Summary

Set in an unnamed village after an unnamed war, “Eyes of Dogs” is told by a third-person limited narrator, focalized through a young male soldier. The story is told in the past tense. Returning home from war, the soldier has no money. He sees a dog on a chain running towards its water bowl, only to “catch itself by the neck at the end of the rope, bounce back yelping, and do this repeatedly” (9).

The soldier then encounters a witch, who reminds him of his mother. The witch guesses that the soldier wants money, although the soldier thinks that the witch thinks he “want[s] to be a better man” (10). The witch instructs the soldier to jump into the bottom of a well, where he will find three dogs. At the first dog, he should wink; at the second, he should blink...