How Far She Went

I think that the most interesting character/figure in "How Far She Went" is the dog. When the grandmother left for the cemetery she told the dog to stay and it disobeyed, hopping in the back of the truck, barking until he is let in to the main cab. After they reached their destination the dog whined at her hem, but when she picked him up he wriggled and whined, trying to break free from her, "restless as a child." I thought it was interesting that the dog was compared to a child and was described in the same way as the granddaughter. I'm not sure if it's significant, but the dog was ignored when the grandmother took off to go after the motorcyclists and her granddaughter. This seemed to be the beginning of the grandmother choosing her granddaughter over the dog. The pattern continued when she killed the dog to stop his barking. After the grandmother and granddaughter came out from underneath the dock the grandmother rocked the dog like a baby, or a dead child. I think the dog was a symbol of the grandmother's dead daughter, Sylvie. By killing the dog she finally came to peace with the lack of a relationship she had with her daughter and began a new relationship with her granddaughter.