The Dogs in "Eyes of Dogs"

The dogs symbolizes the terror the soldier feels at his own past. When facing the dogs, the soldier must wink, blink, and then close his eyes. These three actions correspond to the way in which the soldier deals with his past. At the story's beginning, he deals with his past lightly, returning home as if nothing as happened: he "winks" at his past. As the story progresses, he must face his past more (he remembers "tearing open a man's belly with his sword," 12), but refuses to do so fully: thus, he "blinks" or temporarily closes his eyes at his past. By the story's end, the soldier has refused to face his past at all, instead sleeping with a stranger: thus, he closes his eyes at his past. Thus, his three reactions to the dogs parallel his three reactions to his past...