46 pages • 1 hour read
Grace LinThe Year of the Dog
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Chinese Symbols: Food, Red, and the Year of the Dog
At the outset, Pacy introduces a variety of symbols that hold great importance in Taiwanese culture. At the Lunar New Year meal, Pacy’s dad exclaims, “Everything we eat tonight has a special meaning [...] These vegetables mean wealth” (5). Although they are eating the meal for sustenance, the significance behind each type of food is important, and most of the foods represent wealth and prosperity for the upcoming year. Additionally, they receive red envelopes, hong bao, which are filled with money. These same envelopes, along with eggs dyed red, are also significant in the celebration of Albert’s birth. The color red is representative of riches and good fortune and is often the most prominent color in such celebrations.
Along with these emblems of prosperity, each year of the Chinese zodiac is assigned an animal that is symbolic of specific traits; the Year of the Dog represents loyalty, honesty, and truth. As Pacy’s mom tells the girls, “They say the Year of the Dog is the year for friends and family. But […] [t]he Year of the Dog is also for thinking. Since dogs are also honest and sincere, it’s a good year to find yourself” (2). As Pacy’s family demonstrates, this year is associated with family and friends: the people who provide love and support. Also, because dogs are straightforward and show what they feel without manipulation or malice, they are linked to honesty and truth. By extension, the Year of the Dog is a time for a people to find themselves, as long as they too are honest about what they value and enjoy.
Chinese New Year Candy Tray
The Chinese New Year candy tray, which bookends the narrative, is symbolic of acculturation—adapting to the majority culture one lives in while still retaining one’s own customs and traditions. In the initial New Year’s celebration, when Pacy’s mom asks her to fill the candy tray, Pacy worries because there is not enough Chinese candy. She improvises by packing the empty space with M&Ms and nervously brings the tray to her father. She is relieved when he eagerly scoops up both candies without hesitation and exclaims, “This way is good […] We should have both Chinese and American candy for the new year. It’s just like us” (4). Both the tray and the reaction of Pacy’s dad’s reaction demonstrate that the different parts of the family’s identity do not have to be kept separate from each other. When Pacy’s dad compares the candy to the family, he makes it clear that they can embrace both cultures without denying one or the other. The ability to relish all parts of their identity is foreshadowed in his declaration that the year will be sweet. The tray appears again one year later, but as Pacy says, “[T]his time we had more things to fill it with. Ki-Ki put in Chinese New Year melon candy, honey noodle cakes, and red melon seeds, as well as M&Ms” (132). On her own, Ki-Ki includes a variety of candy, demonstrating that the intersection between the family’s identities is more natural. It is not worth questioning the mixture of melon candy and M&Ms, because Pacy and her family have embraced all parts of themselves.
Artwork
Artwork is very important to Pacy, and it also symbolizes the implementation of creative solutions. For example, on the morning after Albert’s Red Egg party, Pacy awakens with pain in her neck, and her grandmother claims to have an unusual solution. After the elder woman opens a beautiful box full of painting supplies, Pacy “felt the cool tip of the paintbrush touch the back of [her] neck like a wet butterfly wing. [Grandmother] made some quick movements, and [Pacy] felt the paintbrush flutter […] ‘Leave and tiger will chase pig […] Running will help neck” (45). The images depict the animals, and when Pacy moves, it appears as if the tiger is hunting the pig. Although this remedy is purely symbolic, Pacy later admits that her neck does feel better. Later, Pacy’s mom recalls learning to play the piano and using a paper drawing of the keys to practice whenever she could not go to her teacher’s house. The drawing of a piano keyboard offered Pacy’s mom a way to practice without an actual instrument, and if it were not for the drawing, she would never have become so adept at playing the piano. Both scenes symbolize creative solutions to problems.
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