Sounder - Armstrong

 

My daughter was assigned “Sounder” as one of her summer readings for her English class this coming year.  I read the book with her because I thought this would be a great opportunity to open a conversation and as a chance to reread the classics if she doesn’t apply a similar value to the opportunity...which will most likely be the case.

Therefore, undeterred, I began reading.  William Armstrong wrote Sounder based on stories he heard growing up in the south.  Seemingly recording an oral tradition of sorts, the way these stories were handed down from generation to generation, along with the many Biblical stories that strengthened Christian values within the African-American Culture.  No doubt there was more than one black family with a hunting dog that faced similar oppression during the 106 years since emancipation and this book's publication in 1969.  As it turns out, I was living in Alabama in 1969,  I was five.  I know I read Sounder at some point...although I can’t remember when the exposure first came.  But I remembered that Sounder was  the name of a great hunting dog owned by a poor black family...and who doesn’t love a story about dogs...even if it  might  end sadly.  The story of the dog, however,  unlike other dog stories, is  nowhere near the plotline.  

This story is about the boy and his journey to literacy and ultimately manhood...it is told completely through the boy’s perspective.  Sounder, isn’t even his dog.  Sounder is his father’s hunting dog.  Whereas the boy cares deeply for Sounder, he cares even more for his father.   It is the boys journey to discover his father’s fate, that propels him forward.  The responsibility he showed towards his family and his literacy are strong and important lessons which should be the overriding themes.

However, important as it is for young men to recognize the power of literacy and how important it is for the rest of us to understand the injustices of racial prejudice, there are several lessons in Sounder that perhaps we shouldn’t be conveying to young men of any ethnicity.  First,  that fathers are absent because they’re were jailed, rightly or wrongly, for trying to feed their family.  And second, that it’s OK to hate your oppressor, to the point where you visualize their death in graphic detail, as long as you don’t act on it.

Both messages are extremely confusing, particularly for young readers.  Even more so given the fact that Armstrong ties the story closely with Biblical passages conveyed through the boy’s mom...most from the Old Testament First, even if a father is removed from his family unjustly, as might have been the case on countless occasions, that should never be considered normal and allowed to continue despite the comfort humming “The Lonesome Road” might bring to his mother.   And second, the seeds of hatred are sowed both ways.  The Christian message would be one of forgiveness not one of revenge, even if only in one’s mind.  “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do,” would be more consistent  with the storyline, rather than, “...The bull-necked man would sag to his knees...and crumple into a heap on the floor...and blood would ooze out of his mouth and nose.”  As gratifying and just  as it would be to see this particular man die in this particular way, in this particular case it is a very confusing theme and detracts from the overall purpose of this story.  Start with five stars because Sounder is, and will remain an important book.  Subtract one star for each major  inconsistency that cause