Sounder

Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of racism and incarceration.

The boy and his siblings sit by the fire and wait for their mother to return. The children become impatient and wonder what she will bring them, but the boy warns them not to expect anything. When he sees his mother coming down the road, the boy is disappointed that his father is not with her. She has sold her walnuts and bought meat, potatoes, and vanilla.

Hearing the bad news about Sounder, the mother wonders whether the dog is in the woods, trying to heal himself in the swamp. She tells the boy that dogs instinctively use oak leaves on their wounds, and she suggests that Sounder might come back in a few days. The boy plans to check the oak grove the next day. As he shells the nuts, the boy wonders who keeps the jails warm, and he asks his mother to tell him the Bible story about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The next day, the boy checks the oak woods for Sounder but returns home empty-handed and distressed. His mother tells him that he must “learn to lose,” and she also reflects that their family seems “born to lose” (35).