Old Yeller Essays - Rabies, English-language Films, Films

Old Yeller 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 storys 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 familys 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 its 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.