, Vic makes choices that are less than wise. His idea of long-term plans is raping a girl more than once before leaving her for dead. It is apparent that Vic does not have sophisticated skills for human interaction. Quilla June has come looking for someone exactly like him, and even as young and

ignorant as she is, she can manipulate him sufficiently for her community's plans.

Vic is not much troubled by the notion of finding a girl in a rough wreckage of a town, where she has no right to be; Vic merely assumes that she has snuck out of a safer bolthole to risk a little danger. That she is bait for a trap to entice him into her sheltered community does not even occur to him. Even when Vic learns of the reason Quilla June was sent out as bait for a young, healthy man, he is still not alarmed at first.

In fact, he rather liked the idea of being kept as a stud for the young women of this sheltered community�if allowed to couple with them as he expects. Being a sperm donor has considerably less appeal, particularly when his donations are taken by force. And once several of the young women become pregnant, Vic's life expectancy would be zero, as he would no longer be needed. Once again, Vic has found a human community where people are surviving at each other's expense.

The development of the character of Quilla June takes two unexpected turns. Far from being merely a stupid innocent who is risking the dangers of the outside world for excitement, Quilla June is revealed as a conspirator sent out to entice a virile and healthy young man into her secure community, using her body as bait. She is even more resolved to bring Vic in after he survives the fight, during which he proved his strength and dexterity and intelligence, rather than merely settling for returning with a possible new pregnancy.

But when she does not profit as much as she wished from her daring, Quilla June will no longer consent to be manipulated by the ruling committee of her community or her parents. She glories in the slaughter of her own parents and is willing to kill others as she rescues Vic from bondage. She has chosen a partner of proven superior survival abilities, and wants to go with Vic

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A Boy and His Dog

to form a team of two in the cruel surface world.

What she does not understand is that there is no place in that devastation for a man and a woman to live together in peace, or even to exploit each other for mutual benefit for more than a few days (as would be far more likely, for Vic and Quilla June). There are few women surviving the roving gangs and solos, and no safe places but the rare underground bunkers like the one she and Vic have escaped. Dogs like Blood can track a woman by her scent, no matter how well she may disguise herself or a companion might defend her. A solo rover like Vic would probably not be able to scavenge enough resources for the two of them, and would certainly not be able to defend her for long against the inevitable series of attacks from other desperate men, alone or in gangs.

Compassion and true love triumph as the story ends. But it is Vic's compassion for his true friend Blood, not the conventional love of woman, which triumphs.

Copyright © 2002 by The Gale Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.