Bravery vs. Fear Theme Analysis

In Old Yeller, 14-year-old Travis is left alone with his mother and younger brother to be the man of the house, while his father, whom he calls Papa, heads off on a cattle drive. With Papa gone, Travis must continuously reckon with his fears. As Travis hunts deer, breaks up bull fights, tags wild hogs, and confronts an epidemic of hydrophobia throughout the Texas Hill Country, he must constantly choose between surrendering to fear or mustering bravery. Eventually, he remembers that “Papa had told me right from the start that fear was a right and natural feeling for anybody, and nothing to be ashamed of.” This suggests that, once one learns to accept fear as a “right and natural feeling,” one can see fear not as an impediment to bravery but as a necessary and instructive part of life.

When Travis doesn’t properly respect his own fear, it leads to disaster for both him and his dog, Old Yeller. As Travis and Old Yeller head out one afternoon to tag Coates family’s wild hogs, Travis experiences a familiar “blood-chilling” sensation. He knows that tagging hogs is dangerous work—and in spite of his mother’s fears about him doing it without Papa for the first time, Travis insists that he’s up to the challenge. Travis claims that he’s “used to the feeling” of being afraid and doesn’t let it bother him—and when he gets word that some hogs he missed tagging during his first outing are hanging around a bat cave far out in the countryside, he heads out to tag them with stubborn excitement. On this outing, Travis finds himself in the midst of a stampede—a hog slashes his left calf with its tusk, while Old Yeller sustains terrible wounds fighting off a pack of the ferocious pigs. In this instance, Travis refuses to heed his fearful instincts about tagging hogs. In the end, he and Old Yeller are hurt as a result of his prideful stubbornness, and his refusal to understand that his fear is natural and helpful. Though Travis and Old Yeller recover from their injuries, Travis’s stubbornness when faced with a dangerous task teaches him that true bravery comes from accepting and integrating one’s fear rather than ignoring it.

Later on, when there’s an outbreak of hydrophobia (rabies) among animals in Travis’s community, Travis allows fear to consume him. When he first hears about the spread of hydrophobia from Old Yeller’s original owner, Burn Sanderson, he feels a “scare run through [him]” from head to toe. Though Burn Sanderson urges Travis to be brave and to find a way to “handle whatever comes up” in his father’s absence, Travis remains petrified of the idea that not only could nearby animals catch the disease—but that he, Mama, or Arliss could, too. Travis’s paralyzing fear of hydrophobia distracts him and takes up a lot of his energy. He is so preoccupied by horrible mental images of people—and animals—losing their minds slowly and painfully that he loses sight of how fear is natural and even instructive, finding himself focused on what could happen rather than what’s actually happening around him. This leads to Old Yeller being bitten by a rabid wolf, something that could perhaps have been prevented if Travis hadn’t been so preoccupied and consumed by his fear of what could happen. This illustrates the idea that overly fixating on fear, much like ignoring or suppressing it, can have disastrous consequences.

After Old Yeller is bitten, Travis is forced to integrate his fear and learn from it in order to act bravely. His worst fear has come true: his fear of hydrophobia was “right and natural” all along. Now, however, Travis must face his fear in order to be brave and save his family. Travis’s fear of Old Yeller spreading hydrophobia to him, Little Arliss, or Mama ultimately leads him to an extraordinary and painful act of bravery: he shoots and kills Old Yeller in order to protect himself and his family. In this way, Travis’s fear of hydrophobia isn’t an impediment to his bravery—rather, it’s what allows him to muster up the courage to kill Old Yeller. As painful as this is, Travis at last realizes that fear is a healthy and instructive part of life, and that he’s right to fear what could happen to Old Yeller—and to his family—if he ignored that fear. With this, the book suggests that fear shouldn’t be seen as shameful or cowardly, because it’s an emotion that’s necessary to recognize and heed. Only then can a person be truly brave rather than ignorant, prideful, or stubborn.