Sounder

Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of racism, violence, physical abuse, cruelty to animals, animal illness, and death.

In Sounder, the protagonist is inspired by the biblical heroes from his mother’s stories. These characters and their stories collectively serve as motifs for The Power of Storytelling. In his rural life with his family, the boy relies on oral storytelling for companionship and learning. Because he lacks friends, hobbies, and schoolwork, the act of storytelling helps him to pass the lonely evening hours.

Later in the novel, the boy retells the same stories when he is on the road, looking for his father. By remembering each story and its happy ending, the boy finds courage and hope that he, too, can prevail over his challenges just as the biblical heroes David and Joseph did. As the narrative states, “In his lonely journeying, the boy had learned to tell himself the stories his mother had told him at night in the cabin. He liked the way they always ended with the right thing happening. And people in stories were never feared of anything” (50). As he recalls each story, the boy connects his own problems with the biblical heroes’ experiences, gaining courage.