The Soldier, in "Eyes of Dogs"

The unnamed soldier abandons his journey to return home to his mother in order to please a witch he meets on the road. In this way, the soldier becomes the protagonist of a fairy tale. In keeping with the fairy tale tradition, the soldier overcomes a series of three obstacles (in this story, three dogs), and at the end of his trials, receives some kind of reward. However, unlike the protagonist of a classic fairy tale, the soldier does not receive a happy ending: instead, his prize becomes his downfall, for the money he receives disappears when he needs it most. In this way, Corin questions the individual’s ability to conform to any pre-conceived narrative; indeed, in keeping with one of her major themes, Corin argues that the individual experience of the soldier is more important than the traditional fairy tale genre...