You Don't Hear Dogs Barking by Cecilia

Event 1

ceciliamercadorobles — 2024-08-28 15:33:16 UTC

The father is carrying his son, Ignacio, down the side of a mountain. The moon symbolizes Ignacio's dead mother's spirit illuminating their path. Because the father has the son on his back, they only have one shadow. The shadow symbolizes how the eventual death of Ignacio follows them throughout their journey. "The long black shadow of the men kept moving up an down, climbing over rocks, diminishing and increasing as it advances along the edge of the arroyo. It was a single, reeling shadow" (Rulfo 37). The father is asking Ignacio if he sees any light or hears anything. The father's goal is to get his son to Tonaya safely.

Event 2

ceciliamercadorobles — 2024-08-29 16:32:22 UTC

Ignacio keeps saying that he feels "bad" and wants his father to put him down. His father keeps walking and asking him if he sees anything. Ignacio asks him time and time again for him to put him down. "First Ignacio had said, 'Put me down here--leave me here--you go on alone. I'll catch up with you tomorrow or as soon as I get a little better.' He'd said this some fifty times. Now he didn't say it" (Rulfo 38). This exhibits the lack of communication between father and son and how that restricts their ability to understand each other.

Event 3

ceciliamercadorobles — 2024-08-29 16:48:38 UTC

When Ignacio asks his father once again to put him down, the father begins to reprimand his son for his actions. He says that the only reason why he's not leaving him to die is to honor Ignacio's dead mother's memory. Ignacio has turned to a life of crime and his father does not forgive him for his actions. "I'm sure as soon as you feel well, you'll go back to your bad ways...As long as you go far away, where I won't hear anything more of you...you aren't my son anymore. I've cursed the blood you got from me" (Rulfo 39). Allegorically, Ignacio represents rebellion (in relation to the Mexican Revolution) by killing and robbing (sometimes innocent) people and the father represents conformity as a way to survive.

Event 4

ceciliamercadorobles — 2024-08-29 17:02:51 UTC

Ignacio expresses that he is thirsty but the father will not let him down to drink. He tells Ignacio that he will have to wait because he has no one to help him climb on his back again. The father begins to detail how as a kid Ignacio was insatiable and greedy. "You woke up hungry and ate and went back to sleep. Your mother had to give you water because you'd finished all her milk. You couldn't be filled up. And you were always mad and yelling" (Rulfo 40). The father feels shame and embarrassment about who his child turned out to be. He can't fathom why Ignacio continuously dishonors his mother's memory.

Event 5

ceciliamercadorobles — 2024-08-29 17:03:57 UTC

Ignacio's father feels thick drops on his hair and believes his son is crying because of his mother's memory. In reality, his son is bleeding out and dies. At last, they arrive at Tonaya. Ignacio dying as soon as they arrive at the town symbolizes how the conflict between father and son never gets resolved. "He slipped the body off, dangling, as if it had been wrenched from him. With difficulty he unpried his son's fingers from around his neck..he heard the dogs barking everywhere. 'And you didn't hear them, Ignacio? he said. 'You didn't even help me listen'" (Rulfo 40). Once again, this event highlights the tarnished relationship between father and son. Ultimately, Ignacio's mother's spirit was too weak to fix what was too far gone. The moon is a female entity, meaning it has less light than the sun.