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In When Will There Be Good News?, Atkinson uses dogs to symbolize faithful companionship and protection, particularly when humans fail to provide the same. Most often, this symbol works on a and direct level. For example, Jessica Mason’s dog, Scout, tries to protect the family from being killed by Andrew Decker, and, later, search dogs find Joanna Mason lost in the wheat field, saving her life. In adulthood, Joanna trusts the loyal German Shepherd, Sadie, with her own and the baby’s life. Later, Sadie proves herself faithful to Reggie as well, biting Billy to stop him from attacking his sister. Although Joanna and Reggie both face continuous trauma at the hands of other people, dogs like Scout and Sadie are ongoing representations of the good that still exists in the world. Additionally, The elderly terrier, Banjo, elicits “soppy, maternal love” from the prickly Ms. MacDonald, who is practically alone in the world. Extending the symbol to a metaphor for human behavior, Atkinson has Jackson Brodie frequently think of himself as a shepherding dog who “couldn’t rest until the flock was […] all gathered safely in.” At the end of the book, Jackson even sends Louise a Border Collie puppy, the anonymous gift tag reading, “A Faithful Friend.” After destroying a crime scene and lying about it, Jackson believes he can no longer be the friend that Louise (a cop) deserves, but the puppy (whom she names Jackson) symbolizes his continued watchful devotion in her life, in spite of his personal failings.
Dogs Quotes in When Will There Be Good News?
The When Will There Be Good News? quotes below all refer to the symbol of Dogs. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Harvest
Quotes
Of course, she should have taken Joseph with her, she should have snatched him from the buggy, or run with the buggy (Jessica would have). It didn’t matter that Joanna was only six years old, that she would never have managed running with the buggy and that the man would have caught her in seconds, that wasn’t the point. It would have been better to have tried to save the baby and been killed than not trying and living. It would have been better to have died with Jessica and her mother rather than being left behind without them. But she never thought about any of that, she just did as she was told.
“Run, Joanna, run,” her mother commanded. So she did.
It was funny, but now, thirty years later, the thing that drove her to distraction was that she couldn’t remember what the dog was called. And there was no one left to ask.
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Funny Old World
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Reggie opened the front door and stuck her head out into the wind and rain. “A train’s crashed,” a man said to her. “Right out back.” Reggie picked up the phone in the hall and dialed 999. Dr. Hunter had told her that in an emergency everyone presumed that someone else would call. Reggie wasn’t going to be that person who presumed.
“Back soon,” she said to Banjo, pulling on her jacket. She picked up the big torch that Ms. MacDonald kept by the fuse box at the front door, put the house keys in her pocket, pulled the door shut behind her, and ran out into the rain. The world wasn’t going to end this night. Not if Reggie had anything to do with it.
What larks, Reggie!
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Reggie Chase, Girl Detective
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This was the third dead body Reggie had seen in her life. Ms. MacDonald, Mum, and the soldier last night. Four if you counted Banjo. It seemed a lot for a person of so few years.
She’d identified a dead body, had her flat vandalized, and been threatened by violent idiots, and it wasn’t even lunchtime. Reggie hoped the rest of the day would be more uneventful.
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Abide with Me
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She couldn’t really remember any of them, but that didn’t stop them from still possessing a reality that was stronger than anything alive, apart from the baby, of course. They were the touchstone to which everything else must look and the exemplar compared to which everything else failed. Except for the baby.
She was bereft, her whole life an act of bereavement, longing for something that she could no longer remember. Sometimes in the night, in dreams, she heard their old dog barking and it brought back a memory of grief so raw that it led her to wonder about killing the baby, and then herself, both of them slipping away on something as peaceful as poppies so that nothing hideous could ever happen to him. A contingency plan for when you were cornered, for when you couldn’t run.
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Get the entire When Will There Be Good News? LitChart as a printable PDF.
Dogs Symbol Timeline in When Will There Be Good News?
The timeline below shows where the symbol Dogs appears in When Will There Be Good News?. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Harvest
...Jessica is eight, Joanna is six, and Joseph is a baby. Jessica is leading their dog, which she spends a lot of time training. Jessica is usually in charge because Joanna...
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They walk along a huge wheat field. Joanna got lost in it once, and the dog found her. They stop for a snack in the shade. In London, they used to...
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...continue making their way toward home, a man suddenly appears, seemingly out of nowhere. Their dog growls. The man is walking quickly toward them, huffing and puffing. Gabrielle starts walking faster...
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...stabbed through the heart. Jessica, too, is stabbed and dies curled up with the dead dog. The baby dies in the buggy. Joanna, meanwhile, obeys her mother’s scream—“Run, Joanna, run.” She...
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Later, after dark, Joanna is found by other dogs. A stranger picks her up, saying, “Not a scratch on her.” Even then, Joanna thinks...
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The Life and Adventures of Reggie Chase
...is a somewhat bitter person, but she is good to Reggie and loves her little dog, Banjo. Reggie thinks Ms. MacDonald is lucky to have time to adjust to her terminal...
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...nursery rhymes” that sound very English and foreign to Reggie. She also talks to her dog, Sadie, a huge German Shepherd, whom she trusts with her life and the baby’s life....
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Satis House
...Wednesday night prayer meeting, then Reggie does homework and keeps an eye on the little dog, Banjo, while she’s gone. Ms. MacDonald is in her fifties, but even when she was...
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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
...house, but Alison would never be safe.” Louise thinks that Alison should get a big dog and hopes that David Needler comes back during the Christmas season so that the police...
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“An Elderly Aunt”
...after she drops Reggie off, she makes a beeline for the hospital—“as obedient as a dog to a shepherd calling her home.”
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Abide with Me
...of bereavement, longing for something she could no longer remember.” She sometimes dreams of a dog barking, and it awakens such a raw grief that she wants to kill both the...
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Arma Virumque Cano
...of Joanna’s mysterious aunt before going home to London. Jackson feels like “a tired old dog” and isn’t sure how he will manage. But he figures he has “enough women on...
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High Noon
...farm road. He parks at the edge of a field and makes Reggie and the dog solemnly promise to stay where they are. He gets out to follow the Nissan on...
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And Scout
Dr. Hunter remembers the name of Jessica’s dog. It was Scout. “He was such a good dog,” she remembers to Reggie. She and...
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