Summary

The third person limited narrator opens the text by describing what the unnamed protagonist’s sensations were while hiding inside a shallow hole in the ground. He was cramped and very tense as he listened to the sounds of an approaching search party. He wondered if they had brought any dogs to sniff him out, but then realized that the greyhounds of his village on an “arid plain” were not well-trained enough to track him (2). These dogs were often beaten if they fail to obey their masters, and it is implied that the same thing happens to his village’s women and children. The protagonist, now referred to as the boy, then sensed that the men had gotten close to his hiding spot. He was surprised to feel pride at the thought that by running away he had brought the community together, and was...